Tonight I watched another outstanding picture from director G.W. Pabst, recently released on Criterion and obtained from the Libe, called "Kameradschaft" (1931). The film, made the year after his antiwar masterpiece "Westfront 1918" (reviewed two nights ago), tells the harrowing story of a real life mine collapse in France, in which 1200 coal miners were trapped. The mine was located at the French/German border and was partitioned into two sides, one for each country. The title of the film translates to "Comradeship", and represents the kinship the miners feel, despite the fact that their countries were enemies in the First World War. When the German miners hear of the collapse on the French side, one man - a trained rescue worker - raises his voice to urge the other members of the German rescue squads to join him in helping their French brethren. Some scoff at the prospect : "Ha!, The French....would they help you if you were trapped"? Others merely look away, not wanting to be asked to help. The leader then tells his men : "They are just like you, doing the same job on the other side of that wall. They have wives and children just as you have".
Slowly, one by one, the German rescue workers step up to volunteer, and end up sending two flatbed trucks full of men to the French side of the mine, where they announce themselves as ready to help.
The mine is located 2500 feet beneath the Earth's surface (holy smokes) and the rescue workers will face many obstacles in the effort to discover any survivors. Pabst shows the same commitment to realism here as he did in "Westfront". Though filmed on sets, it looks to the viewer as if the entire scenario is indeed unfolding in an actual deep earth mine. This is partly due to Pabst's use of ground level shots of an actual large operation mine. The workers descend in a "cage" elevator down a wide shaft that looks like a giant iron pipe going down into darkness. The enormity of scale and scope of factory engineering - like that of the machinery in a steel mill or a mine - is something that truly astounds me.
The deep labyrinthian tunnel system, collapsed as it is, challenges the rescue workers in their efforts to locate their French comrades. Here the story is split three ways. Besides the overall rescue attempt by the well organized German crew, there is also a singular effort being made by an elderly Frenchman, a former miner himself and still agile, to rescue his trapped grandson. The old man has snuck past the sentries and into the mineshaft, taking an emergency tunnel ladder all the way down to the bottom. Holy Smokes yet again!
The third story thread involves a small group of three German co-workers, not part of the rescue team but ordinary miners who are on the German side of the tunnel partition and working a normal shift for the company. The movie has opened with scenes of these three friends enjoying themselves off duty in a French bar, drinking and joking with the patrons. The point established by Pabst right off the bat is that the comradeship of the miners superseded the nationalistic pride (and resultant enmity) that had been pumped into the citizens of both countries and had resulted in World War.
Pabst was a humanitarian artist, and "Kameradschaft" is as much about establishing friendship between cultures and fellow men as it is about the mine disaster. But he was also a director with a tight command of the tension in his movies. The rescue effort keeps you on edge as would such a movie made today, and perhaps moreso because of the ultra realistic look of Pabst's films.
I was so moved by some of the dialogue in this film, including the motivating words of the lead German rescuer to his fellow miners, that I could feel my heart quietly soaring and the goosebumps rising on my arms. I felt great hope for the world, knowing that such a film could be made almost 90 years ago, and that an artist like G.W. Pabst - who must now be included on the list of The Very Great Directors - had the courage, vision and articulation to get his point across in such a forceful way, even as National Socialism was rising in his country, but he did so with good feeling and without slamming his audience with politics or anything divisive.
In "Kameradschaft", Pabst combines the taut action of a disaster film with the poetry of great art cinema. All by itself, it is a great film on the order of a Mizoguchi movie (though different in style), but taken in combination with "Westfront 1918", it can be seen as an authoritative and enormously powerful statement for World Peace, by an artist of the highest order.
As I say, having viewed such a film, there simply aren't enough Thumbs to point upwards.
Make sure you see it, as well as "Westfront 1918". Watch them back to back. /////
I had a nice hike at Santa Susana this afternoon. Being off work I was able to take my time and go all over the place, so it was very relaxing and meditative. The hills are bright green and a few drops of rain fell as I climbed past the ancient rocks.
I hope you have had a chance, and the desire, to listen to one or more of the classical music pieces I have mentioned in the recent blogs. Tomorrow night we will continue with another entry, by Richard Wagner. You can probably guess what it is because I have posted it on FB several times.......
See you in the morning. Love through the night. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
No comments:
Post a Comment