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7:00 PM
Films by Günter Peter Straschek
Film screening
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Cinematek
- Part of series: Film Emigration from Nazi Germany
Günter Peter Straschek’s three short films about “women and socialism” were hardly understood and actually banned for a while in their day, and they’re still by and large unknown even in Germany. “Social progress can be precisely gauged by the social standing of the fair sex (the ugly ones included),” observed Karl Marx (in a letter from the 12th of December 1868 to his confidant Ludwig Kugelmann), so Straschek set out to find out about women’s standing in 1960s society and in the socialist and political movements to which he himself belonged. His bleak findings are mordantly presented in these three short films.
Hurra für Frau E.
D: Günter Peter Straschek I 1967 I 7' I OV: GER / SUB: EN
His 1967 short Hurra für Frau E. (Hooray for Mrs E.) is a very sober portrait of a single mother forced to prostitute herself. Straschek, who had nothing but a camera without soundproofing to work with, made a virtue of necessity and juxtaposed images of the mother, her children, a social worker and a vegetable farmer with their comments voiced-over (Mrs E.) or live (the others).
Ein Western für den SDS
D: Günter Peter Straschek I 1968 I 23' I OV: GER / SUB: EN
As "Hurra für Frau E." is already a cinematic construction, Straschek took an even more radical formal approach to his next one, Ein Western für den SDS (A Western for the SDS), which was made around 1967/68, in a revolutionary era. The cameraman was Holger Meins. In this short, three different secretaries represent three different degrees of politicization and their struggle as women in the socialist movement. The film includes footage of the revolts at the time as well as conversations with and quotes from Cesare Pavese, and is of virtually unprecedented severity. Confiscated by the administration of the German Film and Television Academy, this so-called “western” was rediscovered four years ago during a Straschek retrospective in Cologne.
Zum Begriff des 'Kritischen Kommunismus' bei Antonio Labriola (1843 - 1904)
D: Günter Peter Straschek I 1970 I 18' I OV: GER / SUB: EN
His third and last short about the “women-and-socialism complex” is the most ironic. Shot in 1970, Zum Begriff des 'Kritischen Kommunismus' bei Antonio Labriola (1848-1904) (On the Concept of “Critical Communism” in Antonio Labriola (1848–1904) presents a series of encounters between revolutionary women and men in a highly stylized, Straubian style of acting, with intertitles breaking up the “action”. Lying naked in bed after sex, a cynic says to his lover, “I don't understand why you women still fall for our emancipation trick.” Neither conservatives nor the left understood Straschek's sarcasm and radicalism at the time.
Followed by a discussion in English with film critic Stefan Ripplinger. He has written several essays about film, including a frame-by-frame commentary on Ein Western für den SDS.
Hurra für Frau E.
D: Günter Peter Straschek I 1967 I 7' I OV: GER / SUB: EN
His 1967 short Hurra für Frau E. (Hooray for Mrs E.) is a very sober portrait of a single mother forced to prostitute herself. Straschek, who had nothing but a camera without soundproofing to work with, made a virtue of necessity and juxtaposed images of the mother, her children, a social worker and a vegetable farmer with their comments voiced-over (Mrs E.) or live (the others).
Ein Western für den SDS
D: Günter Peter Straschek I 1968 I 23' I OV: GER / SUB: EN
As "Hurra für Frau E." is already a cinematic construction, Straschek took an even more radical formal approach to his next one, Ein Western für den SDS (A Western for the SDS), which was made around 1967/68, in a revolutionary era. The cameraman was Holger Meins. In this short, three different secretaries represent three different degrees of politicization and their struggle as women in the socialist movement. The film includes footage of the revolts at the time as well as conversations with and quotes from Cesare Pavese, and is of virtually unprecedented severity. Confiscated by the administration of the German Film and Television Academy, this so-called “western” was rediscovered four years ago during a Straschek retrospective in Cologne.
Zum Begriff des 'Kritischen Kommunismus' bei Antonio Labriola (1843 - 1904)
D: Günter Peter Straschek I 1970 I 18' I OV: GER / SUB: EN
His third and last short about the “women-and-socialism complex” is the most ironic. Shot in 1970, Zum Begriff des 'Kritischen Kommunismus' bei Antonio Labriola (1848-1904) (On the Concept of “Critical Communism” in Antonio Labriola (1848–1904) presents a series of encounters between revolutionary women and men in a highly stylized, Straubian style of acting, with intertitles breaking up the “action”. Lying naked in bed after sex, a cynic says to his lover, “I don't understand why you women still fall for our emancipation trick.” Neither conservatives nor the left understood Straschek's sarcasm and radicalism at the time.
Followed by a discussion in English with film critic Stefan Ripplinger. He has written several essays about film, including a frame-by-frame commentary on Ein Western für den SDS.