DEAR MOHR – PERSONAL MEMORIES OF KARL MARX FROM PAUL LAFARGUE
(Directors: Bruno J. Böttge, Jörg Herrmann, 22 min., 1972)
The animated film DEAR MOHR uses flat figures, photo montage and silhouettes to explore the biography of Marx and Engels. This film from the collection of the DEFA Foundation humorously presents episodes from almost a quarter of a century in the life of Karl Marx. And who is this "Mohr" mentioned in the title? "Mohr" was the nickname that Marx's children gave him, while the French physician and author Paul Lafargue was long-time regular guest of the family Marx in London. In 1868, he married Laura, one of the daughters of Jenny and Karl Marx. Lafargue also translated numerous texts by Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx into Spanish and French.
A YOUNG MAN NAMED ENGELS – A PORTRAIT IN LETTERS
(Directors: Klaus Georgi, Katja Georgi, Fjodor Hidruk, 21 min., 1970)
Another animated film from the collection of the DEFA Foundation, one which approaches the biographies of Marx and Engels from a different angle – the focus, rare enough, is first and foremost on Engels: A YOUNG MAN NAMED ENGELS, by Katja und Klaus Georgi. A truly unique cinematic portrait is created using letters and drawings of the young Friedrich Engels from 1838 and 1842. The impression is one of making a personal acquaintance with a young man and accompanying him for a short while: one becomes witness to his artistic attempts, as well as to his ironic-sarcastic talents in speaking out against religious mysticism and Prussian militarism. This short biography of airy drawings and original lyrics narrates how Engels went from being a rebellious bohemian from a wealthy house to essentially becoming the complementary of Karl Marx.
LOVE LETTERS
(Directors: Uwe Belz, Wolfgang Geier, 21 min., 1982)
Excerpts from love letters and poems written between Karl Marx and his fiancée Jenny von Westphalen during their youth are illustrated with images – paintings as well as atmospheric photographs – of landscapes and other places connected to Marx.
PHOTOGRAPHS
(Director: Peter Voigt, 20 min., 1983)
An elaborate attempt at making a movie using disparate photographs documenting moments and situations in the life of the workers and poor of the world. Sentences taken from the texts of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, used as the commentary and accompanied by the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, convey a sense of meaningful depth.
MARX FAMILY
(Director: Helke Misselwitz, 6 min., 1988)
This short work from film director Helke Misselwitz is a so-called an essayist short made for the DEFA Kinobox No. 61 in 1988. Excerpts from letters between Jenny and Karl Marx comment upon the oppressive material circumstances in which the family lives while in exile in London. Also included: powerful lamentations regarding the death of several of their children. The images, in long-shot or extreme close-up, are of a ruinous neighbourhood. Finally, the last shot is of a tenement façade upon which the following scrolls: "The Marx family lived in this house at 28 Dean Street in the London district of Soho from 1850 to 1856. Four of their children died here from the same deficiency diseases as those of the children of the proletariat. During this time Marx wrote 'The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon18 Brumaire' and 'Revelations about the Communist Trial in Cologne', prepared 'A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy' for publication, worked on the first volume of 'Das Kapital', wrote articles for The New Daily Tribune, and published the newspaper the Neuen Rheinischen Zeitung/Politisch-Ökonomische Revue."
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