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| Kurt
Gerron’s Karussell with The Führer Gives a City to the Jews |
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information on Kurt Gerron’s Karussell
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Kurt Gerron’s Karussell
| Germany,
1999, 35mm, 65 minutes German with English subtitles Director: Ilona Ziok DC Premiere
Sunday, December 12, 5:15 pm |
| He was the original performer of "Mack the Knife." He acted in more than 70 films including The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich. When the Nazis took power he fled Germany to Paris and then Amsterdam where he became one of the most important directors in Dutch cinema. For five years beginning in 1933, Kurt Gerron is a star of the cabaret and a genuine celebrity. But when the Germans invade, he is deported to Theresienstadt. There he improbably mounts a cabaret which he directs called "The Karussell." The Nazis "offer" him the chance to make a film – the infamous "documentary" The Führer Gives a City to the Jews – depicting the supposed life of leisure that the Jews live in Theresienstadt. He films himself singing "Mack the Knife." It is his last live performance. Soon after he is deported to Auschwitz. More than just recounting Gerron’s career, this documentary recovers his legacy. This tribute includes interpretations of the songs he helped make famous by such modern cabaret artists as Ute Lemper, Bente Kahan, Ben Becker (The Harmonists) and Max Raabe. |
more
information on Kurt Gerron’s Karussell
from Amazon.com's Internet Movie Database
Distributed by Seventh Art
Releasing, USA
http://www.7thart.com/
preceded by
The Führer Gives a City to the Jews
| Nazi
Germany, 1944, 16mm, 23 minutes German with English subtitles Director: Minister of Propaganda
Sunday, December 12, 5:15 pm |
| Although the Minister of Propaganda gets official directing credit, Kurt Gerron actually directed the shooting of this Nazi propaganda film. What is presented here are reconstructed fragments of a phony documentary that was staged to create the misconception that conditions at Theresienstadt were humane. Every scene is a fake. Almost everyone who appears in the film was deported and killed shortly after its completion. Over 140,000 Jews were sent to Theresienstadt. Ultimately 33,430 people died there and another 87,000 were shipped to death camps in the East. |
Distributed by Brandeis University
In
Cooperation with |
||
Introduction:
Joseph McLellan, Music Critic Emeritus, The Washington Post
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This screen last updated 11/21/99 18:35 DJH