Rotation (1949) [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
Date: June 30, 2015

Rotation (1949)
DVD5 | ISO | NTSC 4:3 | 01:19:18 | 4,14 Gb
Audio: German AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English
Genre: Drama

Director: Wolfgang Staudte
Stars: Paul Esser, Irene Korb, Karl Heinz Deickert

This powerful, World War II drama frequently cited as one of the most important films in German history tells the heated tale of a family divided over supporting the Nazis or fighting for the equality of all races and creeds. Originally censored by the Soviets for its unwavering message of pacifism, Rotation finds father turning against son as the troubled family patriarch agrees to print up Nazi fliers in hopes of improving the family finances before being betrayed by his Hitler Youth son. When the bombs stop dropping and the bullets stop flying, father and son are forced to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives despite their troubled past.

IMDB | Wikipedia | Amazon

This powerful work was released three years after Staudte's "The Murderers Are Among Us". In contrast with that film's depiction of an educated paragon tortured by conscience, Rotation traces the lives of Berliner everyman Hans, his beloved Lotte, and Lotte's politically-engaged brother Karl from the depression and runaway inflation of the 1920s through the return of economic normalcy, the Nazi ascension to power, war, impending defeat, the battle for Berlin, and finally war's aftermath and reconstruction. Rotation opens during the fall of Berlin. Sheltering from the battle outside a woman hears the Soviets have reached the Moabit district and she immediately leaves safety to dodge the bombs and shells outside. Why? Our interest of course is immediately piqued.


The film then flashes back to 1925, the year of Hitler's reorganization of the NSDAP. Hans strives heroically to provide for Lotte and their dear son Helmut. Hans is a good neighbor to the Jewish family downstairs. Karl the communist thinker and activist fights both capitalists and Nazis. Hans, Karl, and Lotte care deeply for one another and for toddler Helmut. Hans resents the class oppression which feeds children of the aristocracy cake while Helmut is sick and malnourished. Hans is jailed for labor organizing. While not endorsing the NSDAP he accommodates the party in order to secure work he desperately needs to put food on the table. Here Staudte and DEFA show industrialists solidly behind the NSDAP while Karl and Hans have only the backing of fellow workers.


For years Hans refuses Karl's entreaties to join the struggle, citing his family responsibilities. Finally out of devotion to his brother-in-law as well as to humanity Hans commits acts of resistance and is betrayed by Helmut, who is now a committed member of the Hitler-Jugend. It is the ramifications of this act for Hans, Lotte, and Helmut in the context of their love for one another which begins and ends the film.

Rotation celebrates the strength and continuity of human life and love: love erotic, filial and fraternal.
Customer Review, amazon.com

Just how effective were Cold War propaganda films from the state-controlled, closed media systems of Eastern Europe? Were they as crude as the anti-Communist American movies of the 50s, the ones that painted Reds as brutish ideologues suppressing churches and imprisoning dissidents? Our propaganda proudly touted America's basic Freedoms, allowing the economic perks of capitalism to sell themselves: consumer goods and a high standard of living.


The sophisticated Rotation is carefully constructed to play to German audiences wary of Soviet influence. The movie doesn't sell the Communist cause as much as it reminds Germans of the evils of National Socialism. The Nazis are an unwelcome intrusion from the very beginning, when sinister agents make casual visits to entreat the 'Everyman' hero Hans Behnke to attend meetings for his own good. Desiring only to live in peace, Hans avoids politics until the Nazi party makes joining unavoidable. Hans helps the resistance only briefly, and only because his wife's brother is involved.


The movie makes a strong bid for the heart and mind of the average German, avoiding negative statements about the national character. These Berliners love romance and children and sing jolly songs. The screenplay is careful to portray Nazi evil as mainly ideological. Villainous Gestapo policemen and calculating bureaucrats are everywhere, but militarism in general is not condemned. No strutting Prussian officers appear, and until the final battle we see few Germans in uniform. That's a smart public relations move, as East Germany in 1949 was occupied by authoritarian Soviet Forces. The show chooses to end on a young couple bravely facing the future, ignoring the obvious fact that the Gestapo and SS had been replaced by Russian troops and secret police.


The title Rotation refers to the idea that political unrest is cyclical in nature. Both Hans and his son Helmuth lay in the grass with their girlfriends and hope for better days to come, convinced that their situation is unique. The dialogue warns of a return to Nazi-like attitudes while director Staudte uses images of Hans's rotating printing press as a rhyming visual. Other touches are just as obvious. The Behnkes employ a little playpen-cage to keep baby Helmuth from wandering into trouble, and its wooden bars dissolve to iron bars that lock Hans out of a factory job. We're never told what possible advantage might be found in having a government dominated by foreign Communists. Problems like that aren't easy to distill into a simple image.


All of the acting is good, particularly Paul Esser and Irene Korb as the main couple. Director Staudte's professional direction avoids too many rubble & wreckage scenes, presumably because the German audience could see all the ruins it wanted just outside the theater.
DVD Savant

Special Features:
- About filmmakers
- Observation by film expert Christiane Muckenberger on "Rotation"
- The eyewitness reports
- 1945-1965: The Cold War - the film in it's historical context
- Photo Gallery

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6B995DF00E6830211D6ABDBC5679685E *ROTAT.avaxhome.ru.part09.rar
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