The film till now : a survey of world cinema (1960)

THE FILM SINCE THEN designed. There may have been many similar reactions of which we do not know. As Grierson says : ' Where the Germans failed was in the fact that their cold-blooded cynicism spilled over and was spotted. You can impress other countries with your might and your will. You may even impress them with your new world order. But you can't start blatantly talking of conscience as a chimera; morals as an old wives' tale ; the Christian religion as a dream of weaklings; and the pursuit of truth as bourgeois fiddlefaddle, without raising a few doubts in the hearts of mankind.' * At the moment of writing, no film made in Germany under post-war Occupation has been shown in the United States. One learns that production under licence has been started in the Russian, American and British zones. Activity seems to have been largest in the Russian zone in Berlin, where Defa, who have leased eighty per cent, of the technical facilities of the old Ufa, Aafa and Joffa studios, have already completed a number of feature films including Die M order sind tenter Uns (The Murderers are Among Us), by Wolfgang Staudte, Ehe im Schattcn, by Kurt Maetzig, Somewhere in Berlin, by Gerhard Lamprecht, a pre-Nazi director who made Emit and the Detectives in 1931, Mein Frdulein Fran (No Plac-e for Love) by Hans Deppe, Kolonne Stosstrupp written by Friederich Wolff who scripted Professor Mamlock, to be directed by Slatan Dudow who made Knhle Wampe, and Biichner's famous Wozzeck. A promising schedule of new films is forecast. In the American zone, the veteran and much-respected Erich Pommer is slowly getting under production and has completed Palace Hotel. He has with him the old-time director Geza von Bovary and Erich Kastner, the author of so many brilliant light novels including Emil and the Detectives and Fabian. In the 1 Grierson on Documentary, edited by H. Forsyth Hardy (Collins, 1946), page 174. 594