THE 3RD HALL OF INFAMY: Infamy Rises Again

The subtitles were indeed easy to find when watching on the PC. Thanks.

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I assume the "thanks" isn't in reference to being subjected to the film.

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Also, to anyone who normally doesn't pirate films who may be concerned with using the ink, out of every free movie watching site I've ever come across (which is a lot), that's easily the single safest site I've ever used and I don't even need to ponder this for a second.

Same, I use the site all the time

Subtitles can't be done on phone then?

I don't consider that site as a pirate site. It's Russia's biggest social media site, like YouTube. And like YouTube there are movies there. The Russian copyright laws are more laxed than YouTubes, but I never find brand new releases there as they get removed. It's a nice site btw

Yeah, make sure to watch it from a pc.

I don't have one unfortunately. I'll see if it works on my iPad though

No dice dang.

I have an idea, hang on...

Theresienstadt (1944) -

Well, this is it. I've finally found my first 0.5/5 rating (1/10 if you're reading this on IMDb), thus making this the single worst film I've ever seen.

Part of why I've yet to give out a rating this low is, no matter how strongly I may feel about an aspect of a film, I'm usually able to find value elsewhere, even if it comes down to something as simple as a couple decent actors or some passable camerawork. Which doesn't matter much in the grand scheme of everything I dislike, but I can't say I enjoyed nothing about those films. In order for a film to get a 0.5/5, I'd have to either find nothing of value which appeals to me to any degree or to feel that whatever I find value in to be so brief and insignificant, it's not even worth mentioning. I think this is the film.

Reading the synopsis, I certainly wasn't expecting this to be a good time, yet it still managed to exceed my low expectations. In all fairness though, this is far from the only film I've seen which contains some type of problematic content. Whether you're referring to racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., I've already seen my fair share. As repugnant as those films (or parts of them) may be though, it's not like they're solely their problematic content and nothing else. The first half of The Birth of a Nation is largely free of racism and its second half holds value as a historical document about the dangers of art. The icky romance in Forbidden Planet is just one sub‐plot of the film. All those films with blackface, exploitative child nudity, and unsimulated violence towards animals (or people) have far more to offer aside from those aspects. Even some other Nazi propaganda films I've seen (Olympia and Triumph of the Will) are interesting for various reasons. As for Theresienstadt, the problematic content is so overt and prolonged, it's literally all it depicts. Just 26 minutes of a narrator trying to convince you that Nazi death camps didn't exist. Truly the most morally bankrupt film I've ever seen.

Before I watched it, there were a few ideas I had in mind which could potentially mitigate or complicate the Nazi propaganda, but they all fell flat.

Knowing the director Kurt Gerron was killed shortly after the film was released, my first question was whether he backed the Nazis and willfully worked on the film or if he was coerced into directing it. Reading up on the film, I learned it was the latter. Gerron was of German Jewish descent and was ordered to create the film. After finishing it, he was deported to Auschwitz, where he was killed almost immediately. Ultimately, this knowledge didn't lessen my hatred of the film. In fact, I'd say it made me feel even worse. It's another unpleasant bit of info in an already deeply unpleasant film. Though yeah, none of my hatred for this film is directed at Kurt Gerron.

Given the motives for why the film was commissioned (to distribute it to neutral countries to counter Allied news reports about the persecution of Jews), I was also curious if this would be like The Birth of a Nation where it would hold value as a historical document on the dangers of art, but it didn't succeed in that way either. By the time the film was released, Germany's defeat was imminent, so the Germans were unable to distribute the film to anywhere of interest. There's no evidence to indicate the few people the film was screened to at the time of its release were moved by the footage. Afterwards, the film was considered lost for many years before less than a third of it was discovered in various archives (that's all that remains of it). In spite of that, it's still incredibly obscure and nearly impossible to track down. I only found it by searching a torrent site. Personally, I don't find this historical background interesting at all. Essentially, this is a failed propaganda film which fell into obscurity right away and has remained there ever since. Probably for the better.

Whether the movie would succeed as a technical feat was the last thing I thought about. I knew the cards would be stacked against it from the get-go since they'd go hand in hand with the Nazi propaganda, but I held out some curiosity anyway. All grossness aside, the photography/editing is very standard and almost nothing stands out. I suppose a few shots are well-framed here and there, but again, going hand in hand with the Nazi propaganda did them no favors. It was basically Nazi propaganda - more Nazi propaganda - more Nazi propaganda - well-framed shot of Nazi propaganda - more Nazi propaganda. This drove a firm wedge in between the technical elements and left me completely underwhelmed on that front.

After giving it some thought for a few weeks, I can honestly not think of a single aspect of this that even somewhat appealed to me. Although the film's shorter duration of 26 minutes compared to its initial 90-minute runtime may have been a plus, I can't even give it credit for that since the pacing didn't feel brisk. After ten minutes, I was already done with it. Simply said, a huge waste of time.

Theresienstadt, 1944

Preserved only in two short fragments, this film is propaganda produced by the Nazi party in an attempt to present the Theresienstadt ghetto as a humane, culturally robust hub.

This is a film with nauseating intent and history, that is nonetheless a fascinating historical document.

It’s hard to think about talking about a film like this through any kind of critical lens, because I don’t know if I can regard this movie as art so much as a particularly macabre primary source.

What I was most fascinated to learn in reading a bit about this film and the ghetto it portrays is, weirdly, that there is some truth behind what is shown. Theresienstadt did have an artistic and intellectual community far different from what most of us might imagine when we think of concentration camps or ghettos. There was a relatively well-stocked library. There were academic lectures. There were talented artists of all different kinds.

But there’s a horrific intersection between these factual truths and the reality of the ghetto, the fate of its residents, and the creation of this film. The movie was scripted and filmed by captives of the ghetto under the direction (and I’m sure they weren’t just asking nicely) of the Nazis. It naturally doesn’t show or mention the malnutrition and lack of medical care that led to the death of many captives before they could even be transported out for more formal execution.

It is hard to watch this movie knowing the ultimate fate of the people we are seeing: most of them, very shortly after the creation of the movie and including the film’s creators, were exported to concentration camps and executed. The people in the movie are in a sort of purgatory, adapting as best they can to their circumstances.

One line in particular gave me a real jolt and honestly gave me chills. There has been a movement in certain circles to make the instruction about slavery include the idea that slavery helped enslaved people because it gave them job skills. I have co-workers who endorse this thinking. So when the narrator cheerily explains that working in the factories are really helping the captives hone their job skills, I absolutely cringed. There’s that famous line about how history is told by the winners, and this film shows us an alternate reality where this is how we would remember Nazi actions during WW2. It should also serve as a warning about how we might want to reframe our own past or present in order to mitigate our own guilt or exploitation of others.

Again, I can’t rate this movie. For better or worse, I couldn’t see it as anything other than a primary source document.

I'm really going to have to think about where this one will place on my list. Frankly, I found it very interesting and emotionally involving, though the latter in a very different way than what the film intended.

Theresienstadt


Yep, ol' Pops threw us a curveball with this nomination. As Tak has already said, how do you rate this?
(And don't fret about having nominated something that wasn't fun. I was not aware of this film and am glad to have seen it.)

This can be filed among other films like Last Tango in Paris or Clownhouse, in that their objectionable qualities are not necessarily evident unless one is aware of the film's backstory. I would not include something like Birth of a Nation in this list because in that case the gross stuff IS on-screen. But if you were raised in an igloo in Siberia and knew nothing about world history, this film would no doubt appear harmless at best and boring at worst. So is it "bad"?

What's going to stick with me the longest is that the only real moments of seemingly sincere happiness depicted here were in some of the scenes featuring very young children, no doubt because they did not understand the severity of their situation. (which was heartbreaking) Everyone over the age of 12, however, had this look of resignation on their face, even if they were technically smiling, as if there was a gun pointing at them from behind the camera. Which there may have been. So if this film failed in any way technically speaking, it's that it did not convince me that this was a village full of happy people. Granted, I'm bringing almost a century of hindsight with me so maybe I'm projecting, but the crowd at that football match did not seem to be enjoying themselves as much as you'd expect.

The good news is that virtually no one got to see this so it was not allowed to have any real impact, but the fact that these folks were forced to betray their own self-interest by participating in this only to be killed shortly after is just adding another tragic insult to injury.

I gotta say I was not expecting the bad movie challenge to involve so much thinking.

PS, just to head off any potential arguments: Yes, the Last Tango thing also happens on screen but for the first 40 years of my life I was led to believe it was fictional/consensual. One can certainly find the scene objectionable as is, but if I'd never read anything about the incident I could've continued to blissfully believe that everything was fine. Also, I've never seen Last Tango in Paris.

Yes, I will echo this. My person interpretation of what was appropriate for this thread is my interpretation. Seeing how everyone interprets "bad" is one of the most interesting things about these HoFs.

That said, I think we need a range of films because if it were 100% war crimes and racism, etc, I think it would be too emotionally exhausting to participate.

Knowing what we now know, watching the remnants of Theresienstadt that now survive is a particularly grim task. This time, instead of propaganda meant for German audiences concerning the treatment of deported Jews, the film was meant for the eyes of the Allies and Red Cross workers - and it was a complete fabrication. Watching it, I peer closely at all the faces we see, and surprisingly there's still a lot of misery and fear that manages to seep through - or do I see that because I know what's really going on? Well, maybe not, because when I see children (who are much more natural actors, and knew less about their ultimate fate) the effect the Nazis were hoping for works much better. They seem overjoyed by the fact that they were being fed good food, and being allowed to play and have fun. Some of the adults put on a brave face, and act the part, but others sit stony faced - grim countenances frozen into their features. Nearly all of the people we see in this film would soon be dead, either from starvation, disease or execution when deported to death camps. During the period when Red Cross visitors were inspecting the place, everything was spruced up, and the healthiest of survivors were gathered together to put on a show - and make this film.

The activities seen in this film are what make me most angry. Nothing that we see ever happened when the cameras weren't rolling, or when Red Cross workers weren't being given a tour. There was no dancing, and there were no soccer matches. There was no relaxing in the sun, and there was no self-governance. The Germans make Theresienstadt look like a holiday paradise. They knew that if any outsider saw what they were doing, they'd be shocked, appalled, disgusted and driven to a fury that would lead to the condemnation of those responsible. For me, watching Theresienstadt just made me angrier, and angrier and angrier. The Jews not only had to participate in their own extermination, but they were also forced to participate in the cover-up of their own extermination. Everything was designed to humiliate, denigrate and de-humanize everyone deemed to be sub-human by Nazi standards. I would like to point out that a lot of the hatred was fueled by crackpot conspiracy theories, which are dangerous and insidious. Those conspiracy theories helped bring the Nazis to power during the 1920s and early 1930s - and included two main thrusts : "Germany was going to win World War I, but was stabbed in the back by traitors and Jews" and "The Jews and 'Freemasons' secretly run the world and plan to keep non-Jews and Aryans under their thumb - they're the reason the Treaty of Versailles and for Germany being weak." Both were complete nonsense.

Hatred is a natural human emotion, but it is neither wise nor intelligent to cultivate and feed it - it's often used to curry favour and manipulate others. The tragedy of the Holocaust is the fact that the hatred directed at all Jewish people was utterly pointless, and based on a completely imaginary and non-existent concept. Without antisemitism, the Nazis would have lost much of their basis for coming to power, and the destruction of Europe and horror of the Holocaust may not have happened. Millions upon millions died because of a boogeyman that was no more real than a monster underneath a child's bed. There is no secret organisation running the world, and we should be extremely wary of anyone who uses hatred of any kind for support or gain. You'll find that they're dishonest and disingenuous. The Holocaust and the Nazis' rise to power offers up one of the clearest and most cogent lessons to all of us about the destructive force of blind hatred, and those who are willing to tap into our natural desire to punish perceived enemies and those who we believe are the cause of our misery. When the truth is complex, simple answers that get us worked up are tempting and desirable.

So, watching Theresienstadt got me thinking about all of that. How much many of those who were in the SS must have hated the people they were torturing and exterminating, compared with how little reason they had to hate them. In fact, they had no reason whatsoever to hate them. The misery I read into each staged scene was so horribly pointless. Hitler was delighted by how stupid, malleable and gullible the masses were, and the same holds true today. If forced to choose, choose the one who isn't preaching hate. They may not be perfect. They might not be any good at all. But they are the better choice regardless.

I can't rate this one either - I can't work out on what basis I'd be rating it. Was it well made? How do I rate a film where around 2/3rds of it is missing? Do I take into account how contemptable it is? It was worth seeing though - and people should see it.

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Agreed.

Imagine this as a double-bill with Night and Fog.

I showed Night and Fog to some friends last night and they were appalled by what they seen.

War is one of the most terrible things ever.

A Film Unfinished (2010) is pretty good as well - it's all about a propaganda film the Nazis never ended up releasing which is one of the only surviving documents of life in the Warsaw Ghetto. They basically did the same as what they did with Theresienstadt, but they also included some of the horrors, and attempted to pin the blame for all of that on the wealthy Jews living in the Ghetto, who were supposedly living it up and having a ball. There are interviews with survivors who witnessed the film being made, and includes narration from the diary of the person forced to make it. Some of the footage is extremely confronting, but what we see is a rare glimpse of the Holocaust in action, and the way the Nazis would twist the truth to serve their purposes. I believe they never released the film because it showed too much, and might have had people asking too many questions about the conditions in the Ghetto.

I'm glad this is generating so much discussion. You guys are raising plenty of interesting points towards it.

As for the film being a convincing fake and envisioning yourself falling for the footage if you were unaware of what actually went on throughout the concentration camps, I think that would be interesting if the film had actually tricked me. If the suffering throughout the war was unknown and I fell for this film, only to find out I was misled many years later, this would've given the film far more bite. Not only did it not fool me though, but it also didn't work on anyone who watched it at the time, so I wasn't able to connect to the film on this front. Last Tango in Paris is a bit different as, though what actually happened is common knowledge by today's standards, it did manage to trick people for many years, so the butter scene in that film had a more complex effect on me when I watched it. With this film, my reaction was akin to rolling my eyes at a propaganda film which completely failed in its purpose throughout its entire history (aside from some Holocaust deniers who may believe the footage).