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The Birth of a Nation is largely free of racism and its second half holds value as a historical document about the dangers of art.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.
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