The Films of Margarethe von Trotta: Domination, Violence, Solidarity, and Social Criticism

Abstract

The Films of Margarethe von Trotta: Domination, Violence, Solidarity, and Social Criticism H-B. MOELLER In 1982, representatives of the New German Cinema's first generation frequently looked back over the two decades since the signing of the Oberhausen Manifesto of 1962 with pride; critics, for their part, either commended the New German Cinema's rise to success, or cautioned against its midlife crisis. The women filmmakers of West Germany, whose names were not yet included among those on the Manifesto, celebrated the anniversary alongside Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schamoni et al. -- and with just cause. The Hamburg Film Festival, arranged by the filmmakers themselves and conceived as the second Oberhausen Manifesto, i.e. as their second declaration of independence, opened in the fall of 1979; it did so with a women's film, Margarethe von Trotta's "Schwestern oder Die Balance des Glücks"/"Sisters or the Balance of Happiness." In the first years of the eighties, other women's productions stood out alongside Trotta's films: Helma Sanders-Brahms' "Deutschland bleiche Mutter"/"Germany Pale Mother" (1980), Heidi Genée's "1+1=3" (1980) — granted, a work without recognition from feminists — and Heike Sander's "Der subjektive Faktor"/"The Subjective Factor" (1981). Since then, Programmkino movie theaters, which specialize in art films, have made the transition to include weeks devoted to women's films in their calendar of events. Furthermore, representatives of critical women's film have made their way. into German colleges and gained academic recognition. Moreover, the third wave of the New German Cinema — recognized since the fall of 1981 in the United States -- has worked to the advantage of women filmmakers this side of the Atlantic. The Chicago Film Festival honoring this third generation praised Margarethe von Trotta in particular and conferred upon her the Golden Hugo, its grand prize. The world's economic crisis, the financing shortages of national television, and the change of government in 1982 to the conservative Christian-Liberal Bonn coalition show signs of having negative implications for future projects of German 129 women's film. Here, "women's film" is to be understood as production by and for women that contains feminine counter-proposals to mainstream culture, if not a direct, socio-politically critical stance. And the West German film industry, which is largely funded by federal and public boards, under the banner of the neo-conservative cultural climate could prove to be just as closed toward this kind of film as it is toward that of radical male filmmakers. Yet at the beginning of the eighties, German women's film made a breakthrough and reached its largest distribution to date. Against this background, Margarethe von Trotta's filmic studies of contemporary women take on their appeal. Since the making of her third independent film, "Die bleierne Zeit"/"Marianne and Juliane" (1981), she has been considered the primary representative of critical German women's film due to both the "Golden Lion" of the Venice Film Festival and the first prize of the Women's Film Festival in Sceaux, France, granted her in addition to the previously mentioned Chicago Prize. The quasi-literary character of her films in terms of an imaginative, emotional, complex and esthetic portrayal of intense experiences such as fear, grief and death, is undisputed, even if her intent may be to convert the audience to her emotional political views. For all this fascination with Trotta's work, several central questions about her film oeuvre have not yet been raised at all or been put forward only insufficiently. The intent of this article is to examine such core questions. Where is Trotta dependent upon her partner, filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff, for whom she has writen several film scripts, and where is she to be considered independent of him? Is she to be seen as a representative of the international women's movement, or rather, and more specifically, as a West German filmmaker who makes films about women? Should one approach her as a champion of feminism, or as one of the political New Left? That is, what does her emphasis on women's films with socio-political overtones and her accentuation of counter-culture values mean? Should...