UFA Orientalism. The “Orient” in Early German Film: Lubitsch and May

Frank F Scherer

doi:10.5195/cinej.2011.24

Abstract

Fantastic images of the exotic pervade many early German films which resort to constructions of “Oriental” scenes. Stereotypical representations of China, India, Babylon, and Egypt dominate the Kino-screens of Weimar Germany. These films were produced in the UFA studios outside Berlin by directors such as Ernst Lubitsch (Sumurum/ One Arabian Night, 1920; Das Weib des Pharaos/The Love of Pharaoas 1922) and John May (Das Indische Grabmal/ The Indian Tomb, 1921). Yet, where recent observers resist the use of a postcolonial perspective it becomes difficult to assess the cinematographic exoticism of post-WWI Germany.This essay, therefore, offers both a discussion of Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’and a psychoanalytical thesis on the concealment and supposed healing of post-1918 Germany’s national narcissistic wounds by emphasizing Eurocentric difference in its filmic representations of the Orient.

Highlights

German Orientalism and Weimar CinemaFantastic images of Oriental exoticism pervade much of early German film after World War I and into the 1920s, the period commonly known as the Weimar Republic
Stereotypical representations of China, India, Babylon, and Egypt dominate the Kinoscreens of Weimar Germany. These films were produced in the UFA studios outside Berlin by directors such as Ernst Lubitsch (Sumurum/ One Arabian Night, 1920; Das Weib des Pharaos/The Love of Pharaoas 1922) and John May (Das Indische Grabmal/ The Indian Tomb, 1921)
Where recent observers resist the use of a postcolonial perspective it becomes difficult to assess the cinematographic exoticism of postWWI Germany.This essay, offers both a discussion of Edward Said‟s „Orientalism‟and a psychoanalytical thesis on the concealment and supposed healing of post-1918 Germany‟s national narcissistic wounds by emphasizing Eurocentric difference in its filmic representations of the Orient

Summary

Introduction

Fantastic images of Oriental exoticism pervade much of early German film after World War I and into the 1920s, the period commonly known as the Weimar Republic. Based on stereotypical representations of India, Babylon, or Egypt and produced in the UFA (Universum Film AG) studios near Berlin, these images dominated the Kino-screens of Weimar Germany. While this filmic German “Orientalism” has been acknowledged by recent commentators such as Richard McCormick,[1] Christian Rogowski,[2] and Sabine Hake,[3] these writers did little more than labeling and nowhere in the literature, old or new, do we find an engaged discussion, let alone an in-depth treatment, of what I will call “UFA Orientalism”. Explore this recognized – if uncharted – Orientalist terrain in the landscape of early German film and provide the missing postcolonial perspective which, in interdisciplinary mode, will be further strengthened by deconstructionist theory and psychoanalytical insight

Resisting Orientalism

Orientalism as Différance and Narcissism

Conclusion