Women, Cinema, and the First World War in Rosa Porten's Film Wanda's Trick (1918)

Abstract

This article explores the representation of women's changing gender roles and their relationship to cinema and film production during the First World War by looking at the filmmaker Rosa Porten (1884–1972) and her film Wanda's Trick (1918). This comedy, featuring a plucky female protagonist who succeeds in raising her social and financial status against all odds, is emblematic of Porten's prolific directorial output between 1916 and 1919. By contextualizing the film within the social dynamics of popular cinema and women's changing social roles during the war years, this examination of the film elucidates the effects of intensifying state control over the production of entertainment films in tension with women's increased public presence due to the consequences of the war. Films with strong female leads, such as Wanda's Trick, were supposed to entertain and at the same time offer new role models for women at times of loss, trauma, and destitution. Examining the film in this context reveals the discord between increasing patriarchal state control over film production and women's visibility in cinemas and as filmmakers. This article contributes to establishing Porten's place in a feminist historiography of German film and demonstrates the value of contextualizing trivialized films as cultural products of their time.