THE DAMNED
Italy, 1969, 149 minutes, Colour.
Dirk Bogarde, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Greim, Helmut Berger, Charlotte Rampling, Florinda Bolkan.
Directed by Lucchino Visconti.
The Damned is an absorbing, horrifying film. It opens with a fiery furnace - from Germany's 30's industrial complex - and here we find a particular hell of the damned. This film shows a microcosm of the decadent society that was being taken over by the Nazis, to be used for world domination. It is said that the Von Essenbecks of the film are not the Krupps, but one can't help thinking of them and their industrial empire which was to be at the service of Hitler.
Visconti knows how to create a strong visual atmosphere (The Leopard, Death in Venice) and this is certainly evident here. The clothes, styles and fashions of the 30s help us feel that we understand something of this world. Sequences like the Von Essenbeck family banquet, Sophie's visit to the Nazi filing rooms, the night of the Long Knives, create such a vivid impression that we feel that we have been there. And this is what is horrifying, because this is hell and we have been there.
We are used to looking at stories of the decadent Roman Empire - the power struggles, the murders, corruption and perversions we accept as part of it. When a similar kind of situation is shown in our own century and by people who look the same as ourselves, this is also frightening. And these people were behind World War II, death, slaughter and the persecution of the Jews. This is where the film ends - with the fanatical vision of the Nazis in 1939.
Dirk Bogarde does not seem to be evil enough for the role he plays; however, Ingrid Thulin, Helmut Griem and Helmut Berger all look and act their parts expertly,
This film is not for all audiences, but for those who see it, it should be a disturbing and extraordinary experience,
1. Could you say you liked the film? Why?
2. What did the title mean? To whom did it refer? Where was their hell? Sow did the industrial furnace symbolise this hell?
3. How well did Visconti re-create the oppressive world of the damned? Comment on the initial banquet scene with its assembling of characters, old-world elegant style clashing with industrial ambition and Nazism, the decadence implied by Martin's song, the news of the burning of the Reichstag. Comment on Visconti's use of colour and darkness.
4. The film opens with the murder of the old generation and the power-climb of the new. The film ends with the murder of that generation and the dedication of the new to Nazism which has manipulated it into that position. How is this hellish?
5. What is wrong with the Van Essenbeck family and their society? How reminiscent of fall of the Roman Empire decadence is it?
6. How did the Nazis utilise this corruption and decadence, drive it to destruction and then succeed it?
7. The film issues are so complex that it would be easier to cope with them by taking each character separately and discussing how each contributes to the whole film,
- Friedrich - the new man, not noble, searching for a title and power, a murderer, nervous, manoeuvred by Sophie, outwitted by Aschenbach into opportunism, dictatorial, his participation in the murder of Konstantin, the corruption of Gunther, his defeat and suicide,
- Sophie - elegant decadence, her modish 30s make-up, erotic yet scheming and power hungry, her relationship with Martin and the bizarre incest, her illness and dependence on drugs, the mock marriage, defeat and suicide,
- Martin - decadent Dietrich act, petulance, lack of interest in politics and industry, boredom, perversion - with the little Jewish girl and his mistress. Used by Friedrich, Konstantin and Aschenbach. His hatred and incestuous punishment of his mother, his Nazism. His friends at the mock wedding. Murdering Sophie and Friedrich as he dances with his friends. The finale is his face and the hell flames. He is the future.
- Aschenbach - at first neutral, plain-clothes guest-friend and advisor, then in the know about politics, aiming at allying the Essenbecks to the Nazis by any means, his theory of the elite bound by no laws, world-power and domination, anti-Semitic (Martin's crime is good), his manoeuvring of all the Essenbecks, plans the murder of Konstantin, corrupts Gunther, turns Martin against his mother and makes a Nazi of him. Aschenbach as the winner. (What impression did his scene with Sophie in the Nazi file-room make?)
- Gunther - good, sensitive, not ambitious, ideals of truth, not a fanatic (e.g, at school), finally corrupted by hatred.
- Konstantin - arrogant, aristocratic, power-hungry and ruthless, lacked subtlety and, therefore, lost. Old-fashioned, illustrated by social background of the brown shirt S.A. clash with the S.S.
- Herbert and Elizabeth as victims.
8. What impact did the sequence of the Night of the Long Knives make? Why? What point did it have, in the film? In the Van Essenbeck story? as illustrating the corruption of society - the sexual deviation and then the merciless brutality and nauseating slaughter?
9. What does the film show about history repeating itself and the consequences of social decadence?
10. What does the film say has been (is still) wrong with the 20th century?
