JUD SUSS – RISE AND FALL

Germany, 2010, 120 minutes, Colour.
Tobias Moretti, Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu.
Directed by Oskar Roehler.

Josef Goebbels' hand-picked film with hand-picked cast, Jud Suss/Jew Suss, the 1940 anti-Semitic propaganda film he wanted the world to see as art, is still banned in Germany. There had been an earlier, sympathetic British version with Conrad Veidt who had left Germany. The novel, Jew Suss, was written by, a Jewish author, Lion Feuchtwanger, and tells the story of a merchant, Suss, who wants to better himself in 18th century Germany. Goebbels wanted an actor who would portray Suss humanely, even sympathetically, the more to dramatise his anti-Semitism agenda, an exercise in cinema manipulation.

The story of the making of this version of Jud Suss and its effect on the actor, Ferdinand Marian, is told in this rather unwieldy drama. And Goebbels and his machinations are to the fore.

Perhaps there is too much going on in the film for audiences to digest it well. The film's parts are intriguing and worth seeing. The overall impact is mixed, especially after the screenings of the film throughout Germany and for the troops, Goebbels succeeding with its impact and effect. The film dramatises Florian's subsequent wanderings, cabaret in Prague, the aftermath of the war in Munich in 1946, the year of his death. (The Internet Movie Database, however, lists 8 films he completed in Germany after Jud Suss, from 1940-1945.) These sequences seem something of a dramatic anti-climax to the story of the film and they might have been absorbed into the final credits information about what happened to those who participated in the making of the film.

Florian was a matinee idol (and here looks and acts like an ageing Errol Flynn with touches of contemporaries, Ronald Colman, Robert Donat and Don Ameche). He did not want to play Suss and feared it would ruin his career. His wife was of Jewish ancestry (though aspects of her life and death are fictionalised here) and she and he were hiding a Jewish actor colleague in their garden shed. Goebbels was determined that Florian play the part and manipulated, cajoled, announced it publicly at a reception. Florian tried to fail the screen test but Goebbels applauded him and his later determination to invest Suss with humanity and dignity. Florian's wife eventually concurred in his taking the role. Extras (including the now interned actor he harboured) from the ghetto were rounded up to act as Jewish background characters.

This film is very interesting with its several re-enactments of key sequences, giving a flavour of its style and treatment of its subject. We see Goebbels triumphing at the 1940 Venice Film Festival and then at the Berlin premiere and on the road for screenings to the people and to the troops.

Tobias Moretti embodies Marian in a fine performance – a weak, vain, womanising man who may have meant well but who took to drink and was crushed by the film experience.

Goebbels usually looks small, gaunt and grim (as was Ulrich Matthes in Downfall) but Moritz Bleibtreu (who has appeared in the director's Agnes and his Brothers and The Elementary Particles ) is short but extremely healthy, loud, bumptious, aping Hitler in his speeches and radio broadcasts, relishing his triumphs (with glimpses of his wife and their children, all of whom died in the bunker in April 1945).

A very interesting and disturbing curio of a film.

1.The impact of the film in Germany, 2010? German past, Nazi past? The role of cinema in propaganda? The film banned until the present?

2.The power of cinema, propaganda, art, manipulation, the responses to Jud Suss? National socialist cinema?

3.Berlin 1940, the freeing of Paris, England as the enemy? The Jews, the refugees, the arrests? The later opening up of the camps, digging the trenches at Auschwitz? Nazi prejudice? Aryan purity? The various comments about the Jews from Goebbels, the SS, ordinary people?

4.The story of the actor, his career, as a person? His relationship with Goebbels, the director? The plan for the film to be art? For world cinema? The making of the film, behind the scenes, its acclaim and use?

5.The previous versions in the UK of Jud Suss? The Jewish writer? Germany in the 18th century, the influence of this story, the background of Jewish finance, the Jews seen as enemies?

6.The opening, the scene from Othello, the prejudice, Marian as Iago? Goebbels and his associate, the applause, the choice of Florian for Jud Suss, looking Jewish, eliciting sympathy, a non-Jewish actor? The performances of Othello being banned? The effect on the director? Hitler and his ignorance of Shakespeare?

7.The portrait of Goebbels: an impersonation, a strong man, womaniser, his large family, the scenes with his wife, the insertion of home footage with the children? His Hitler denunciation-like speeches? The radio? Shrewd, a manipulator, his belief in the Reich? Interviewing Florian, interviewing Veit Harlan? Inserting lines of dialogue? The invitations to Florian, the New Year phone call, the argument with Florian, Florian breaking the ashtray? The insinuations about Florian’s wife, Jewish origins? At the party? Announcing Florian as Jud Suss?

8.Florian in himself, the 1930s film star lifestyle, the Errol Flynn look, career, womanising? His marriage to Anna? Love for his daughter? The bond with his daughter, the gift of the violin? Her seeing him kiss the maid, blaming her mother? Willi as the gardener, the Jewish actor being given refuge? Britta and her spying, denunciation, Willi’s arrest? Florian’s reaction to Goebbels, being flattered, his career, worrying about taking the role, discussing with his wife, her disapproving of the script? His anger, being trapped, doing the poor audition, the applause of Goebbels? Anna and her agreement that he do the role?

9.Maria, the Nazi poems, her becoming indoctrinated? Anna, her drinking, desperation, the sexual episode?

10.The director in cahoots with Goebbels, the producers, Werner Krauss and his reputation, doing all the Jewish roles, sinister, mocking? The actress taking the leading role, her relationship with the director?

11.The audition, giving a poor rendering, Goebbels approving? Florian and his wanting to make Jud Suss sympathetic? Goebbels agreeing? The sinister motivation – and the final line that no German wanted a Jewish child? The films and the filming, the visit to the ghetto for the extras, the officer commanding and his mockery, wanting Willi as interpreter, Florian persuading him to let Willi go? The solemn promise to Willi that the film would be art?

12.The Venice Film Festival, the screening, the applause, Goebbels’ speech? The Berlin premiere, the standing ovation?

13.The scenes from the film and the way they were re-enacted? Their tone, skill, message? The points at which they were inserted into this film?

14.The raid on Berlin, Florian and the wife of the officer, the sexual encounter, sexual relationship with a Jew? Goebbels and his arranging this?

15.Florian and his drinking, the women, his louder talk, angering Goebbels, intruding into the special screening? The disappearance of his wife, his daughter taken away? Britta, the SS officer, spying, reporting, at the socials? Ordering the taking of Florian’s possessions?

16.Going on tour, Goebbels’ demand, the reaction of the people, meeting the commanding officer and his use of the film to stir up his men?

17.The low point of the cabaret, the transvestite performance of La Habanera? Florian and his self-disgust?

18.Munich, 1946, his drinking, the Czech girlfriend, the American officer? Meeting the people from the ghetto, Willi, Willi’s denunciation, the group bashing and kicking? The American rescuing him? His girlfriend coming with the American?

19.His driving off, the crash – and the information about the other makers of Jud Suss, their careers? Florian and his death in 1946? The film destroying him?