Monday April 11th, 8.0 p.m., in the Gold Room, Capitol Hotel, 51st St. & 8th Ave.

DER APFEL IST AB (Germany, 1948)

Directed by Helmut Kautner for Camera Film, distributed through Herzog-Film G.M.B.H. Written by Helmut Kautner and Bobby Todd. Photographed by Igor Oberberg; dream sequences designed by Kautner and Wolfgang Znamenacek; trick photography by Theodor Nischwitz and Walter Chmillon; assistant directors: Wolfgang Wehrum and Peter Hamel.

The Cast: Bobby Todd as Adam Schmidt (Adam); Bettina Moissi as Eva Meier-Eden (Eve); Joana Maria Gorvin as Lilly Schmidt (Lilith); Arno Assman as Dr. Lutz (Lucifer); Helmut Kautner as Professor Petri (St. Peter) and Margarete Haagen, Thea Thiele, Gerda Corbett, Willy Martens, Nikolai Kolin, Carl Voscherau, Büm Kruger, Rudolph Vogel, Sigfrid Brandl, Paul Amende, Horst Hächler, Jürden Wulf and Irene von Meyendorff.

The immediate post-war German films (1944 to 1949) duplicated to a remarkable degree the themes and the moods of the films produced in that country following the end of World War One. One can, with reasonable accuracy, split up the product of the German studios of the five years starting with 1944, into three distinct phases - and each phase a counterpart of a 1918-1925 cycle.

With the coming of peace, the German industry, for so many years tooled to the needs of Nazi propaganda, crashed and died, temporarily. It started to rebuild by concentrating an bitter, defeatist and often violently anti-Nazi films such as The Murderers Are Amongst Us and Razzia. The fantasy of the Caligari period had been discarded, but the mood remained. While perhaps different in theme, the films of 1945 all had the common denominator of an excess of self-pity. Emphasis was placed on bomb damage and destruction, and every new film contained at least one scene of a ragged, defeated soldier returning home from the war. Above all, there was condemnation of the Nazi, and a rash of non-Nazi heroes suffering from guilt complexes due to their passive acceptance of Nazi doctrines.

This bitterness faded in phase two: self-pity was by no means absent, but it was considerably reduced. Hope was ever-present in this cycle - but it was hope that was finally overcome by circumstances against which resistance seemed futile. This group of films is perfectly exemplified by Gustav Frolich's Wege in Zwielicht in which initial vitality and optimism were overcome by tragedy and defeat. A short-lived cycle this, and one that soon and inevitably resulted in a return to the street films of the early 1920's. Defeatism is now supplanted by a more placid resignation and hopelessness. Films of this species made marked use of the visual symbolism so typical of the silent equivalents. (For example, Strassenbekanntschaft revived several of the symbols from Caligari, the black wall stretching into infinity from Destiny etc.). Menschen in Gottes Hand, Strassenbekanntschaft, Zwischen Gestern Und Morgen and all the other steet films had marked similiarities in plot content - not only to each other, but also to such films as The Joyless Street, Mutter Krausen and others of the twenties. Basically they dealt with a son or daughter leaving home in a revolt against the frustration and poverty of a depression period, seeking any kind of freedom, no matter what the cost. In keeping with the prevalent feelings of self-pity, help was neither asked nor expected -- this resulting in a curiously apathetic parade of German film heroes who seem to have little concern for the tribulations of their heroines. It was up to the girl to solve her own problems, and find her own salvation - at which time the hero, patiently and unhelpfully standing on the sidelines, might get around to suggesting marriage. The only basic difference between the street films of the twenties and those of the forties was that the ones following World War two had a slightly higher percentage of happy endings. However, this seemed to be an outpouring of wishful thinking rather than any genuine optimism.

By the end of 1948 the street cycle, in full swing, was joined by an odd sort of off-shoot - comedies and musicals built around contemporary themes, but attempting on artificial cheerfulness. Beate was an attempt to recreate the frothy type of comedy that Danielle Darrieux had scored in, but it was heavy, tasteless and the plot quite sordid in content even if not in treatment. The "soldier-returning-from-the-war" motif was retained as an audience sympathy bid. Der Himmlische Waltzer, almost a remake of Rita Hayworth's Down to Earth, arrived at a happy ending - but only after rejecting the traditional unhappy one through having the director walk on to the set, protest at the solution, and suggest a more joyful one!

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It was this confused and generally gloomy cinematic front that DER APFEL IST AB invaded in 1948. The film was really three things: in a way, it was part of the current cycle; too, it partially outside it, commenting on it; and thirdly it was a definite attempt to break away from it! In addition to these things, it combined discussions on philosophical, religious, and political issues, on planes of wit, allegory, musical comedy and out-and-out surrealism. No film attempting to cover so much ground can really hope to succeed completely, and Der Apfel Ist Ab was no exception.

Nevertheless, it created a tremendous stir in Germany - not least in that, as a surrealist film, it inevitably invited comparison with the famous Caligari. Too, the film aroused very considerable opposition from the Church, and as in so many cases, controversy was good for the boxoffice. Although the film was bitterly attacked by the Catholics in particular, Germany is fortunately without this country's self-styled Legion of Decency. Thus, despite a good deal of mud-slinging in the press and elsewhere, Catholics were not forbidden to see the film. Apart from the light-hearted utilisation of Biblical material, it seemed that there was little in the film to offend, seriously, the religiously-minded and the kicks came from the church-leaders rather than from their congregations.

As opposed to Caligari, Der Apfel ist Ab is generally light fare with a satiric flavor, and several pleasing, rhythmic songs so typical of German revues. Nevertheless, beneath its gay veneer are several serious messages directed primarily at the Germans of course, but applicable to all. Foremost is the suggestion that mankind must never surrender, despite the chaos of his surroundings. Bobby Todd, picked to play the average, confused, man in the German street does not come over too well to non-German audiences. Unsympathetic and inept, he appears to be trying to emulate both Robert Benchley and Harry Langdon - without success. The Germans, however, found him much to their liking so obviously it is a matter of personal taste.

Highlights of the film are the wonderfully photographed and edited sequences in hell, satirically recording orgies of sadism and sensuous pleasure, an old crone cheerfully eating spiders, a little girl sawing the head from her doll and similar delights. This macabre, excitingly done sequence recalls once again the great silent German fantasies, and confirms that the Germans have no peer in this sort of material. Use of the moving camera in the Hell sequences is particularly impressive. (Later in the film, the moving camera is also used to enchanting effect in a magical little love scene).

The Biblical figures of Adam, Eve and Lilith are utilised by Kautner to further the ends of his scenario, and are not altogether in Biblical context. It is the man, not the woman, who is seduced into plucking the apple here. Paradise, as depicted by Kautner, is really hell! Enclosed in barbed wire, it is like a boring children's playground where nothing ever happens and nearly everything is marked "For Display Only"". Hell seems to be much more interesting!

There is so much detail, such a wealth of meaning in Der Apfel ist Ab that one visit is frankly inadequate. The curious manipulation of the Biblical figures .... the occasional harmless plagiarisms (a scene involving a broken globe is probably derived from Chaplin's "The Great Dictator) ... the references to differences with Russia, a more vital issue now than then ... and so many other ingredients, become much clearer after a second or third visit. The film is frankly such an eyeful, that one is tempted to watch the wonderful decor and the fine camerawork rather than concentrate on the meaning of the film itself - namely, "Conquer fate - don't be conquered by it."

Despite its serious consideration of (then) contemporary problems, the film has no really solid solution to offer. The solution it does offer really belongs in the dream world of the bulk of the film, and in terms of actual reality, is again just wishful thinking. However, the film did make a serious attempt to get away from the rut of pathetic self-pity -- even to the extent of inserting malicious little scenes ridiculing material played for straight drama in other films of the period - the scarcity of cigarettes, the American CARE parcels, clothes imported from Britain, and so on.

Curiously, the film ran into little censorship trouble here. I say "curiously" because here is a film that seems to be asking for trouble. Apart from minor religious and sexual asides, the heroine spends the bulk of the film wearing nothing above the waist but a piece of completely transparent cellophane! While Miss Moissi is admittedly somewhat in the Audrey Hepburn category in matters like this, it is still somewhat surprising that neither the customs officers nor the censors took their shears to some of her scenes! However, except for one scene, the film appears to be quite complete. (Having seen the film at its premiere in Hamburg, I can be quite certain on that point).

The missing scene, unfortunately, is an important one. Important, not dramatically, but in that it says so much about both the mood of the film - and the mood of the times. A very early scene is set in a psychiatrist's office, decorated with flimsy nothings, imitation clouds, and pointedly light, gay décor. Outside the window is a scene of tranquil cheerfulness. In these surroundings, the psychiatrist attempts to restore confidence to his defeated patient. As soon as the patient has left, the psychiatrist goes to the window and pulls up a shade, to reveal that the serenity outside was a myth, a mere painting behind which lies the grim reality of a bomb-shattered city. This scene was not cut deliberately from the film for release here, and seems to be missing from our print only because it is a rather well-used print. In fact, if you watch closely you will see the first two or three frames of the scene in question before a bad splice removed it!

Helmut Kautner who wrote and directed Der Apfel ist Ab, as well as playing the psychiatrist, is most certainly one of the top directors at work in Germany toa. Out of favor with the Nazis, he found it easy to promote films for himself in the immediate post-war period - films, incidentally, which gave him considerable freedom, and which for the most part fell outside the general patterns discussed earlier in these notes. During the war, his Die Grosse Freiheit aroused the ire of the Nazis, who objected to it an the grounds that it degraded German women, reflected discredit on the German Navy, and contained scenes of Hamburg night-life at odds with the party-line. An ambitious Agfacolor production starring Hans Albers, it was withdrawn from release by the Nazis - though after the war it was reissued and did top business. Kautner's last film before the and of the war, Under the Bridges, was banned completely. His work since the war has been prolific and distinguished, starting with In Jenen Tagen (released here as Seven Journeys) and the delightful Film Ohne Titel. His latest films have included one on Ludwig of Bavaria, and the remarkable The Devil's General. Based on a play by Carl Zuckmayer (dealing with the career of Ernst Udet) it is one of the top grossers in Germany at the moment.

Igor Oberberg, one of the foremost cameramen in Germany at the moment, shows in this film that he really rates his reputation. Bettini Moissi is relatively unknown in this country, although Long Is the Road and of course In Jenen Tagen had some distribution here. Arno Assman, facially ideal as the Devil, is a popular cabaret artist in Germany who has made only a few films.

Program Notes written by William K. Everson.