My Mother's Courage
Mutters Courage (1997, German with English subtitles)
Seen on 18 September 1997 with Laura at the Film Forum for $8.
The movie is framed by the device of Tabori on the set of the filming of his mother's Holocaust story. We see the actors and the sets and the strange meeting of George Tabori and the woman who will play his brave mother (Pauline Collins).
My Mother's Courage presents such a vivid picture of the Holocaust and its ghastly procedures that it is often difficult to realize that it's just a movie. Many images familiar to people who have seen the film versions of the Holocaust are more vivid here because the film takes you right into the cattle cars in living color (many movies are more distanced or in black-and-white).
The very arbitrariness of "order" is examined here. One moment you are a Hungarian citizen and the next you are being arrested on the street and being sent to your doom. Everyday you say hello to the shopkeeper; the next he is avoiding you entirely. What is so odd about this film is the comedy involved. Elsa Tabori is arrested on the street by two bumbling detectives who were pressed into retirement for the round-up. A sympathetic street car conductor wants to help Elsa escape; she gets off at the next stop and waits for the policemen to catch up to her.
Beyond the horror of knowing what is behind the round-up, the waiting, the cattle-car trip, there is another level of thought going on. The immediate thoughts of the doomed. Elsa firmly believes that all you have to do is "be a good girl and everything will work out." This is put to the test when she takes on Maria (Natalie Morse), the gentile girl arrested--and violated--while visiting a Jewish friend the local fascists pursue viciously through her own home. Being a good girl does not, it turns out, become its own reward.. History and human nature often get in the way.
We see a lot of Elsa's memories as she peeks through a crack in the cattle car to Auschwitz. The last ride of the doomed is contrasted to other rail passengers; gleeful children off to a lakeside trip, tawdry hooker in lingerie draped over fat crematoria builders in a luxury train car. Even the comfortable accomodations of the German officer, complete with LP player, provide a sharp contrast to what is happening in the cattle cars behind him, on the very same train.
A lot of the moments in the film will be familiar to those familiar with the topic; e.g., the silent omniscient motorman who hangs out the side of the engine car is reminiscent of Shoah. What is unfamiliar is the comic elements, which do not always work, like the parody of the Hitler lookalike wearing the XX motif of Chaplin's The Great Dictator. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.
The best parts of the movie belong to Pauline Collins. The decisions Elsa is forced to make are painful and contrary to her nature, and are truly show stopping and memorable. Also notable is the performance of Ulrich Tukur as the very Aryan, quixotic, and sympathetic Nazi officer in charge who proves that having power can make all the difference.
My Mother's Courage is skillfully directed by Michael Verhoeven, best known for The Nasty Girl, and for an earlier exploration of the Nazi period in The White Rose (1982, about anti-Hitler German students). He knows when to keep away and when to close in.
Most memorable shot: Elsa looks through the crack in the cattle car and sees the officer's reflection in a train passing by.
Copyright (c) 1997 Seth J. Bookey, New York, NY 10021
More movie reviews by Seth Bookey, with graphics, can be found at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2679/kino.html
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