Kameradschaft

Regarded by many as the highpoint of German socialist film-making this fourteenth film of G. W. Pabst is a companion piece to his earlier 'Westfront 1918'.

Based upon the mining disaster at Courrieres in 1906, the director has cleverly chosen to set his film in the mining communities on the Lorraine/Saar border just after the end of the first World War which enables him to show the tensions and mutual distrust between top dog France and underdog Germany.

What strikes one most about Pabst's film are the claustrophobic mine galleries which have been built from scratch in the studio by Erno Metzner and which facilitate the roving camera and effective lighting of the legendary Fritz Arno Wagner whilst Pabst's mastery of crowd scenes is put to stunning use in its depiction of mass anguish.

Viewers will no doubt spot Alexander Granach who was to flee Germany for America and Ernst Busch, an avowed Communist who survived despite being on the Nazi hit list.

This sober, restrained masterpiece with its naively optimistic plea for international brotherhood, although critically well received, was unsurprisingly disdained by both French and German audiences.

The final, symbolic scene in which the iron barrier between the French and German mines is re-established in the presence of stern looking military officials is not only grotesquely ironic but gives dreadful note of the horrors to come.

Valliant effort to use a mining catastrophe as a vehicle to pronounce this director's distaste for war. The audience not only learns a great deal about early mining rescue procedures but, we learn that Europeans at the interval between WWI and WWII, had concerning pacifists(for lack of a better term). The speeches given by both representatives of each country at the end of the film, are inspiring given the time. Although the revised edition, through the transfer technology of early foreign films, "cuts-off characters heads" at times, this film holds it's own in many different aspects. Character analysis, lighting techniques, historical content and a scenario that has tested and inspired many a writer and filmmaker.

Pabst went on to Direct and put to screen Weil & Brecht's "Three Penny Opera", starring the original star, Lotte Lenya.

This film, along with WESTFRONT 1918, are my favorite Pabst-directed films and I enjoyed them more than his much more famous films which starred Louise Brooks (such as PANDORA'S BOX). It's probably because both are very similar to the Neo-Realist films that the Italians perfected in the 1940s and 50s. This style film called for using non-actors (just typical folks) in everyday settings in order to create intensely involving and realistic films.

In this case, the film is about French and German coal miners, so appropriately, the people in the roles seem like miners--not actors. The central conflict as the film begins is that there is a huge mine located on the Franco-German border. Instead of one big mine, it is divided at the border and German workers are not welcome in the French mine, despite there being greater unemployment in Germany. This, language differences (illustrated wonderfully in a dance hall scene) and WWI conspire to create a huge rift between the factions--resulting in a WE vs. THEY mentality. Later, an explosion causes a huge collapse in the French and the Germans refuse to sit back and do nothing. Risking their own lives, they prove that there is true comradeship between miners and men in general.

The film is a strong criticism of xenophobia and tried, in vain, to get the German audiences to see the futility of war and hatred. It was a gorgeously moving film with some of the scariest and claustrophobic images I have ever seen. Considering history, though, the film's impact was minimal at best. It's a real shame, as like this one, WESTFRONT 1918, JÁACCUSE (Gance) and ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (Milestone) had great messages of peace and harmony but ultimately were failures in positively swaying public opinion. So, from a historical point of view, it's an amazing and sad relic that is well worth seeing.

Fire and collapse threaten the lives of hundreds of French miners in this B&W masterpiece released in 1931. Director Pabst uses the occasion of the collapse as a statement against war. Despite animosities between France and Germany, some German miners assemble a rescue team, cross the border and go underground to aid those trapped below.

The film is amazing in its depiction of mining--the claustrophobic working conditions, the dusty blackness, the danger. The verisimilitude is so convincing that it feels like actors must have been at risk themselves.

Despite language differences and the fears that war promulgates, French and German teams manage to save numerous miners. During the hours that the rescue efforts are being undertaken, the film depicts various points of view and brings together a number of subplots: a grandfather who fears for his grandson trapped in the mine; the townspeople united by their common fears and helpless feelings; a woman who longs to leave behind the inevitable heartbreaks that life in a mining town offers, but is drawn back by her love; the German miners who recognize their commonalities with the miners on the other side of the border.

This is an important story, reminding the viewer that humanity should always trump nationality.

Based on an event which occurred in 1906 concerning a mine disaster in France, the story has been updated to shortly after the Great War with the disaster now occurring in a mine that is French on one side and German on the other. Overall the picture serves as an anti-war, for co-operation between nations, message. This message is not laid on thick and cleverly forms part of the story. It is though, brought home very accurately and succinctly in the final scene.

One would hardly think that the scenery of "darn the pits" would be of much entertainment value, but this story is probably one of the first in the 'disaster genre'. The underground mine sets have been realistically re-created and one certainly gets a sense of feeling claustrophobic from watching what occurs there. It would appear that a lot of research has gone into the making of this film as everything about it seems natural and starkly real. A further emphasis on this realism is that the Germans speak German and the French speak French.

There are some who say that there were non-professional actors in this film, and the fact that they do so well in their parts conveying the very awfulness of their job has probably brought forth this opinion. The script too is not labored, and the dialogue only gives punctuation when necessary to the action. The direction by Pabst can only be described as brilliant. His crowd scenes are well composed, and the camera is given much fluidity whilst the cutting appears seamless.

In short, this is a dramatic film that looks totally real, has a high degree of excitement throughout, is well acted and beautifully photographed.