Far from home? Functions of escapism and portrayal of the tropics in 'La Habanera' (1937)
Far from home? Functions of escapism and portrayal of the tropics in 'La Habanera' (1937)
The Ministry of Propaganda was attracted by cinema’s great potential to unite three distinct endeavours: Employing cinema as entertainment, propaganda tool, and economic commodity. In case of Detlef Sierck’s La Habanera (1937), the blend of form and text promised great success as cinematography, storyline, and selection of actors, made this film achieve all three of the above. Utilizing Northern European beliefs about the tropics, the film establishes an inauspicious picture about a culture characterized by unrestrained sexuality, a health damaging climate, and archaic social customs. La Habanera employs these clichéd perceptions for a National Socialist enlightenment process that makes use of and simultaneously criticizes Hollywood conventions. Staging the narrative of a female protagonist, this melodrama intends to attract female audiences in particular. Women have to learn that abandoning ones home-(land) in favor of an illusion will be punished. An alternative way outside of their social position as wives and mothers does not exist.
nazi cinema, german cinema, eurocentrism, women and cinema, escapism
63-76
Sandberg, Claudia
831936b8-d7cc-40dd-a477-f525d756c8bf
October 2009
Sandberg, Claudia
831936b8-d7cc-40dd-a477-f525d756c8bf
Sandberg, Claudia
(2009)
Far from home? Functions of escapism and portrayal of the tropics in 'La Habanera' (1937).
Studies in European Cinema, 6 (1), .
(doi:10.1386/seci.6.1.63/1).
Abstract
The Ministry of Propaganda was attracted by cinema’s great potential to unite three distinct endeavours: Employing cinema as entertainment, propaganda tool, and economic commodity. In case of Detlef Sierck’s La Habanera (1937), the blend of form and text promised great success as cinematography, storyline, and selection of actors, made this film achieve all three of the above. Utilizing Northern European beliefs about the tropics, the film establishes an inauspicious picture about a culture characterized by unrestrained sexuality, a health damaging climate, and archaic social customs. La Habanera employs these clichéd perceptions for a National Socialist enlightenment process that makes use of and simultaneously criticizes Hollywood conventions. Staging the narrative of a female protagonist, this melodrama intends to attract female audiences in particular. Women have to learn that abandoning ones home-(land) in favor of an illusion will be punished. An alternative way outside of their social position as wives and mothers does not exist.
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Published date: October 2009
Keywords:
nazi cinema, german cinema, eurocentrism, women and cinema, escapism
Organisations:
Film
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Local EPrints ID: 338244
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/338244
ISSN: 1741-1548
PURE UUID: 4b45e66a-65a4-4605-8b1c-3fc494db18ed
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Date deposited: 14 May 2012 11:11
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 11:03
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