FU Seminar: Nazis, Humor, Holocaust

The "Nazis, Humor, Holocaust" film studies seminar at the FU Berlin explores different humorous perspectives on the 2nd World War, National Socialism and the Holocaust in film. The highly contentious combination of humor and genuine horror, which come into conflict again and again here, are of central interest.

The European auteur cinema of 70s is known for its general tendency to make humor itself the object of subversion rather than just employing it for subversive means. An example of this approach can be found in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's DESPAIR (Germany 1978). Comedy and National Socialism find correlation here in a haunting manner, with the evocation of absurdity and ridiculousness finding no release in liberating laughter. The increasingly apparent symbols of National Socialism are superimposed on to the paranoia of the protagonist. (Naomi Rolef) (June 16)