Crisis: A Film of the "Nazi Way" (2019 restoration in 4K by MoMA and The Film Foundation)

Crisis: A Film of the Nazi Way. Photo: Il Cinema Ritrovato.

Director: Herbert Kline, Hans Burger, Alexander Hackenschmied. Year: 1939. Country: USA. Scen.: Vincent Sheean. F., M.: Alexander Hackenschmied (Alexander Hammid). Mus.: H. W. Susskind, Jaroslav Harvan. Int.: Leif Erickson (voce narrante). Prod.: Herbert Kline. DCP. D.: 70’. Bn.
    M selections include "Der Hohenfriedberger" / "Hohenfriedberger Marsch" (1745) attributed to Friedrich der Grosse – "Horst-Wessel-Lied" (1929) – Richard Wagner – Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich – charming puppet show tunes.
    Not released in Finland.
    Restored in 2019 in 4K by MoMA and The Film Foundation with funding provided by George Lucas Family Foundation.
    Copy from MoMA.
    Original version with subtitles.
    Documents and Documentaries.
    Introduce Dave Kehr (MoMA)
    Viewed at Auditorium – DAMSLab, Bologna, Il Cinema Ritrovato, 29 June 2019.

Dave Kehr (Il Cinema Ritrovato): "Released in 1939, Crisis: A Film of the Nazi Way was the first documentary report on the approaching catastrophe in Europe by filmmakers Herbert Kline and Alexander Hackenschmied (the second, centered on the invasion of Poland in 1940, was Lights Out in Europe, restored by MoMA and screened at Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2018). Affiliated with the leftist Film and Photo League in the US, Kline hoped to use the power of non-fiction cinema to enlist American sympathies on behalf of the small republic that had struggled to stand up to German aggression, but ultimately failed when the Munich Agreement effectively delivered the Sudetenland to Hitler on September 29, 1938."

"Kline’s film builds up to that moment of betrayal by Czechoslovakia’s democratic allies by interspersing scenes from daily life – captured over the 12-month period the filmmakers spent in Czechoslovakia – with graphics illustrating the rise of German belligerence and Nazi appeals to the German-speaking residents of the country’s western district. Included are scenes filmed at a summer camp for refugee children, two extended performances by the politically engaged cabaret performers Voskovec and Werich, and rallies staged by the fascist Sudeten German Party."

"“Kline has achieved, in brief, a concise, complete, obviously authentic and extraordinarily graphic record of a significant and tragic event – all of which is excellent from a documentary point of view. But he has also – and this is of equal importance – created a dramatic, beautifully photographed and highly interesting motion picture. Its plot, of course, is absurd: how could any dictator tell England and France where to head in and take over a free country?” (Frank S. Nugent, “The New York Times”, March 13, 1939)." Dave Kehr

AA: A first-rate contemporary documentary film relevant to understanding the Munich Agreement, the policy of appeasement, the history of the Czech Republic, and the road to WWII.

The film was deeply moving, not only to Czech members of the audience, but to everybody. I wish we could say that menaces such as the ones seen in this film have been consigned to the past.

With Czechoslovakia, Hitler was methodically putting into practice his geopolitical strategy which he had made public in Mein Kampf in 1925 ("Drang nach Osten"). His government was superior in its divide and conquer strategy. Returning home after Munich the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain stated that "I believe it is peace for our time", a saying as legendary in infamy as the concept of appeasement.

The film-makers present a sketch of Czechoslovak culture and democracy and the natural frontiers that the mountains present for outside aggression. German-language books banned in Nazi lands are freely available in Czechoslovakia where there is no censorship. Czechoslovakia is also receiving refugees from Nazi Germany since 1933, including fugitives from concentration camps.

Animated maps help make sense of strategy. Among the dramatis personae is Konrad Henlein, the future Sudeten Gauleiter, in rousing Nazi demonstrations, here as head of Storm Troopers.

Jiří Voskovec and Jan Werich are recorded in two performances of brilliant satire in solidarity camps. Children know their songs by heart. I saw some of the 2002 Voskovech & Werich retrospective in Bologna, and I believe there were problems then with print quality. Anyway it was great to see Voskovec and Werich here in perfect visual quality, doing political satire when it mattered. In the context of this year's Bologna festival it was an experience similar to Georges Méliès's L'Affaire Dreyfus. (Voskovec appeared also in this year's Henry King retrospective under his American name George Voskovec as shopkeeper Steinmetz in The Bravados). There is also an excellent record of a puppet show performance.

Solidarity for anti-Fascist refugees is covered, food help is provided in breadlines. We visit the rich fields of Bohemia and witness various industries that have survived the economic depression. There is an open threat to Czech miners who oppose the storm troopers. Nazis are getting active in the Sudeten areas. But Czechoslovakia is taking excellent care of German culture. We visit the "Czech Maginot line". Victims of Nazi violence are mourned. In the congress leading to the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia and the USSR are not even invited. The result spells murder for Czechoslovakia. Edvard Beneš is forced to resign. Western democracies sacrify their prestige in the deal of Munich. In the final images we see a refugee camp.

Dave Kehr in his introduction told that Herbert Kline had donated his negatives to The Museum of Modern Art. The visual quality of the restoration was brilliant.