Hitler's Hit Parade . Arte

Oliver Axer presents a collection of German popular songs from the Nazi era, and makes blackly ironic commentary on the lyrics and jovial mood with a stream-of-consciousness montage of German film clips, cartoons, home movies, and newsreel footage from the 1930s and early '40s . The regime's obsession with good health and fitness is explored, as is a fascination with new technology, and vilification of the Jews. Hitler is represented as a comical guy who loves dogs and children. Zeppelins fill the sky, the trains are on time, the soldiers marching off to war will be home soon to their sweethearts; the Jews are safely identified by stars on their shirts; the whole society is marching loyally in step to its certain, horrific destruction. What emerges from the colorful wreckage is a portrait of how the same tools of popular culture currently used in the US or other free countries can also be used to promote fascist ideologies, via stressing group movement rather than individual thought. What is also startling is how much the fads and obsessions of the Germans in the '30s resemble those of the United States in the '50s. This is a truly worthwhile film, both as a cautionary historical document and a fascinating study of the seductive power of the media.







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