Some things are sadly lost: rolls of film crumble, TV programmes are never recorded, studios choose not to distribute a film. And then there are the cultural artefacts that come from a context so toxic, they are consigned to the poison cabinet, where people have to make an effort to seek them out. The films made during the Third Reich, under the control of Joseph Goebbels’ Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, are such artefacts. There are the famous propaganda films, such as those made by Leni Riefenstahl (if you get a chance, watch the 2024 documentary on her by Andres Veiel!), but there are many others that are barely known, except to film historians. In the third episode of our Lost Summer, and inspired by Rüdiger Suchsland’s 2017 documentary Hitler’s Hollywood, Sam, Julie and Matt look at two of those films: Wolfgang Liebeneier’s big city comedy Grossstadtmelodie (1943) and Opfergang (1944), a strange, lurid melodrama by Veit Harlan (often translated as The Great Sacrifice or Rite of Sacrifice) that was sometimes called the ‘Nazi Vertigo‘. Neither film may correspond entirely to what present-day viewers may imagine Nazi propaganda to look like – but both, made by directors loyal to Hitler’s regime, were very much made to convey propagandistic messages to their audience. What is it like to revisit these films 80 years later? What have they left behind? And should they, and other films of their kind, remain locked up in the poison cabinet, or is there an argument for making them available, fully knowing what they were made to do?

P.S.: Make sure to check out the other entries in our Lost Summer, running from June to September!

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A Damn Fine Cup of Culture Podcast #95: Lost Summer – Films from the Poison Cabinet