Recencies van critici

Whereas Capitalism can be called an audiovisual essay with a distinct position and thesis of its own (akin to an Adam Curtis polemic), this is a documentary that seemingly aims to present a debate without taking sides about whether Nazi films should be banned today—and without really compelling me to choose a position either. The results are provocative, yet also, in spite of the subject matter, a bit juiceless.

On the whole, the film handles its excerpting quite well, and I found particularly interesting the edited-out footage—swastikas, Hitler, tanks, and planes—of films that then went on to be shown in theatres and on TV after the war. Forbidden Films is hardly a well-crafted film itself... Forbidden Films is not a great film, but it can be a great facilitator of conversation.

[One subject says,] "I think we should make it all freely available and we'll just have to talk about it. Of course there'll be abuse. But I think it's better than when it's all covered up." It's as apt a conclusion as the shots of the fortified film bunker are a beginning. Moeller's documentary has taken an important step toward opening a discussion that can only be more useful than silence, or than the warehousing of these films in a structure where they remain unseen, prohibited—and liable to explode.

What fascinates are the Nazi films themselves, such as the notorious (and distressingly well-made) "Jew Süss"; a ludicrous musical about singing bomber pilots called "Stukas"; and "Kolberg," a Technicolor epic about the Napoleonic Wars (banned for being "anti-French")... If some of these films were less skillful, suggests Moeller, they might not be banned.

Mr. Moeller, who also directed a film about the director of "Jud Süss," seems to lean toward not suppressing these films, but even their nuance-free scenes of chest-thumping Nazi pilots and homeland-loving hausfraus remain uncomfortable to watch. This is a documentary fascinated with and fearful of cinema's potency, but it's also devoted to the idea of open discourse, a stance that underlines the urgency of thinking about film critically.

The most remarkable of the documentary's participants are neo-Nazis, whose faces aren't shown and who appear silhouetted in a dark room. They and their cohorts obtain these movies easily and use them as part of their training and indoctrination... Moeller gives opponents of censorship the last word; meanwhile, his selection of clips of the censored films offers surprising glimpses of the cinematic unconscious at work.

Regardless of one's stance, Forbidden Films is a thoughtful and sensitive addition to the debate surrounding censorship that continues to complicate our ideas concerning freedom and self-expression in the modern world.