Cinema and The Ghostliness of The Past: Transit by Christian Petzold

Vergegenwärtigung der Vergangenheit im Kino: How To Re-Present the Past in The Cinema

For our second movie of my bridge German class on 20th century German culture viewed through the varied lens of "movement," students watched the movie Transit (2018) by Christian Petzold, who adapted the novel of the same name by Anna Seghers from 1944. Here, the idea of movement was present through the themes of migration and forced exile, in addition to the "moving pictures" themselves. Here, we focused on the differences between "imitating" and the past, and "making it present," based on comments by Christian Petzold, and on the theme of ghostliness, found throughout his oeuvre, discussing the similarities between refugees and ghosts. Existing only precariously in a liminal space between a "here" and a "there," a Diesseits and a Jenseits, both are "in transit" to an unknown final destination they might never reach. In addition, Georg, the protagonist, inhabits another one's identity, existing between his own persona, and that of the deceased Franz Weidel, as a student remarked.

Quote by Christian Petzold, with discussion questions for students.

As I often do, after collecting some general impressions, I like to start our discussions with a thought-provoking comment by the creator (s. left). What does vergegenwärtigen mean? This is a difficult German word, but by analyzing it, we learn about the idea that the present is not simply present, but might be the result of an activity that also relates to the past. This raises important questions not just for anybody who tries to adapt a historical text for the present day, but also relates to an important aspect of the film, namely the blending of past and present in a way that makes it difficult to pinpoint the plot between the time of the second World War and today.

Reading Comprehension

We delved into the theme of Gespenster which students quickly picked up on, by reading an excerpt from a review of the movie. Using this authentic piece of journalism for reading comprehension, I asked students to underline any idiomatic expressions, whether they know their meaning yet, or not, and collect them on the board, such as als Folie dienen. In small groups, students brainstormed possible meanings. I then asked the groups to make a translation into English, leaving gaps for what they don't understand. At the end, they had produced working translations that captured not only the gist of the paragraph, but also contained much of the nuance. This exercise greatly enhanced their comprehension of advanced German.

An excerpt from a review of the movie (Rezension). I include para-textual material that reflects social discourses in relation to the class material as much as possible.

Writing Skills: Using Idiomatic Expressions for a Rezension

Building on the previous reading comprehension exercise, I ended the lesson by having students write an individual Rezension of the movie in class, using appropriate expressions relevant to writing about film, provided on the screen and in a handout. This allowed students to express their views and ideas in a cogent, articulate way. Some of the reviews were then read aloud in class by their authors, and used for subsequent discussion.

We also discussed intertextual references, exploring the mise en abyme structure of the movie. The manuscript left behind by Franz Weidel contains both the story of the film, and frames it as similar to the parable of the Türhüter. This gave more depth to the idea of intransparant structures and bureaucratic hurdles encounters by the specters.

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