Young Manuela is sent to a stern boarding school where all of the girls are infatuated with the stunning headmistress von Bernburg. Manuela takes her infatuation a bit too far, and this can not be tolerated in a school for “the daughters of soldiers, and God willing, mother of soldiers too”. Does our headmistress reciprocate these feelings?
Mädchen in Uniform is in part a statement about the rise of authoritarianism in post-war Germany. As such, it would be banned outright when the Nazis take power a couple years later. They destroyed every copy within their grasp and may even have executed the author of the play it is based on. Or maybe they didn’t. Research is hard.
But more than a statement on authoritarianism, it is remembered as a landmark film embracing the “great spirit of love, in all its forms”. It would have been banned in America had Eleanor Roosevelt not spoken up for it, and went on to become a hit.
But as important as it has become to members of a certain community, I have difficulty getting past the fact that Manuela was fourteen. This is fine in the context of an adolescent awakening and infatuation, but things become problematic when read as a budding romance between student and teacher. In reality the actresses are only a few months apart in age, but change the context to priest and choir boy and the conversation takes on a whole new meaning. The film leaves some of this to interpretation.
The story, while sometimes wonky and episodic, is entertaining. Hertha Thiele is adorable and the movie was well photographed. Unfortunately the Kino version has some serious tape hiss, but I suppose we’re lucky to have it at all. AMRU 3.5.
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