Kameradschaft [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: G.W. Pabst

Overview

Following World War I, a group of French miners are trapped in a cave-in along the German/French border, causing German miners to defy their superiors and mount a rescue mission for their one-time enemies. This plea for peaceful co-existence by German director G.W. Pabst was hardly a financial success.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/30/2018
UPC:	0715515209311
Original Release:	1931
Rating:	NR
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:28:00
Sales rank:	15,246

Special Features

New interview with film scholar Hermann Barth on the film's production; Interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser, featuring footage from the French version of the film; Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak on the historical context of the film

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Alexander Granach	Kasper
Fritz Kampers	Wilderer
Ernst Busch	Wittkopp
Elizabeth Wendt	Frau Wittkopp,Frau Wittkopp
Gustav Puttjer	Kaplan
Andree Ducret	Francoise
Georges Charlia	Jean
Daniel Mandaille	Emile
Pierre Louis	Georges
Alex Bernard	Grandfather
H?l?na Manson	Actor
Daniel Granach	Actor
Gustav P?ttjer	Kaplan

Technical Credits

Laszlo Vajda

Seymour Nebenzal	Producer
Laszlo Vajda	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

A stunning piece of filmmaking, Kameradschaft is also as emotionally affecting as it is technically precise. Although based upon an actual incident, Kameradschaft uses it merely as a jumping off place to tell a story of two enemy forces coming together and working together in the face of a terrible mining disaster. Director G.W. Pabst and screenwriter Laszlo Vajda expertly set up the story, putting all the pieces properly into place for maximum dramatic and emotional impact. Occasionally, the two slightly lose their footing, letting a scene become ever so slightly too sentimental or perhaps painting some sequences too black and white when a little more gray would have been effective, but overall their footing is very sure. And despite the cry for peace and unity that underlies their efforts, the Pabst and Vajda resist the temptation to end on a positive note, opting instead to show that things in the real world are never as simple as we would like them to be. Pabst brings a sense of realism to the proceedings, aided enormously by Robert Baberske and Fritz Arno Wagner's cinematography, which manages to be both starkly naturalistic and emotionally subjective at the same time. Both uplifting and heartbreaking, Kameradschaft is a marvelous film.