A Night in May (Eine Nacht im Mai) (1938), directed by Georg Jacoby. Movie night at Tom’s, Monday, May 8.

It’s fascinating to watch these so-called “lost” German movies, lost, of course, because they were made by Germans when the Nazis were in power and so no one wants to watch them today. Understandably. But A Night in May is a terrifically charming little film that reminds me of early Ernst Lubitsch–before he infused his movies with intense emotions–and the scenes of small towns in that country are interesting. There’s some truly effective performances, the wonderfully silly plot involving reckless driving and an escape on a bus to an outrageous festival with sausage and beer, there’s some great sexual tension, a big storm, chases on foot and automobile, the works. This flick entertained Germans in 1938, the year of Kristallnacht, and I don’t think people should watch a movie like and not keep that in their minds. In Europe they’re more interested in these movies, and the F. W. Murnau institute keeps these films on hand and screens them there–I also don’t think it’s stating an allegiance to Nazi ideology to be curious about what art people were making in Germany when they were in power (propaganda aside). In America, you couldn’t show these movies, and I don’t know that that’s wrong, and, morality aside (such as that is) it’s also not really commercially viable, since no one has heard of any of the actors, and to market these films, you have to hang your hat on something. Whenever I watch films, I can’t help but wonder how you would screen films for people in a theater, and how you would get the word out, and frankly, I can’t see this ever happening here. One argument I’ve heard in favor of screening these movies (again, from a moral perspective) that the Allied powers committed atrocities, too. I see this played out in one of my favorite movies, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, which was made to rouse the British during the big war. Sadly, one of the ways it does that is by celebrating colonialism and, at one point, literally arguing that they, the Brits, did not commit atrocities in the Boer War, which they totally did, and in abundance (uh, they did it in World War II, as well… and every other conflict they were involved in). Thing is, showing Blimp today wouldn’t rouse gangs of pro-colonial or pro-Boer war idiots, while neo-Nazis in America might, in fact, find any movie made under the Führer to be a nice rallying cry. I can watch these movies privately, but hell if it’s a good idea to watch them publicly and give freaks their day in a theater. They probably wouldn’t even appreciate the film for what it is.