Kameradschaft [Criterion Collection]

Director: G.W. Pabst G.W. Pabst

Overview

Kameradschaft is set in a mining community on the French/German frontier, where several French miners are trapped in a cave-in. Their only hope for rescue lies in a long-abandoned underground tunnel, buried since the First World War. Ignoring the ethnic and political differences that have long separated the two countries, a group of German miners pick their way through the old tunnel to save the entombed Frenchmen. They do this despite the reluctance of the mine owners, who'd rather keep the nationalistic lines drawn, no matter how many lives it costs. When asked why they're willing to rescue the same people who'd forced their country into bankruptcy after the war, the German workmen reply "Miners are miners." Once the Frenchmen are brought to surface, however, the owners see to it that the borders knocked down by the Germans are quickly replaced; everything has changed, yet nothing has changed. Ironically, the German public, whose decency and humanity is celebrated in Kameradschaft, tended to avoid the film.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/30/2018
UPC:	0715515209410
Original Release:	1931
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:28:00
Sales rank:	38,055

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
Héléna Manson	Actor
Daniel Granach	Actor
Gustav Püttjer	Kaplan

Technical Credits

Laszlo Vajda

Seymour Nebenzal	Producer
G.W. Pabst	Director
Laszlo Vajda	Screenwriter

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Kameradschaft (Criterion Collection)
1. Credits [1:47]
2. "Must You Always Fight?" [3:03]
3. "As Long As There's Not Gas..." [4:46]
4. The Dance Hall [6:17]
5. "They're Always Talking About Fires" [4:14]
6. "Fire!" [4:05]
7. "Our Husbands Are Down There" [6:05]
8. The German Miners [5:26]
9. "We're Volunteering" [6:04]
10. "Georges!" [6:21]
11. "Open The Gate!" [9:06]
12. Border, 1919 [6:28]
13. Collapse [10:55]
14. "Five Men Trapped" [9:34]
15. "We're All Miners" [5:43]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Kameradschaft (Criterion Collection)
   Play The Movie
   Chapters
   Supplements
      Hermann Barth
      Jean Oser
      Jan-Christopher Horak
   Subtitles
      Subtitles: On
      Subtitles: Off

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.

All Movie Guide - Craig Butler