Status Updates From The Ministry of Illusion: N...

Suspicious looking textbook for class

I need to reread the last few pages because I was falling asleep and need to verify if the author was being an aesthetic apologist for the director who made multiple films that are still banned in Germany to this day.

Hoping that Rentschler has the sense to flat out point out that part of why the Nazis got away with the Holocaust was a preexisting history of antisemitism throughout Europe before the end of this chapter. I kind of wish he had brought that up when discussing a French review of "Jud Süß", but maybe he'll get there.

A theme has developed of post-war critics labeling not explicitly pro Nazi films as "subversive" to try to clear them of association with that regime. The author keeps collapsing these theories under the weight of contemporary reception and the actors and filmmakers' relationship to the Nazi party.

I wonder if or how much Hitler Youth Quex influenced Jojo Rabbit.

It disappoints me that academics don't call out Leni Riefenstahl for what she is: a morally messy opportunist who happened to have artistic skill.

Are there other books on Nazi era cinema that take the angle that for some creatives operating in Hitler's Germany they were seizing an opportunity that wouldn't have happened otherwise or in another country? Do I need to write one myself?

The author grappling with the history of scholarship around entertainment films produced in Nazi era Germany, and how to move forward in a less restrictive fashion, sums up the intro.

The most fascinating thing for me--as someone with prior knowledge in this area--is that one of the directors operating in the Nazi run industry was named E.W. Emo.

...Seriously, he's listed on Wikipedia.