Filmowanie klasyka w podzielonych Niemczech: kinowe adaptacje Bertolta Brechta
Filming the classics in the separated Germany: Brechtian adaptations for the cinema

Author(s): Andrzej Gwóźdź
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Sociology of Art, History of Art
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the presence of Bertolt Brecht’s plays and prose in film cultures of two antagonistic German states (the German Democratic Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany) between 1949 and 1989. The author focuses on the ways of transferring works (and media) within these cultures. He indicates the film version of Mother Courage and Her Children (Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder, dir. Peter Palitzsch, Manfred Wekwerth, GDR 1960) and Three Penny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper, dir. Wolfgang Staudte, FRG–France 1963) as basic examples of different testimonies of reception of Brecht’s deeds in two German states (a classicising attitude and the one inscribed in popular culture). Referring to the History Lesson (Geschichtsunterricht, FRG–Italy 1972) by Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet the author identifies the presence of the New German Cinema in film reading of Brecht’s works. Film culture of the GDR is marked by significant DEFA-adaptation of the short stories: Zwei Söhne (Two Sons) (dir. Helmut Nitzschke, a part of the novella film Aus unserer Zeit (Our time, GDR 1969) which is discussed in the context of the actors tradition of the Brechtian theatre.

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