|
1733: The Jews of Wurtemberg have been supressed for ages (and the film
quickly makes a point that this was justified without backing up the
claim), but now the new Duke Karl Alexander (Heinrich George), a
benevolent and beloved but also eccentric and vain man, needs money, and
for that he turns to Jewish monelender Süss Oppenheim (Ferdinand Marian).
Oppenheim promises the duke the money, interest-free even, but only under
the condition that he is allowed to come to Stuttgart, a city that has
banned all Jews by law, to hand it over to the Duke himself. Desperate as
the Duke is, he gives in to Oppenheim's condition, but once Oppenheim
meets with the Duke, he has more and more ideas how to make Wurtemberg
into a profitable province, allegedly for the Duke, but actually he's
working into his own pocket and tries and succeeds to lift the Jewish ban
on Stuttgart. Oppenheim is given the title of minister of traffic, but
really he is more of a shadow chancellor, and the Duke is more and more
his puppet. Only Wurtemberg's council stands in his way to absolute power,
but Oppenheim soon tries to fix that even if that means risking civil war
... There is just one thing, it seems, that Oppenheimer cannot succeed
in, to win the love of Dorothea (Kristine Söderbaum), the daughter of
councilman Sturm (Eugen Klöpfer). After Oppenheimer makes it clear to
Sturm that he wants the girl, Sturm actually goes and marries her to her
long-time suitor Faber (Malte Jäger), which enrages Oppenheimer to an
extent that he has Sturm arrested on trumped up charges, has Faber
tortured within Dorothea's ear's reach, and then he rapes her. She drowns
herself immediately afterwards, and when Faber's torturers release him and
he finds her body, he finally starts the rebellion of Wurtemberg's German
population against the Duke but much more than that against Oppenheimer
and the Jews as such. When he hears about the revolt, the Duke dies from a
heart-attack - which all of a sudden leaves Oppenheim unprotected, and
before long, he is arrested convicted to death, for treason but more
importantly for having sex with a Christian girl (funny that it's that and
not the fact that he raped her is found so punishable). He is hanged by
the neck and all Jews are driven out of Wurtemberg. Jud
Süss is, of course, a despicable propaganda movie that brings its
message across sledgehammer-style without and kind of subtlety - but don't
think this is just a crude little film, this was mainstream cinema in
1940's Germany, boasting quite some production values and starring some of
the biggest names of the Reich, and while the film's direction might seem
old-fashioned even by 1940's standards, that's how the German gouvernment
liked its propaganda, and one can't deny that at least lead Ferdinand
Marian gives a very nuanced and pretty good performance pretty much free
of Jewish clichés. That said, one can't help but detest the movie as
such, not just for its despicable antisemitic message but also for the
narrow-minded way it's brought across: The film doesn't try to prove the
Jews are bad but presents that as a given (and reinforces it by the choice
of music that accompanies the scenes among Jews and the like), and seems
to almost consciously overlook any points of discussion (first and
foremost that someone who lends someone else vast amounts of money is
entitled to some respect). Basically, this film wasn't made to
convince anybody to hate Jews, but was made to reconfirm stereotypes and
strengthen antisemitism, from its first titlecard that it is based on
historic facts (many of which were indeed bent beyond recognition)
onwards. In a word, despicable.
|
amazon.com
amazon.co.uk
amazon.de
eThaiCD.com
find Jud Süss at adultvideouniverse.com
