New Screening Of The Dublin Film Qlub -Mädchen In Uniform

dublin | arts and media | event notice Friday March 18, 2011 13:38 by Dublin Film Qlub filmqlub at gmail dot com

LESBIAN REBELS: "Mädchen in Uniform" (1931)

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MÄDCHEN IN UNIFORM
The final film in our Season One, and perhaps the best! A celebration of love as a transformative and empowering experience, and a condemnation of censorship and authoritarian rule. This film is a hymn to freedom – freedom to think, to feel, to speak, to be, ...

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The Film Qlub is delighted to welcome a very special guest to introduce this film:

DEBORAH BALLARD

- Film Festival programmer, journalist, editor, and activist

"Mädchen in Uniform"
Germany, 1931. B&W. 84min.
Dir. Leontine Sagan.
Cast: Hertha Thiele, Dorothea Wiek, Ellen Schwannecke, Emilia Unda
Script: Christa Winsloe, from her own plays, with Friedrich Dammann

This German masterpiece was the last outstanding artwork to deal openly with homosexuality, before the Nazis began to burn “degenerate” art, and before the American Hayes Censhorship Code banned gay representation, for the sake of “decency”. "Mädchen in Uniform" marks the end of an era, after three decades of (sometimes giddy or sometimes dead-serious, but always unapologetic) queer story-telling in film. It was not until the 1960s that matter-of-fact representation of homosexuality would return to the screen. And what a glorious parting gift this is! A fantastic script, superb performances, and a stunning cinematography, featuring a melt-in-the-mouth lighting (you will want to lick this film) which is yet to be surpassed.

Written by a woman, directed by a woman, with an all-female cast, and set in a girls’ school, this tale of romance and rebellion is often read as a (lesbian) feminist critique of authority. Yes, the resident tyrant –the Principal- is also a woman, but as film historian Richard Dyer points out, she is visually coded to evoke Frederik the Great. And in any case, she represents the dangers of centralised power, in any form and in any place (Libya, Chechenya, Ireland). The film is a call to individuals and communities to take back control of their lives. As the new Irish government takes the reins to our country’s future, this rare screening of "Mädchen in Uniform" is a great opportunity to reflect on the “L” words: Love, Law, and Loans – that is, the people’s loan of their trust, in a democracy.

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Day membership: 8 euro
Free tea, coffee, and cake.
Everybody is welcome.
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After this screening of "Mädchen in Uniform", the Dublin Film Qlub will take a few months break before it starts its Season Two, but watch out for our collaboration with the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival in May...