Literature and Ethics Work Group presents: Of Friends and Foes: Lang鈥檚 Cinema of War
252
Speakers): Martin Blumenthal-Barby (Rice University)
Martin Blumenthal-Barby (Rice University) on Fritz Lang鈥檚 Film, Dr. Mabuse, Der Spieler.
Fritz Lang鈥檚 1922 silent film听Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler听has听been interpreted as a commentary 鈥渙n the social听and cultural turmoil of the immediate postwar years.鈥 The film has been said to reveal 鈥渟ociety in search of an enemy.鈥 It is in this context that the talk sets out to read the overt socio-historical听conflict as secular surface discourse tied to a more implicit religious discourse. The talk proposes that--in addition to elucidating the social misery and economic turmoil of the post-World War I era--Lang casts the "evil" Mabuse figure as a ubiquitous yet elusive, ineradicable and indeed constitutive force of the human condition.
Wednesday, June 6, 5:00-6:30pm, building 260, room 252
(Refreshments will be
served; discussion in English)
For more
information contact:听renanak [at] stanford.edu (Renana
Keydar)