Das Leben geht weiter / Life Goes On

A few months ago, we reviewed Kolberg (1945), the last completed film that made it to the theatres during the final months of the Third Reich. Linked to that production was Das Leben geht weiter/Life Goes On (1945), another epic that would have been the first attempt by the Ministry of Propaganda to actually show the country suffering from Allied bombing, and surviving long enough to see victory - which of course, didn't really happen.

Leben was never completed, and the film has become a kind of Magnificent Ambersons for some German film historians, except it's every frame instead of a series of missing reels that's at the top of their list, because the footage disappeared during the post-war chaos.

Curious? Intrigued? Of course you are! The best thing to do is read our review of the German DVD of Carl Schmitt and Mark Cairns' Emmy Award-winning documentary (filmed in German, but accompanied by optional English subtitles), and then check out the first part of our really long & detailed interview with the filmmakers. It's a great mystery, and our discussion covers several aspects of propaganda filmmaking during WWII.

Part 2 will debut Jan. 1st, and will be larded with several mini-reviews of iconic propaganda flicks that appear in the 2002 documentary. The Leben DVD also includes some intriguing interviews with Wilfried von Oven, former Personal Assistant to Dr. Goebbels, and one of the last Q&A's with Dr. Fritz Hippler (yes, him), who discusses the ins and outs of working at the Ministry of Propaganda, and some of Goebbels' favourite films. As an added bonus, we've included a sidebar review of Hippler's first film, Wort und Tat / Word and Deed (1938), a newsreel/documentary that wields its message of national progress with an indelicate sledgehammer.

Also newly uploaded is Dante Tomaselli's latest horror film, Satan's Playground, which integrates the legend of the Jersey Devil into a linear tale of bickering folks trapped on an isolated forest road, and a creepy old lady who lures them into her home of death. Tomaselli's prior works include Desecration, and Horror - the latter released by Elite Entertainment, which we also reviewed.

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