Kuhle Wampe, or Who Owns the World?

In many ways, the backstory to this rarely seen 1932 German production is more intriguing than the actual film. Co-written by Bertolt Brecht, and featuring cinematography by Günther Krampf (Nosferatu) and music by Hanns Eisler (Night and Fog), Kuhle Wampe depicts the crushing poverty of Weimar-era Germany, focusing on a working class Berlin family forced to leave their home and move to a lakeside camp—an improvised shelter for scores of unemployed Germans. Director Slatan Dudow presents the tale in an avant-garde visual manner that is frequently at odds with the harsh reality of the socioeconomic crisis at the story's core, resulting in an often stiff film that feels consciously arty. Kuhle Wampe was censored by the German government in March 1932, and then banned completely by the Nazis after they took power the following year. Presented here in a digitally restored version with a crisp and pristine transfer, the DVD features some fine extras, including the film's jettisoned original prologue, Dudow's intriguing 1930 short “How the Berlin Worker Lives,” and a before-and-after study of the restoration process. Recommended for students of classic German cinema and Brechtian scholars, but optional elsewhere. (P. Hall)