528 - Westfront 1918, Germany, 1930. Dir. G. W. Pabst.
Three lilies, three lilies
Were planted on my grave.
Along came a proud horseman
And plucked each one.
The men are singing this song, with one of them playing the harmonica, while polishing their rifles.
They are German soldiers. Staying in a French tavern while occupying France. Somewhere near the border. Somewhat near the front.
We have not seen them before and will not see them again.
They are a new group. Processed through as if on an assembly line. More men to fight.
But we are here because we began the film here. And one of our soldiers has returned. To this place. This tavern.
Our soldiers include the following four:
The Lieutenant, who leads the group. The Bavarian, who enjoys a good laugh. Karl, whom we will follow more closely after now. He has a wife, a mother, and an apartment in Berlin. And Georges, The Student.
Georges has returned for Jacqueline.
Yes, the credits refer to her as Yvette (die Franzosin), and to him as merely The Student, but within the film itself she is never called Yvette, and the two of them refer to one another as Georges and Jacqueline.
He emerges from her room in the cellar with her. The other men look at him. They know. This is the 5th Company. He is from the 3rd Company.
Georges says he has to get back to his company. He cannot let his comrades fight this war alone. But the CO here is concerned. Your men are on the front. What are you doing here?
Just then an MP knocks on the door. Georges could be found out. He could be court-martialed. The 5th CO protects him. Opens the door. The MP is not here for Georges. He is here about another deserter. From your company. The 5th. He deserted last week. We caught him last night. They will hand him over today. Have your guns ready.
Have your guns ready.
If you have seen Paths of Glory (1957), then you know of the precedent of armies shooting their own men for desertion during World War 1.
Georges thanks the 5th CO, kisses Jacqueline one more time, and leaves.
In the big picture of this film he is not a deserter. Not by any means. But a hero. A hero at least three times over.
He simply loves a woman.
How did we get here?
Let us go back and see.
We began the film listening to the evocative strains of composer Alexander Laszlo's opening score, a piece that could bring up simultaneously opposing emotions. Love. And sorrow. It played underneath a cartoon-like series of opening credits, which, incidentally, did not credit Laszlo himself.
As the credits and score fade out, we fade in to an establishing shot of the outside of the tavern. A parked buggy sits in the foreground. It is after dusk. The ground is graveled. A light emanates from the left of three windows, the other two blocked by a single sheet curtain. Inside voices finish a bar song and talk and laugh. Georges The Student walks past us carrying a bucket of water.
As he enters we cut to the interior and look back at him. He stands in the door smiling. Enjoying what he sees. They are singing. Talking. Flirting. Three German men stand around a Frenchwoman at a stove. Bruno, an older soldier whose name we do not know, and another man. Her grandfather sits at a table to the left, an empty ladder-back chair beside him. Karl and The Bavarian recline on the floor playing chess.
The Bavarian makes a joke about Karl's being a Prussian. Georges lightly kicks Karl in the back, taking his side. The Bavarian and the Prussian. Immediately we see the fusion of heritages brought about by war.
Jacqueline comes to get the water bucket and lightly graces Georges' sleeve with her fingertips. As her hand comes down on the handle, she brings in her other hand and grasps the handle with both hands on either side of Georges' hand. Touching him. Her right thumb to his left thumb. Her left thumb to his left pinkie. They make eye contact. She looks him in the eye with a knowing glow.
Merci.
The moment is brief and lapsing, and might mean nothing. One might watch the film a few times without seeing it. But it is our first bit of foreshadowing that Jacqueline and Georges will love each other.
At the moment she is being hit on by the three men standing around the stove. She laughs with them and playfully rebuffs them. Georges sits down on the ladder-back chair next to her grandfather, picks up a small book, and turns and comments to him on the "ruckus," to which the old man merely nods disinterestedly while smoking his pipe.
When she says something, Bruno turns to The Student, offscreen, and asks him to translate. He says she called him a Meathead. The man reacts. She smiles. The older soldier says she thinks it is a compliment. We do not know what she said or if The Student translated the words honestly. It is hard to hear her, and the disc contains only English subtitles and not German or French. But it our second subtle moment where we see how Georges has the upper hand with her, as he is the only one in the room who can speak both German and French and therefore the only soldier who can understand her and the only one besides her grandfather whom she can understand.
(There is a continuity issue here, as The Bavarian gets up and walks over to complain about how they are spilling the coffee. When we cut to the grandfather's being served and then cut back, The Bavarian is back on the floor at the chess game.)
When she walks over to serve coffee to The Bavarian and Karl on the floor, The Bavarian makes a move on her. This causes Bruno to walk over and fight for her. The men pull at her as she laughs. She emerges from between them and the two men wrestle, with her laughing while standing against the wall. The older soldier walks over and swats The Bavarian on the behind, and just then, as if on cue, a bomb lands and the lights go out. Blackout. Bombing. An air raid siren sounds. Some soldiers flee to the cellar. Others go outside. Georges takes Jacqueline into the cellar.
Three men play cards in the cellar.
Georges and Jacqueline talk.
He teases her that her countrymen are impolite to be bombing them. She expresses frustration and outrage over the war. He takes her hands and comforts her. Do not tremble. Do not be afraid. I am with you.
Then--
Je suis chez vous. . . . Chez toi.
I am with you. . . . With you.
He changes from the formal you to the familiar you, the you reserved for family, close friends, and loved ones. He is saying, we are no longer on formal terms. We are now on intimate terms.
She puts her palm on his chest. She responds in French.
You are such a good man, Monsieur.
And then in German.
Good . . . man.
At least according to the English subtitles. This is where I wish we had German and French subtitles.
You can clearly hear her say, "Oh, que vous etes bon, Monsieur," but the second part is not "guter Mann." It is something else.
But the next part is clear German.
Ich liebe Monsieur.
He says, "I am with you" in her language. She says, "I love you" in his.
She strokes his chin and puts her cheek next to his. He embraces her.
I took the time to show the development of their love for one another, because watching the film nearly ninety years later and from another country, it could be easy to miss. It seems to come out of nowhere. You begin with a woman being hit on by four different men and then suddenly in the arms of a fifth man who was not involved.
But their love is important to the film, and Pabst wants you to trust it.
Because it has driven us to this moment where we now are. Where we started this blog.
Back here in this tavern with a new group of men. Where Georges has taken a great risk to see Jacqueline again.
The men went off to war. On the front. In the trenches. A shell exploded and crushed the roof of a bunker with its wooden beams. The Lieutenant, The Bavarian, and Karl were trapped inside. The Student led a team heroically to rescue them.
Then the men started being hit by their own forces behind them. Friendly fire. They could not get word back. All their lines. They sent a messenger dog. But they needed a runner. The Student volunteered to go. He ran at great risk from the 3rd Company on the front to the Trude Regiment to inform them. They in turn called it in. While there he was fed. While there, he made his little stop to see Jacqueline on his way back.
When he returns he sees the crosses. The wooden crosses being built by a makeshift carpentry shop.
We see a show. To entertain the troops.
Karl gets leave and goes home. And here is where the film becomes its most poignant.
G. W. Pabst has made a powerful film about war, about love, about hunger, about human relationships, about what it means to be human.
The acting and the film style may seem outdated, but if you watch past it and find your way into the world that he has created, you can see the power behind its moments.
When Karl gets home he is confronted by a discovery. He has his emotions to process. His wife has hers. His mother has hers. All understandable. And complicated. Under these dire circumstances.
It will come back to him when he comes back to the front. If only.
We will have moments of drama. Moments of warfare. Moments of pathos. Moments of catharsis.
With the sounds especially significant in Pabst's first sound film.
And soldiers will have to step over their dead comrades to fight and to walk through the trenches. In the end there will be more dead than living. And each one left will respond in his way.
At the hospital.
Set up in a church.
With the blind.
The lame.
The driven insane.
The hand-holding.
And the comfort.
Near the crucifix knocked over like another dead body.
* * * *
Karl. The Student, Georges. The Bavarian. The Lieutenant. Yvette, called Jacqueline.
Then the bombs come. A shell lands. The lights go out.
Down to the cellar.
The Student ends up with Yvette. She is French. He is German. He speaks French. Enough, anyway. He comforts her.
A soldier appraises the shell crater. He jumps in. Makes jokes. Talks like a carnival salesman inviting the others to join him. Best accommodations in town! Guaranteed shell-proof!
After all, why would another shell land on precisely the same spot.
Today only, half price for soldiers and free for dames!
They laugh and jump in. How many soldiers does it take to fill a shell crater? Thirteen that we can see. A baker's dozen.
Fall in!
They all get out.
The Student and Yvette kiss.
Three others play cards. The Bavarian, Bruno, and the older soldier.
They are called out. Time to return to the front.
The Student hides for one last kiss. Yvette begs him to stay with her. He must leave. He falls in with the others.
1st Division reporting. 2nd Division reporting. 3rd Division reporting.
1st Platoon reporting. 2nd Platoon reporting. Company reporting.
They go to the trenches.
One starts to think of La Grande Illusion, released seven years later.
Or Paths of Glory, twenty-seven years later.
The men lie in narrow bunks beneath the mud-thatched roofs cut into the trenches.
Shelling.
A cave in. They prop it with their rifles and their shoulders.
The student digs out his comrades.
Shelling.
It came from that direction?
Friendly fire.
Tell them to direct their fire farther ahead. The shells are falling short.
The phone is not working. The C.O. orders a man to run tell them. Another man is already hit. Falls over in his arms. He orders again. Sends a runner. Calls for a medic.
The shells keep coming. From both sides. Both directions.
The two men stand propping up with the roof with their heads as the Student digs. He gets Karl out. He gets the Bavarian out. He gets the Lieutenant out.
They send a messenger dog. Not enough.
The Student volunteers to run to regiment headquarters.
He runs. He is shelled at. He falls and lies low. He sees a dead body lying in a bunker.
The Student makes it from 3rd Company to the Trude Regiment, where they in turn call back to inform them that their shells are falling short.
He makes it. He tells them. They radio the message. You are bombing our men!
The cook sneaks The Student a meal. He hides it from the other men. He lovingly watches The Student eat it. He finishes it after The Student leaves.
The Student stops by the French tavern to see Yvette. He spends the night with her. The next day he returns to the front.
The men build Crosses for burial.
Later--
A show!
The clown hosts.
Veronika sings.
The men sing with her.
They call her the bee's knees. The cat's meow.
The clown returns. He tries to play the clarinet. Then a guitar. A man plays a tiny violin. He keeps making the clown fall over in his chair. The clown squirts water from his eyes.
They play marimbas. Fast. Very fast. In sync.
The band plays. The conductor stands and moves his baton without affect.
Soldiers march in the streets to the music.
Then--
Karl.
Georg Wilhelm Pabst.
You may have heard of All Quiet on the Western Front, but have you heard of Four Infantrymen on the Western Front?
The camera dollies down the trench.
* * * * *
I'm not made of sugar.
See that you don't put chicory in my coffee.
That's some crater. If a shell like that falls on your noggin, you're done for!
When we march out through the city gate
My dark-haired maiden, at home you must wait
Maiden, wave good-bye.
Under the green linden tree
Sits a little finch and sings
"Maiden, wave good-bye."
At the Brussels station you can buy heaps of sausage. And bacon and eggs!
And schnapps! I'll buy it all!
Their jaws will drop back home.
And my wife is still a sweet young thing. Finally someone to cuddle with again!
Life sure looks different this morning.
You can't understand what it means. You don't have a girl.
I do now. Since yesterday!
Tra-la-la
All shout for Veronika
When the little daisies bloom
I will be your wife
Silk stockings make my legs look fine
That's the reason Max is mine
Violets and mignoettes
When you look passionately into my blue eyes
When the little daisies bloom
You will be my wife
It's either shady dealings or starve to death.
What are you doing? Back of the line!
What's wrong with the old cow.
My Adolf is dead. / Think you're the only one?
But what's a woman to do?
Why can't you just make peace out there once and for all?
You're just running off? What am I to do? I'm a human too!
Get a hold of yourself. We're heroes after all.
My friend, if we were heroes, we'd have been home long ago.
Is this the 5th?
Yes.
One of your men deserted last week. They caught him last night.
Yes, that's right. The orderly room is across the way.
They'll hand him over this afternoon. Have your guns ready.
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