Film Review--The Rabbit Is Me (1965)

Of all the European countries that built successful film industries, I know least about East German film. It had never really crossed my mind at all that there was an industry there at all but, of course, considering the Soviet influence this should have been obvious to me. Clearly, few of these films were ever seen in America until the wall fell and few were picked up by video distributors until more recently. A couple of years ago, Erik had mentioned a number of East German westerns being released on DVD, and I vowed to see them (though I still never have). Since then, more and more of these films have come available and, just last week, First Run Features has released two of these films from the early ‘60s, including The Rabbit Is Me from 1965, banned for its pointed attacks against the East German judicial system and it’s generally stylistic presentation (it has always been crazy to me the abhorance of style over function in post-Lenin Soviet film, as if the early Soviets didn’t have the huge hand in the progression of lighting, cinematography, and poetic representation in film that they clearly had). The short story of the film’s banning, however, has less to do with its actual content than the timing of its production. According to director Kurt Maetzig, he had a personal discussion with Nikita Khrushchev regarding the current state of Communist film and the Soviet Premier’s feelings were annoyance the art had become entrenched in dogma and had not progressed in thirty years. Resulting from his opinion, an entire year of films, including this one, went into production for the DEFA (East Germany’s film association). Great as this may have been for the German filmmakers, Khrushchev was ousted toward the end of ’64 and Brezhnev, with his hardline stance, came into power and promptly banned an entire years’ worth of DEFA productions, including Rabbit. Thankfully, these are now becoming available to world audiences, and this is my first experience with them. I received the film for review on DVD Verdict and, scandalously, will post this review before it goes on the site (shhh….)

The Rabbit Is Me is a great film, plain and simple. I came into it with an open mind, wanting to like it, but I had no idea what I was in for. Stylistically reminiscent of the French New Wave, Maetzig uses internal monologue and a palpable realism to tell its relatively simple story. Maria (Angelika Waller) is a simple orphan set to enter college. She is blackballed from attending, however, when her brother is arrested for ambiguous subversive activity. She doesn’t believe that he would do such a thing and is vigilant in filing appeals for a retrial. After filing one of these appeals, a man stops her outside the courthouse and asks her out. When he introduces himself, though, Maria realizes that this is the judge who convicted her brother. Now, with self-interest and her sense of justice in mind, Maria becomes his mistress and, unfortunately for her, they fall in love. Through this love, though, she pries into the inner workings of the justice system and realizes the corruption and utter dismissal of justice in East Germany’s courts. She loves the judge, this is clear. She’s even willing to accept that he’s married, but is so confused by his focus on self-interest that she cannot resolve her conflict. In response, she begins working in her own interests herself. When both the power structure and the citizens are working in this way, idealized Communism is destroyed and we are left with the reality of mid-‘60s East Germany: a bureaucratic mess with no justice and no honor, ready to collapse in on itself.

All of this is beautifully rendered in repeating motifs and musical cues. The audience is lulled to sleep to be shocked when the pattern changes. It’s an effective structure that works wonders with Angelika Walter’s steely, intelligent performance. She is a rock of a person, ready to act at a moment’s notice in her brother’s defense. But, in the end, her real aim is to attend university, and all her machinations in her brother’s name are toward her own ends. This doesn’t make her dishonorable; she is honest with herself in a society where nobody else is. When everything comes down and I sat alone watching the final images roll, I couldn’t help myself from cheering and clapping at the outcome.

On a side note, the title of the film comes from an altercation in which Maria meets the judge’s wife. In an internal monologue, Maria prepares to die. In a stylistic shocker, the actors all stop in their tracks. This is not a still picture, but all the actors in the scene are still. Wind blows and hair moves in the breeze, but the surreal positions of the actors remain. And it holds. And it holds. And then everything returns to normal and life resumes as new. It is a shocking scene in its unexpectedness and in its beauty. This scene drives the remainder of the film and is, simply, amazing.

See The Rabbit Is Me, and see it as soon as you can. This is a forgotten masterpiece, not just of Communist film, but of world film in general. See this movie!