Film Review (Contains Spoilers and a brief mention of self-harm!)
by Airin Farahmand
If you ask a film enthusiast about the most prominent interwar German movies, you will most likely get a German expressionist movie as an answer. After all, in most scholarly books, German cinema is often remembered by Fritz Lang’s iconic movies such as The Metropolis, Nosferatu, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This is not surprising; these movies have changed the language of cinema in their time and have left an everlasting influence on future filmmakers. But when you come across a movie as astonishing and daring as Mädchen in Uniform, you might wonder why this movie is rarely mentioned in the repertoire of the best of German cinema. Directed by Leontine Sagan in 1931, Mädchen in Uniform (Girls in Uniform) defies all expectations and stereotypes of German interwar society. Not only is it the first explicitly German lesbian movie, but its message is bold and unapologetic enough for the movie to be easily categorized as avant-garde in the true sense of the word, ahead of the rest.
Mädchen in Uniform is set in an all-girls boarding school, where the pupils are required to meticulously follow the rules and abide by a strict dress code. Manuela, our half-orphaned, sensitive, 14-and-a-half-year-old protagonist, is sent to the school by her family, who doesn’t have much interest in dealing with a rebellious young woman. As Manuela bursts into tears in the headmaster’s office, she gets scolded by her aunt: “Manuela, pull yourself together! A soldier’s daughter crying!” When she walks out the door, heading towards the stairs, she is warned by one of the girls in uniform that she shouldn’t go up. When she questions this, the answer comes: “It’s the rules.” From these first scenes, the movie sets the tone for the driving force of the whole plot: the tension between Manuela’s sensitive and rebellious character and an austere system of discipline and punishment. Before even entering her room, Manuela is required to change into her uniform. She needs to blend in with the others and leave her personality behind. It soon turns out that the girls are anything but what their garment is meant to suggest: uniform. They each have their own personalities, their own problems, and their own senses of humor. Despite their diverse characters, however, they are all united in one thing: Their admiration of one of their teachers, Miss von Bernburg. Upon her arrival, Manuela is jokingly warned by her fellow schoolmates not to fall in love with Miss von Bernburg! Little does she know that she has no chance of following this advice. Our protagonist falls head over heels for her teacher.
Miss von Bernburg is no ordinary teacher. She cares for the girls and their emotional needs, distinguishing herself in a system designed to suppress acts of individuation. In school meetings, she is the one to raise concerns about the educational method and the treatment the girls receive:
– I want to be a friend to the girls.
– On equal terms?
– Why not?
– How do you maintain authority? You are their superior.
And indeed, the question of authority runs throughout the movie. In a sense, Miss von Bernburg mirrors Manuela’s future. Similar to her, she doesn’t want to follow the rules blindly and dares to challenge the authority. She refuses to punish her students by giving them bad grades as the school’s norms require: “We must be a home for the children. Their mothers”.
As Manuela becomes ever more nervous around Miss von Bernburg, her grades drop. However, the bond between the two characters grows stronger by the day, until Manuela can’t take it anymore, and confesses her love to her teacher in tears: “When you say good night to me in the evening and then leave, and you close the door to your room. Then I just have to stare at the door through the darkness. And I have to get up and go over to you. But I know I’m not allowed to.” The school and its disciplining system are obstacles that our heroine needs to overcome. But that is no easy matter in a place where she is strictly monitored. Things begin to fall apart when the school prepares for its annual theatre performance. Manuela plays the role of Don Carlos in Schiller’s tragedy of the same name. Thankfully for our protagonist, she has enough experience to present a convincing portrayal of a committed lover. She receives praise from her drama teacher with a tip to remember for the future: “More declamation, less emotion!” The afterparty is the climax of the story. Too much wine breaks the spell and Manuela confesses her love shamelessly and openly: “I don’t care about anything else. Yes. She is there. She loves me. I fear nothing!” This is one of the movie’s most iconic scenes, reflecting the director’s mastery of visual storytelling for creating dramatic tension. The choreography of the girls dancing in their uniforms in the dining room juxtaposed with the slower tempo of the formal meeting between the headmaster and the philanthropists heralds the tragedy to come. The scenes merge as the headmaster, who happens to hear Manuela’s confession, immediately declares it a ‘scandal’.
Measures need to be taken; the order shall be restored. Fearing Manuela’s bravery like a contagious disease, the headmaster bans everyone from uttering even a single word to her. She needs to be kept away and isolated to make sure that the moral hygiene of the school remains intact. Of course, our sensitive protagonist cannot take it any longer. In a melancholic state, Manuela attempts suicide. However, moved by the injustice unfolding before their eyes, the girls unite to help her. In agitation, they search the school inch by inch and find her just in time. The power of their solidarity is so striking that even the headmaster can’t deny it. The movie ends with the unsettled headmaster’s gradual and slow parade in front of the girls’ watchful eyes who witness her departure in disbelief, and, who knows, maybe even with a sense of secret joy. Miss von Berburg has already uttered the final words: “We must thank God, headmaster. The girls have prevented a tragedy that we would have had to bear for the rest of our lives.”
Mädchen in Uniform and its portrayal of a teacher/student love affair might not stand the moral principles of our contemporary world. Nevertheless, this should not distract the viewer from the movie’s main message. Through Manuela and Miss von Bernburg’s portrayal, Sagan succeeds in raising important questions about education and governance that are still relevant to our societies. The school’s emphasis on German classics for cultivating a spirit of discipline and obedience is a controversial interpretation of cultural heritage. The examples of the appropriation of the so-called classics by conservative circles are abundant throughout modern history, supporting nationalist and chauvinistic sentiments. Hitler’s extremist regime of governance rising to power just a few years after the movie’s release is a prime example. It is not surprising that the movie was banned and labeled as ‘decadent’ in Nazi Germany, leaving many of its cast and crew, including the director Leontine Sagan, with no choice but to flee the country. If the school in Mädchen in Uniform is a symbol of society at large, then the message is loud and clear: a reformation is needed. The change, however, requires solidarity, collective care, and cooperation against systems of oppression. This might also be a good reminder for the contemporary audience living in a culture obsessed with excessive individualism.
Last but not least, the genius of the director and her mastery of the art of filmmaking should not go unnoticed. Not only has Sagan achieved a high level of harmony in the choreography of the characters, she has also been able to effectively convey their inner conflicts through careful close-ups and artful mise-en-scenes. These skills are hard to ignore in scenes such as Miss von Bergburg’s conversation with the headmaster towards the end of the movie where her close-up merges with that of Manuela’s, creating a sense of intimacy and emotional bonding. The scene might even be considered a prototype of a technique mastered by the Swedish director Ingmar Bergman in his 1966 movie Persona. The movie is well-known for its fusion of the faces of the two female protagonists played by actors Liv Ullmann and Bibi Andersson. There too, the emphasis is on the intimacy between the two characters and their psychic unity. Sagan’s cinematic language of love, intimacy, and angst thus remains a prime case study for anyone interested in the art of filmmaking. In times when more and more female directors are gaining their long-awaited acknowledgment, Mädchen in Uniform needs to be brought under the spotlight and receive the praise it deserves in the history of German cinema.
Airin Farahmand (she/her) is a PhD candidate at Radboud University. Her research explores the intersection of art and ecology. She is fascinated by the ongoing debate on sustainable futures and aims to highlight the importance of feminist future-making practices within that debate.
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