Star Wars in a Girls Boarding School

Host of one of the greatest artistic eras in cinematic history, Weimar Germany was also responsible for at least a few groundbreaking films to address homosexuality and related LGBT issues: films such as "Different from the Others" (1919) starring Conrad Veidt, Carl Theodor Dreyer's "Michael" (1924), a.k.a. "The Third Sex," and William Dieterle's "Sex in Chains" (1928), as well suggestive moments such as the comedic crossdressing in Ernst Lubitsch's "I Don't Want to Be a Man" (1918) or scenes in G.W. Pabst's two pictures with Louise Brooks. And, there's this remarkable early talkie with an all-female cast and lesbian themes, "Mädchen in Uniform," directed by a woman, Leontine Sagan, and based on a play by another woman, Christa Winsloe.

Set in a girls boarding school and with its scenes of the characters dressing and undressing, including one who blows her top unbottoned from the deep breath, besides the girls' infatuation and declaration of love for one of their instructors--and that kissing scene--one would think it a template for later, exploitation fare such as women's prison movies. And maybe there's some truth to that influence, and, indeed, it did lead to a series of films in Germany soon thereafter that included intimate relationships between women, but there's a connection here that I find more compelling, or at least more relevant to popular culture, and it involves themes that parallel one of the biggest blockbusters of all time, "Star Wars" (1977).

This has nothing to do with the photographic collages of movie stars warring for the attention of the girls in their locker room, either, although I do adore this filmic addition to the stage play. Plus, the one girl's pictures of German movie star Hans Albers is the most screen time any male receives in the entire picture. We're told another pupil prefers clippings of actress Henny Porten. Although these contrasting sexualities offer a different sort of star wars, between the celebrities' "sex appeal," as one girl says in English, the connection between the films "Mädchen in Uniform" and "Star Wars" springs from the play-within-the-play, Friedrich Schiller's "Don Carlos," with the protagonist Manuela crossdressing for the titular role.

It's a part that Manuela struggles to recite her lines for in front of Governess Fräulein von Bernburg, to whom Manuela also declares her love for in a drunken stupor and still dressed as Don Carlos during the post-performance party. This love is conflated in the film with her being an orphan, which suggests a rather incestuous yearning for her mentor as a mother figure, to add to the already taboo nature of the student-pupil dynamic and whatever the age gap is supposed to be between the two, as well as, of course, its same-sex nature. "Don Carlos" is also about quasi-incestuous forbidden love--neatly reflecting the outer play that is the film. Eventually, we also got this in the space-opera "Star Wars" franchise, too, which has been claimed to have been inspired by Schiller's play-turned-opera (see Jeffrey L. High, "From Hypotext to Hypertext and (Hyper-)Space Opera: Schillder's Don Karlos, Verdi's Don Carlo, and George Lucas' Star Wars," or look on the web for stuff like this).

The romantic, if not sexual, content of "Mädchen in Uniform" is framed as a war between the Rebellious Force for good, or "the spirit of love," as Von Bernburg calls it (via subtitles, at least), and the Dark Side of the school Empire, as represented by the school's headmistress (who, by the way, is also marked with her cane as physically handicapped, like Darth Vader), who proclaims her impoverished Prussian brand of repressive philosophy early on as consisting largely of making Germany great again, "or not at all," through discipline and hunger. This includes not allowing the girls to send letters outside the campus walls protesting their conditions, the banning of books, and they are so instilled with fear that they even find themselves incapable of pleading their case when this film's Princess shows up. All of which climaxes with the ostracization of Manuela.

This is also a relatively well-made film technically when considering that it was still early in the history of synchronized-sound cinema. The opening montage of historic statues donning the campus as the girls march in unison sets the scene perfectly. There's quite a bit of camera swiveling, pans and dolly tracking shots to follow figures, along with crosscutting, and dollies were also employed to zoom-in on character faces for dramatic effect. The creakiness of the soundtrack isn't too distracting, either, and a fair bit of diegetic singing and music dots the plot, as it does in many early talkies to take advantage of the new technology. Especially well considered is the foreshadowing of the staircase, for a finale that is strongly on point (and just so happens to be a little reminiscent of the later "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980)).

Obviously, all of this seems especially prescient given that Nazis would in reality soon end the Weimar Republic and implement their totalitarian regime. Of course, they censored and tried to destroy all prints of "Mädchen in Uniform," which was fortunately internationally distributed already and, clearly, still survives in an, at least, mostly-intact form. Supposedly, though, and rather unbelievably given how antithetical, anti-fascist, "Mädchen in Uniform" is to the Nazis, including some of the cast and crew being Jewish, some have claimed that an alternate ending was offered that pandered to them. Given the claims already that "Star Wars" borrows stylistically, as well as thematically, from Nazis, that would be as though the awards ceremony at the end of "Star Wars" not only imitated a ceremony from Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" (1935), but had Darth Vader also been receiving the honor. Regardless, "Mädchen in Uniform" was banned, and some of those involved in the film are said to have been killed in the concentration camps. Playwright Winsloe fled the country for the French Resistance and was eventually killed under reportedly uncertain circumstances. Fortunately, their film survives, however, and remains an indictment against intolerance and in the spirit of love.