Chan Le
David Yaffe-Bellany
Works Cited
Primary Sources
The Army Lawyer: A History of the Judge Advocate General's Corps. Honolulu: University Press
of the Pacific, Print.
This source discusses desertion in the armed forces, an issue relevant to Forbidden
Games. Published by the Army, it clearly reflects a pro-military bias. But that's precisely
what we were looking for: An Army account of an Army issue. The source is also
notable because it directly addresses the story of Private Eddie Slovik, who talked openly
about desertion before he even reached the front and was executed in an effort to
maintain discipline. The source helped us refine our thinking about the stigma attached to
desertion and further understand the emotional forces at play in Forbidden Games.
The Bicycle Thief. Dir. Vittorio De Sica. 1949. Film.
We chose to study this Italian film because of its reputation as a superb movie and
because we hoped it would illustrate the economic conditions of post-war Rome. The
story behind its title – either The Bicycle Thief or the The Bicycle Thieves, depending
whom you ask – provided an interesting example of the United States' efforts to curb the
influence of communist thought in post-war Italy. Moreover, the movie is a good
example of the Italian neorealist movement, an artistic trend that started in response to
the conditions of post-war Europe.
Canby, Vincent. "Lost One, Directed by Peter Lorre." The New York Times. 1 Aug. 1984. Web.
18 May 2015.
We consulted this New York Times review to get a sense of how mainstream American
critics regard Peter Lorre's film Der Verlorene. Unfortunately, the movie wasn't shown in
the US until the '80s, so the review doesn't provide a window into contemporaneous
perceptions of post-war Germany. But it does include some interesting commentary on
the film's weaknesses.
Crowther, Bosley. "Forbidden Games, the Winning French Film at Venice Fete, Opens at Little
Carnegie." The New York Times. 9 Dec. 1952. Web. 18 May 2015.
We consulted this New York Times review to get a sense of how mainstream American
movie critics regard the French film Forbidden Games. Crowther praises the movie for
capturing the despair that gripped Europe before and after the war, a useful historical
observation. Obviously, the review reflects the opinion of a single critic, so it shouldn't be
treated as a conclusive analysis of the movie.
Chan Le
David Yaffe-Bellany
"Passport to Pimlico, British Offering, Is New Feature at Trans-Lux 60th Street." The New York
Times. 27 Oct. 1949. Web. 18 May 2015.
We consulted this New York Times review to get a sense of how mainstream American
movie critics regard the British film Passport to Pimlico. The review draws a lot of useful
parallels between the content of the film and the real-life challenges of life in post-war
London. But we made sure to check out other critics' analyses, as no single review
constitutes the conclusive analysis of a film.
"Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief, a Drama of Post-War Rome, Arrives at World." The New
York Times. 13 Dec. 1949. Web. 18 May 2015.
We consulted this New York Times review to get a sense of how mainstream American
critics regard the Italian film The Bicycle Thief. The review broadened our analysis of the
movie, pointing out that De Sica didn't simply capture the poverty of post-war Rome but
also the desperation that accompanies all wars, no matter where they are fought.
Crowther helped teach us that the movie's themes are more universal than we'd
previously assumed.
Der Verlorene. Dir. Peter Lorre. 1951. Film.
We chose to study this film after consulting a list compiled by professors at Harvard of
post-war German movies. The film provides a fascinating window into the psychology of
post-war Germany, especially the guilt that gripped so much of the population. Directed
by Peter Lorre, a German, the film does not seem to project a pro-Nazi bias; it’s an
honest account of one man's emotional devastation.
Forbidden Games. Dir. Rene Clement. 1952. Film.
We selected Forbidden Games as one of our four films to analyze for two reasons: it was
produced in France, a country we hoped to study, and unlike the other three movies, it is
set during the war, not after it. This enabled us to look at the ways artists in post-war
France thought about WWII – how their ideas about guilt and innocence shaped their
work.
Jung, Carl. Collected Works of C.G. Jung. Trans. Gerhard Adler. Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1970. Print.
Carl Jung’s influential essay Kollektivschuld, about Germany’s collective guilt for the
atrocities committed by the Nazis during World War II, is a telling example of precisely
the psychological torment we identified as a key theme in Der Verlorene. As such, the
essay strengthened our thesis about the ways that movie reflected and reinforced the
history of post-war Germany.
Chan Le
David Yaffe-Bellany
Norgaard, Noland. "Eisenhower Claims 50 Years Needed to Reeducate Nazis." The Oregon
Statesman 13 Oct. 1945: Print.
This newspaper article was crucial to our understanding of the United States’ treatment of
the German people post-war. Eisenhower attempted to induce guilt in the Germans
through the process of denazification, a policy that explains much of the psychological
turmoil in Der Verlorene. The information in this article became one of the centerpieces
of our thesis about the impact of post-war western policy on the lives of ordinary
Germans living with the guilt of their wartime crimes.
Passport to Pimlico. Dir. Henry Cornelius. Ealing Studios, 1949. Film.
We selected Passport to Pimlico as one of the four films because it was released in the
middle of the post-war period (1949) and because we hoped its comedy would provide an
interesting contrast to the darker dramas we’d selected from other countries. The film is
full of both casual and thematic references to the post-war period – everything from shots
of ration cards to speeches about plucky resolve. It’s the only one of the four films we
studied that may actually have affected the course of history: One historian argues that it
helped foment anti-government unrest, leading to the electoral downfall of the Labour
Party.
"The Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt." UC Santa Barbara History. Web. 18 May 2015.
This primary source document offers an interesting window into the psychology of postwar Germany – the sense of failure and guilt that informs Der Verlorene. It helped
strengthen our thesis about the role such admissions of responsibility played in shaping
the German mindset post-war. We went on to connect the American denazification policy
to the sense of guilt and despair that consumes every frame of Der Verlorene.
Secondary Sources
"After the War/Before the Wall: German Film 1945-1960." Harvard Film Archive. Harvard
University, Web. 18 May 2015.
This source, which showed up on a basic Google search, provided a useful list of postwar German films. We used it to determine which German film to study.
Collins, Laura. "The untold truth about WWII deserters the US Army tried to hide." Daily Mail.
11 July 2013. Web. 18 May 2015.
This source, which showed up on a basic Google search, illustrates the shame associated
with desertion, adding to our understanding of one of the central themes of the French
Chan Le
David Yaffe-Bellany
movie Forbidden Games. However, it does come from a tabloid known for
sensationalizing the news, so we used it not as a source of concrete information but as a
useful example of societal perceptions of desertion. The article discusses The Deserters, a
book by Charles Glass that includes background information on Slovik.
"Denazification." Shoah Resource Center. The International School for Holocaust Studies, Web.
18 May 2015.
We encountered this source as we searched for background on denazification. The article,
which obviously reflects an anti-Nazi bias, provided useful information about American
efforts to foment guilt among the German people. That guilt is one of the key themes of
Der Verlorene, the Peter Lorre movie we analyzed, and one of the central ideas in our
thesis about post-war Germany.
Ehrenstein, David. "Forbidden Games." The Criterion Collection. 11 Apr. 1988. Web. 18 May
2015.
We gathered critical analyses of the movies featured in our project in order to further
understand their themes. This essay, about the French film Forbidden Games, provided
valuable context on the film's production and the politics, economy and culture of postwar France. It's a fairly objective analysis – Ehrlenstein is a critic, not a partisan – and it
helped us build connections between the content of the movie and the events of WWII
and its aftermath.
"Existentialism." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,
Print.
We consulted this reference in order to learn more about existentialism, a brand of
philosophy that thrived after WWII. We applied the background information in this
unbiased source to our analyses of the four movies.
"Existentialism." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, Print.
This source served as the basis for our investigation of existentialism. It provided the
detailed explanation we needed to link this strand of philosophical inquiry to the films of
post-war Europe. It also helped us separate in our mind the pop-culture form of
existentialism (big ideas about life, death and the confusion of mankind that started to
appear in books and films after WWII) from the far more complicated philosophical
existentialism pioneered at the beginning of the 20th century.
Flowers, Thomas. "A Grotesque Mannequin: Europe's Old Conscience within a New World
Paradigm." Machine Mean. 14 May 2014. Web. 18 May 2015.
Chan Le
David Yaffe-Bellany
This source is an essay by a blogger – as such, it should be treated with caution. However,
it does offer fascinating insight into the role existentialism plays in The Bicycle Thieves,
one of the four movies we analyzed. We do not consider this source a definitive
explanation of the film, since its author lacks academic credentials. But it helped shape
our thinking and provided some interesting tidbits about the movie.
Hennessy, Peter. Never Again: Britain 1945-51. J. Cape, 1992. Print.
Hennessy's book was our main source for contextual information about post-war Britain.
It includes detailed descriptions of the unpopular rationing system, one of the themes of
Passport to Pimlico. It also links the movie’s release to the decline of the Labour Party in
the years after WWII, a connection we wouldn’t have made without reading this
book. The book is concerned as much with the experiences of ordinary people as with the
politics and economics of the period – just like the films we studied.
"Italy: Public and Private Sectors." Encyclopedia Britannica. Print.
This encyclopedia entry provided crucial contextual information about the economy of
post-war Italy. It explains how the initial devastation of the post-war economy soon gave
way to a miraculous resurgence. Italy’s economic miracle hastened the decline of the
neorealist movement in Italian film, one of the central subjects of our investigation. This
source helped us develop a more sophisticated understanding of both the harsh reality of
post-war life for ordinary Italians and the rise and fall of neorealism.
"Italy: The Cold War Political Order." Encyclopedia Britannica. Print.
This contextual source proved crucial to our understanding of communism in post-war
Italy. It describes the United States’ efforts to protect Italy from Soviet influence and how
those programs led to a post-war “economic miracle.” This information helps explain the
ambiguous titling of The Bicycle Thieves, which was renamed The Bicycle Thief when it
was released in the US, probably to eliminate any Marxist overtones.
Jack, Ian. "Is this the end of Britishness?" The Guardian. 16 Sept. 2014. Web. 18 May 2015.
This essay, published in The Guardian on the eve of Scotland’s 2014 independence
referendum, defines the concept of Britishness, one of the central themes of Passport to
Pimlico. It addresses the evolution of that term, which allowed us to place the post-war
period in the context of Britain's development throughout the 20th century. Obviously,
Jack’s theory of Britishness is a subjective interpretation of the country’s culture rather
than an objective fact. So this source is certainly not the final word on what it means to
be British.
Kesser, Robert. "Der Verlorene" ["The Lost One"]. Sense of Cinema. Nov. 2007. Web. 18 May
2015.
Chan Le
David Yaffe-Bellany
Kesser's essay articulates the connection between the drama of this emotionally intense
film and what he calls the post-war “Nazi psychosis.” The essay helped teach us that film
can reflect big historical themes without explicitly highlighting those themes in every
shot – Der Verlorene is all about the Nazis, yet it includes no Nazi imagery and little
direct talk of World War II.
Matthews, Peter. "Forbidden Games: Death and the Maiden." The Criterion Collection. 5 Dec.
2005. Web. 18 May 2015.
Matthews’ essay provided crucial contextual information about the making of Forbidden
Games (it originated as a short film) and incisive interpretations of the film's key themes.
It also links Forbidden Games to the works of Italian neorealists like Roberto Rossellini,
a connection we might otherwise have missed. This helped us fit Forbidden Games into
our understanding of the stylistic trends that revolutionized European cinema during the
post-war period.
Sharp, Anne. "Der Verlorene" ["The Lost One"]. The Peter Lorre Companion. Web. 18 May
2015.
This essay, drawn from a reliable source, the Peter Lorre Companion, provided crucial
contextual information about the making of Der Verlorene. Sharp draws interesting
parallels between the movie’s film noir style and the work of the Italian neorealists,
further reinforcing our understanding of the stylistic connections among at least three of
the four films we studied.
Thomson, David. The Big Screen. Farar, Strauss & Giroux, 2012. Print.
Thompson's book was one of our first ports of call for background information on the
films we studied. The book includes especially rich information about the Italian
neorealists, detailing how the movement’s initial popularity gave way to lighter fare after
the Italian economic miracle. Crucially, Thompson writes in significant depth about the
ambiguous history of the title of The Bicycle Thieves, which changed to The Bicycle Thief
when the movie arrived in the United States. This section helped shape our thesis about
how the movie’s production history reflects the impact of communism on post-war
relations between Italy and the US.
Watkins, Thayer. "Economic History of Italy." San Jose State University. San Jose State
University, Web. 18 May 2015.
This article provided important contextual information about Italy’s post-war economy. It
describes in detail the initial desperation of Italian workers post-war and the eventual
economic miracle fueled by support from the United States. It was this surprising
Chan Le
David Yaffe-Bellany
economic resurgence that ended the neorealist movement in Italian film – a crucial
connection between Italy’s political and economic history and the movie we studied.
Wells, Paul. "Passport to Pimlico." Film Reference. Web. 18 May 2015.
This essay, published in Film Reference, a reliable source for film commentary, provided
important contextual information about Passport to Pimlico. Wells connects the movie to
the idea of Britishness, a theme we built on by analyzing more recent essays about the
British mindset. It helped us understand the post-war discontent of the British people with
their government's rationing policies and helped us formulate our thesis about how the
film reflects British post-war resolve.
"WWII Deserters." National Public Radio. 17 June 2013. Web. 18 May 2015.
This article about desertion during WWII does not address the French specifically. But it
nevertheless provides an interesting lens through which to analyze Forbidden Games, a
film that deals in part with societal perceptions of desertion. The piece includes useful
background information about WWII deserters, focusing on the story of Wayne Powers,
an American who deserted the military and then settled in France. Like the Daily Mail
article, it was useful not just because it provided concrete information, but also because it
helped us more fully understand the stigmas attached to desertion.