Nazi exploitation cinema
Related: nazism - exploitation film - holocaust film - women in prison films
Titles: The Damned (1969) - The Night Porter (1974) - Salon Kitty (1976) - Ilsa series (1970s)
Connoisseurs: Ilan Avisar (Screening the Holocaust (1988)) - Chris Bickel
Though it dealt with atrocities commited by Italian Fascists rather than German Nazis Pasolini's 1976 Salo was a major influence on the genre. [Jun 2006]
"It is by now a common view that the horror of the Holocaust cannot be represented; yet as time goes by, the need to make sure it is remembered becomes more and more acute. Film is an expository medium: its narrative mode is "showing" Its power to affect is based on showing. Films on the Holocaust have not been very successful in avoiding the pitfalls of representation. They either use the tragedy as a backdrop, sideways (Sophie's Choice), or sentimentalize it through individual identification (the TV series Holocaust). It cannot, ever, be adequately - realistically - represented, and Spielberg didn't try. The reason for the severe criticism of [Schindler's List (1993)] is, I think, that critics assumed he did. Instead, however, he 'touched' it, established a relationship with it based on continuity. He explores ways to do so through a medium that can hardly avoid the pornographic effects of showing torture, shame, and sadism." --Narratology (1985) - Mieke Bal, page 40
Kamp Kulture : A History of Nazi Exploitation (2003) - Simon Whitechapel [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Definition
Nazi exploitation is a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film. The most famous title is perhaps Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS (1974).
The genre is documented in Kamp Kulture : A History of Nazi Exploitation (2003) by Simon Whitechapel. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_exploitation [Nov 2005]
Nazi exploitation cinema
Following World War II, there has been a subtle but constant drip-feed of Nazi-related material coming onto the market. Ranging from the first published concentration camp memoirs to appear in the aftermath of war, and banned 1990s computer games in which players become the Kommandants of their own death-camps, to sexploitation films of the '60s and '70s, records and comics. Kamp Kulture brings a wide range of material together for the first time to formulate a study of this unique and repulsive phenomenon: Nazi and Holocaust exploitation. --product description via Kamp Kulture : A History of Nazi Exploitation (2003) - Simon Whitechapel [Amazon.com]
Naziploitation
The Bamboo House Of Dolls falls into that curious subset of the W.I.P. genre, the WW2 concentration camp movie. As with so many B-movie strains, we can thank the auteurs of Italy for most of these Naziploitation movies; celluloid treats like Gestapo's Last Orgy, SS Extermination Camp and SS Camp Womens Hell. Instead, this film comes with a free family-size bucket of vicious anti-Japanese xenophobia as only the Hongkies can do it. Chinese actors play all of the Ee-vil Japanese of course, but what’s surprising is how many famous faces turn up as the jackbooted oppressors. Of course, Shaw Brothers was the territory’s number one movie studio at the time, but the all-star cast and decent budget seem slightly out of place in a genre noted mostly for being cheap and nasty. It’s as if Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS had been made by MGM. --Dave Thomas, 10th January 2004, http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.thomas41/Bamboo%20House%20Of%20Dolls.htm [Jun 2004]Last Orgy of the Third Reich (1977) - Cesare Canevari
Last Orgy of the Third Reich (1977) - Cesare Canevari (aka Caligula Reincarnated as Hitler)Nazi commandant is determined to break a beautiful blond. Various threats and tortures are tried but in one scene she is nude on the floor, wrists bound to her ankles. Standing over her he whips her with a cat and demands that she scream which she refuses to do.
LAST ORGY OF THE THIRD REICH Dir: Cesare Canevari (Magnum Video) Arguably the most graphic and disturbing film in the cycle, this one flirts with artistry but ultimately is an endurance test. In the most unsettling sequence, a cute-rate Goebbels expounds on his philosophy for eliminating the Jews; eat them!
The officers in attendance proceed to do just that, taking a poor young lass, sprinkling her with cooking oil and cooking her up right on the spot.
These and other grim moments are off set by welcome hits of unintentional comedy. One such instance finds a group of very tame gerbils standing in for an army of hungry rats.
AKA: THE GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY, DES FILLES POUR LE BOURREAU, L'ULTIMA ORGIA DELL III REICH, LA ULTIMA ORGIA DE LA GESTAPO, CALIGULA RE -INCARNATED AS HITLER - John Charles
Nathalie, Fugitive from Hell (1978) - Alain Payet
Nathalie rescapée de l'enfer / Nathalie, Fugitive from Hell (1978) - Alain Payet
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0216023
Alain Payet (born January 17, 1947) is a French director of Nazi exploitation and chic porn movies. He has also been credited as Alain Garnier, James Gartner, John Love, Alain Paillet, Jean Pardaillan, and Alan Payet. He is known for the realisation of "porn versions" of some famous French films such as Astérix, Les Tontons flingueurs, and Les Visiteurs. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Payet [May 2005]
Schindler's Lust
Foreword by Patricia Breen*For all practical purposes, Nazi sex/torture flicks are a thing of the past. Once a sadistic curiosity, now deemed unconscionable by modern standards of political correctness, the genre's demise is especially mysterious in this day and age when historical tragedies such as the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the sinking of The Titanic are exploited as a love stories by mainstream Hollywood. A day and age when Spielberg's Schindler's List, which contains more nudity than any "Hell Camp" entry, airs on primetime network television uncut and uncensored.
The genre earned widespread attention through the release of Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS in 1974. A cruel yet fascinating effort loosely based on the alleged wartime shenanigans of Ilse Koch, the film set a sadistic standard for S&M torture films. (Of course, Ilsa: She-Wolf of the SS was shot on the sets used for Hogan's Heroes, a television series that did more to dishonor victims of WW II than all of the Nazi torture flicks combined.) Ilsa spawned two official sequels, one quasi-sequel, and a dozen or so imitators including SS Extermination Camp and SS Hell Camp.
The Nazi legacy is a natural breeding ground for horror archetypes, yet to explore it as such, especially in a romantic or sexual light, is culturally taboo. Some of the greatest horror characters and themes are rooted in historical tragedies. Where would the horror genre be today without Vlad the Impaler's wartime antics? Or the Spanish Inquisition? Or hundreds of years of witch hunting? Or even the bombing of Hiroshima? --http://cinefear.com/schindler.html [May 2004]
Sadiconazista
-The Il Sadiconazista (which is to my mind among the most objectionable of the virulent strands of filth that defined this era) took a staple exploitation mold of sex, violence, brutality and degradation and set the action within the confines of a WWII Nazi P.O.W. camp; among the more memorable examples of this genre are the Ilsa franchise, S.S. Experiment Camp and Gestapo’s Last Orgy. --Alex Moss via epinions.comBooks
- Kamp Kulture : A History of Nazi Exploitation (2003) - Simon Whitechapel [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Following World War II, there has been a subtle but constant drip-feed of Nazi-related material coming onto the market. Ranging from the first published concentration camp memoirs to appear in the aftermath of war, and banned 1990s computer games in which players become the Kommandants of their own death-camps, to sexploitation films of the '60s and '70s, records and comics. Kamp Kulture brings a wide range of material together for the first time to formulate a study of this unique and repulsive phenomenon: Nazi and Holocaust exploitation.Simon Whitechapel was born in Madagascar, where he had an agnostic upbringing. Previous publications include Crossing to Kill (Virgin, 2000), and Flesh Inferno (Creation, April 2003).
- Sadiconazista (2000) - Marcus Stiglegger [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Mein sowohl analytisch wie auch lexikalisch aufgebautes Buch bietet den ersten umfassenden Überblick über nahezu alle Filme, in denen Faschismus und Sexualität in Verbindung gebracht wird: DER NACHTPORTIER, DIE VERDAMMTEN, SALO, DER GROSSE IRRTUM, aber auch Exploitationfilme wie GESTAPO'S LAST ORGY oder ILSA - SHE-WOLF OF THE SS. Angesichts seines wissenschaftlichen Anspruches richtet sich das 260-Seiten-Werk, das mit 40 Fotos illustriert ist und über eine kommentierte Filmografie verfügt, an alle, die "in die Tiefe" gehen wollen. Es ist zudem ein wesentlicher Beitrag zur Faschismus-Forschung. Prof. Thomas Koebner und der bekannte Filmkritiker Norbert Grob nannten es "ein Standardwerk". --Der Autor über sein Buch
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