Mother Night: Film Connections

Howard Campbell dedicates his confession to Mata Hari, the Dutch exotic dancer and prostitute who was executed as a German spy during World War One.  In 1931, the Swedish film superstar Greta Garbo played Mata Hari in the film with that name.  Here's a striking three-minute clip from that film, directed by George Fitzmauriece:

Following the break is a chronological list of several more films that explore some of the issues addressed by Mother Night:

Triumph of the Will (1935). Documentary directed by Leni Riefenstahl, features Adolph Hitler.  "The infamous propaganda film of the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, Germany." (imdb.com)

Notorious (1946). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, stars Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant.  "A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them?" (imdb.com)

The Stranger (1946). Directed by Orson Welles, stars Welles and Edward G. Robinson.  "An investigator from the War Crimes Commission travels to Connecticut to find an infamous Nazi" (imdb.com).

Counterfeit Traitor (1962).  Directed by George Seaton, stars William Holden.  "Blacklisted in modern day WW2, a Swedish oil trader opts to assist British Allies, by means of infiltrating and surveying Nazi Germany" (imdb.com).

The Deer Hunter (1978). Directed by Michael Cimino, stars Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken.  "An in-depth examination of the way that the Vietnam war affects the lives of people in a small industrial town in the USA" (imdb.com).

Kagemusha (1980).  Directed by legendary Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa.  "An unscrupulous figure is called upon to fill in for a virtuous daimyo in sixteenth century Japan and finds his identity reshaped by the experience" (Houston Mount, Assistant Profesor of History, ECU).

Music Box (1989). Directed by Costa Gavras, stars Jessica Lange.  "A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects." (imdb.com)

Europa, Europa (1990; Language: German). Directed by Agnieska Holland.  "A boy in Nazi Germany, trying to conceal that he is Jewish, joins the Hitler Youth." (imdb.com)

Schindler's List (1993). Directed by Steven Spielberg. Stars Liam Neeson.  "In Poland during World War II, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes concerned for his Jewish workforce after witnessing their persecution by the Nazis." (imdb.com)

Conspiracy (2001). Directed by Frank Pierson, stars Kenneth Branagh.  "A dramatic recreation of the Wannsee Conference where the Nazi Final Solution phase of the Holocaust was devised" (imdb.com).

Max (2002). Directed by Menno Meyjes, stars John Cusack. Depicts the "friendship between an art dealer named Rothman and his student, Adolf Hitler" (imdb.com).

The Goebbels Experiment (2005). Directed by Lutz Hachmeister. "The Nazi propaganda mastermind behind Hitler speaks in first person as actor Kenneth Branagh reads pages of the diary kept by the chief of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, revealing the man's most inner thoughts" (imdb.com).

I Have Never Forgotten You (2007). Documentary directed by Richard Trank.  Depicts "the Austrian-Jewish architectural engineer who became a Nazi hunter after surviving the Holocaust" (imdb.com).

Eichmann (2007).   Directed by Robert Young. "Based upon the final confession of Adolf Eichmann, made before his execution in Israel as he accounts to Captain Avner Less, a young Israeli Police Officer, of his past as the architect of Hitler's plan for the final solution" (imdb.com). Reviews.

Black Book (2007; Language: Dutch and German).  Directed by Paul Verhoeven.  "Set in Holland during World War II, this is the story of a Jewish singer who joins the resistance against the Nazis" (www.imdb.com). Reviews.

Smile 'Til it Hurts (2009). Documentary directed by Lee Storey.  "[W]arts-and-all/laughs-and-all look at the group [Up With People]  founded to 'counter' the counter-culture of the '60s" (Orlandosentinel.com).

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010). Documentary directed by Werner Herzog.  "[G]ains exclusive access to film inside the Chauvet caves of Southern France, capturing the oldest known pictorial creations of humankind in their astonishing natural setting" (imdb.com).