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March 1995, Week 4

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Subject:
From:
edwin jahiel <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 22 Mar 1995 15:31:55 CST
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----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Some days ago I posted a message re: Dr. Strangelove's song at the end
(Vera Lynn's "We'll Meet Again") & its significance in World War II. I
mentioned in passing that the German song  "Lili Marlene" had been
appropriated by the Allied Forces, so both sides sang it.
 
Bravo is showing the great Czech film Closely Watched (in the UK
"Observed") Trains (which, among other bizarre ratings, gets only *** in
Maltin).The scene with the German munitions train shows the common practice
of the Germans in WWII
to put a huge V (as in Victory) on the front of the locomotive.
 
Now that's the Germans' appropriation of the V-sign, made famous by the
Winston Churchill salute as well as by its being painted on walls by
underground people in Nazi-occupied countries.
 
What is curious is that 'Victory' is 'Sieg' in German, as in the constantly
repeated slogan 'Sieg Heil!" (Hail Victory!).This must have assumed some
familiarity with Latin (or Romance Languages) by the German public....
 
Not unreasonable. For ex. one of the German military marches contained the
words "Gloria, Victoria..."
 
 
 
Edwin Jahiel,Director, Unit for Cinema Studies, University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
 
" Le mauvais gout mene au crime" (Stendhal)

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