Milieus, milieu descriptions and their visualization in film
In almost all historical films, poverty is visualized by dirt and disorder, whereas wealth or prosperity is visualized by cleanliness and order. This highly problematic and at the same time defamatory connection merely ties in with unconscious and often unconscious, albeit completely false, judgments. The idea that poor people are always dirty and untidy, while rich people are always clean and tidy, is fundamentally wrong, both in the present and in the past.
Embroidered sayings as wall decorations with inscriptions such as „Ordnung und Reinheit ist die beste Zierde des Hauses“ („Order and purity is the best decoration of the house“), „Blitzblank und rein muss Deine Küche sein“ („Your kitchen must be spotless and clean“) or „Ordnung ist des Hauses Zierde“ („Order is the decoration of the house“) from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are eloquent testimony to the aspirations of poorer people from this period in particular not to conform to these prejudices, which were as widespread then as they are today.
Poverty does not necessarily go hand in hand with uncleanliness and disorder, just as wealth is not necessarily associated with cleanliness and order, whereby the ideas of what cleanliness and order are are also subject to change and are interpreted differently in different times.
The German author Hans Fallada provides a very vivid and revealing example of this in his 1932 novel „Kleiner Mann, was nun?“ („Little Man, What Now?“), in which his protagonists suffer from existential worries during the Great Depression. In the chapter „Ein Etat ist aufgestellt und das Fleisch wird knapp. Pinneberg findet sein Lämmchen komisch“ („A budget is drawn up and meat is running short. Pinneberg finds his little lamb funny“), Emma Mörschel draws up an income and expenditure plan for herself and her friend Johannes Pinneberg. From the very meager 163 Reichsmarks — which, according to today’s purchasing power, correspond to about 765 euros or 800 dollars — that the two have available to them each month, she plans for essential items such as rent, electricity, transportation, and groceries:
clothing and laundry:
shoes:
washing, rolling and flattening:
cleaning products:
flowers
10 RM
4 RM
3 RM
5 RM
1.15 RM
Together, this amounted to 23.15 Reichsmarks, or 14 percent of the total budget for keeping her and her apartment clean and tidy. Despite her poverty, even the occasional flower arrangement was considered indispensable.
Poverty and wealth, cleanliness and dirt as well as order and disorder are three completely independent categories. This idea opens up a new, three-dimensional creative space for the historical film and its equipment, which enables the characterization of milieus and figures in their most diverse combinations of those categories with a precision that is simply not possible with the previous simple equation of poverty with dirt and disorder on the one hand and wealth with cleanliness and order on the other.
Interiors
In „Jeder schreibt für sich allein“ („Everyone writes for themselves„) (2023) by Dominik Graf, there are several very similar views of the desks of the writers portrayed in the film as they work. The people are only partially visible, their heads from above or even just their hands, and the desks of Hans Fallada, Ina Seidel and Erich Kästner thus become the center of the gaze and attention, and in this way are much more the main actors of the respective scene than the authors themselves.
These desks with their multitude of props are very detailed and excellently crafted.
Hans Fallada is writing with a typewriter on a writing pad made of patterned linoleum, a large ashtray is already well filled, the already drunk coffee cup has been pushed aside, and a glass with a presumably alcoholic drink is ready. Next to it are the pages already written that day.
Ina Seidel’s desk, on the other hand, is neat and tidy, the tabletop is covered by a flowered tablecloth, the writing set is made of porcelain and she writes with a fountain pen. She serves coffee instead of alcohol, the books are laid out with exaggerated accuracy along the patterned edge of the tablecloth, and everything is tidy and clean.
Like Fallada, Erich Kästner smokes many cigarettes, he writes with a pencil under a modern desk lamp, and there are a few pieces of wood from sharpening in and next to the bowl, which is actually intended for pens and which he has repurposed as an ashtray. There are books, written papers, a few drawings, and also a glass and a carafe with what is probably an equally alcoholic drink.
The materials and objects do not look like old museum pieces, but rather correspond in their appearance to everyday objects that look just as they probably would have looked in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Equipment
In the first episode of the fourth season of „Babylon Berlin“ (2022) by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Hendrik Handloegten, Charlotte Ritter buys a record. The paper bag the sales clerk is holding correctly looks like a brand new bag. On the shelf behind her are records in their sleeves. However, this is not the sight of a store selling brand new goods in 1931, but rather that of a modern archive, library or museum. The sleeves are clearly very old and worn, creased and, above all, very yellowed.
In the sketch „Im Schallplattenladen“ („In the record store„) (1934) by Hans H. Zerlett with Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt, a contemporary depiction of a record store – recreated in the studio – can be seen. Despite the black and white image, it is clearly recognizable how new record sleeves looked on the shelves in the early 1930s.
The otherwise very detailed reconstruction of the store in „Babylon Berlin“ could have been made a little better and more authentic if the record sleeves had been based on facsimiles rather than originals.