Antigone2.0003_Schloendorff

Volker Schlöndorff, director among eight others, Deutschland im Herbst (Germany in Autumn), 1978, a synthesized documentary film with included segment "Die verschobene Antigone"; premiered 3 March 1978 at the Berlin International Filmspielfest. Kluge, Alexander et al. 1978. Deutschland im Herbst. Produced by Filmverlag der Autoren, distributed by Filmmuseum München, 2007.

"Deutschland im Herbst: ein Film gegen Vergessen." (A film against forgetting.)" —— One of the most important films of New German Cinema, Germany in Autumn features new-wave directors treating issues that spring from German growing pains in post-War Democracy.

In Schlöndorff's contribution (dir.) he directs a screenplay by Heinrich Böll: "Die verschobene Antigone" (Antigone shelved). A TV company sets out to produce a performance of Antigone, but fears from overseers that the politicized drama may spark retaliation among leftist factions (esp. RAF), the play is rendered so politically neutral that it is finally shelved without airing.

"Perhaps no film uses Greek tragedy as a tool for thinking about modern history as the history of the immediate present in the paradigmatic way the omnibus film Germany in Autumn does. ... Creon's Thebes, like the Germany of 1977, is presented in the film as a 'state in a state of emergency suspending civil rights and curtailing individual freedom.'" P. Michelakis (2013), citing Elsaesser (2004).

Deutschland im Herbst documents authentically and pseudoauthentically events Sept-Oct 1977, the so-called German Autumn, during which a businessman at Daimler-Benz was kidnapped and murdered by terrorists of the RAF (Rote Armee Faktion — Red Brigade). The kidnapping was meant to secure the release of leaders of the RAF, which was known also as the Baader-Mainhof Group. When the plot goes awry, the imprisoned heads of the RAF kill themselves in their cells. Among members of the leftist community their suicide is defended as if they had been killed by the state. Historically, a 45-day emergecy hovers overed over the German (BRD) government. The film intermingles authentic video footage alongside numerous contributions shot as individual scenes by important German film directors and artists: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, the poet Heinrich Böll. Alexander Kluge combined the various contributions into one film with the assistance of Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus.
In the film's final scenes (ca. 1:20:00-1:38:00), Schlöndorff's adaptation of Antigone occurs. Scenes creating a fictitional production of Sophocles' Antigone film are inserted for thematic counterpoint. The premise: a television production of Antigone is considered for broadcast, haggled over, and ultimately shelved by a programming board. The board's rationalle is that the timing for featuring political activism, especially by 'rebellious women', is deemed too volatile; and the adaptation within our film is canned.

P. Michelakis (2013), Greek Tragedy on Screen (OUP), 159-64, citing T. Elsaesser (2004), "Antigone Agonistes: Urban Guerrilla or Guerrilla Urbanism? The Red Army Faction, Germany in Autumn and Death Game", Rouge 4 — http://rouge.com.au/4/antigone.html: accessed Aug2018