Der Bomberpilot

The story of three not-so-talented cabaret singers, who entertained the German troops in the war, and who try to make a comeback performing for American GIs in the early 50s, Bomberpilot is a kind of kitsch tragedy of unfulfilled expectations. The three rather pitiful camp-followers live in a projected world of glamour and showbiz glory, drawn from their imaginations and trivial literature. One German critic observed, “So vicarious living becomes a true essential life. The content of these lives becomes all that schmaltz in word, image, and sound which the first half of the 20th century has dribbled down onto German sentiment and the German soul. It's great how the author of this film manages (except for a few passages) to proceed from parodistic, playful beginnings to gradually more and more tragical components, how he succeeds in increasingly illuminating the dreamworld of these three insignificant women, without using other than filmic means. The camera itself has become the psychiatrist watching the patient on the couch.”

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