‘Mädchen in Uniform’: celebrating a landmark moment in queer and feminist cinema history
The history of female and queer representation in cinema is fascinating because, despite the fact that straight men have always dominated the industry, there have been women and gay filmmakers who have slipped through the net and told their stories regardless.
Opportunities for female filmmakers have always been slim, in spite of the fact one of the first-ever directors, Alice Guy-Blaché, was a woman. Unfortunately, men quickly ensured that women were not the ones in charge of telling stories. To keep the patriarchy in order, cinema has prevented women from expressing their feelings on screen or exposing their experiences with misogyny – that would be dangerous. That’s the narrative that seems to have kept the film industry so androcentric for so long.
Systematic sexism and a deliberate lack of opportunities given to aspiring female filmmakers have resulted in a very small percentage of women succeeding in the industry compared to men. Thus, for over a century, cinema has predominantly told stories directed by straight, white men, causing a real lack of representation and diversity on screen.
In the silent era, there were very few active female filmmakers – for half of this period, most women weren’t even able to vote. Yet, in Germany, the Weimar Republic was much more liberal and artistically minded, and many creatives flourished during this period, including women. Although Leontine Sagan was born in either Austria or Hungary (historians aren’t quite sure), she made her first film, Mädchen in Uniform, in Germany during the Weimar period.
Released in 1931, two years before The Weimar Republic came to an end, Mädchen in Uniform was simply groundbreaking. It remains one of the first films in cinema history to contain sapphic themes, as well as being one of the earliest depictions of girlhood by a female director, allowing teenage girls to exert agency on screen.
Lesbianism was quite widespread in Germany during the Weimar period, specifically in Berlin, but it still remained a taboo topic to be depicted on screen. Yet Sagan’s movie challenged this idea and presented the story of a teenage girl, Manuela, who is infatuated with her female school teacher, Fräulein von Bernburg.
She becomes particularly enamoured when her teacher gives her a goodnight kiss on the lips instead of on the forehead, something we see shot in hazy black-and-white. Manuela has a look of love on her face as Bernburg holds her face in her hands and studies her features before deciding to plant the kiss on her lips.
Elsewhere, Mädchen in Uniform sees the girls share their spaces intimately with each other, sometimes stroking one another’s legs or dancing together in a way that we typically see men and women do. Sagan pushed boundaries and created a story that many young women today find relatability and solace in. The movie was also unique for its all-female cast, proving that beautiful films could be made without men appearing in front of the camera – or in the director’s chair.
Unfortunately, because of the film’s controversial themes and imagery, it did not receive a widespread release and was banned by the Nazis. The movie remained unavailable in full until the 1990s, when it was eventually released in the United States for home viewing. This speaks to the censorship that has long affected movies dealing with themes such as lesbianism, perpetuating the idea that queer characters and storylines are taboo and shouldn’t be seen by the mainstream. Even the United Kingdom was late to the game, finally releasing the movie in 2000, 69 years after it was made.
Now, the film is readily available to stream and purchase, and it is well worth your time. The movie is a stunningly shot, radical exploration of ‘unconventional’ teenage romantic feelings, as well as friendship and anti-fascism.
Watch the trailer for Mädchen in Uniform below.
