Film society to show 'Hitler's Hollywood' documentary Aug. 27 at the Tivoli

The After Hours Film Society presents the documentary "Hitler's Hollywood: German Cinema in the Age of Propaganda: 1933-45" at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 27, at Classic Cinemas Tivoli Theatre, 5021 Highland Ave. in Downers Grove.

German filmmaker Rüdiger Suchsland suggests that the Third Reich was essentially an immersive movie starring the German nation, produced and directed by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.

The documentary, narrated by Udo Kier, collages key films from the more than 1,000 features the Nazis produced from musicals, melodramas, romances, costume dramas, war films - and when the real war got tough, insanely lavish, over-the-top fantasies.

The philosopher and political theorist Hannah Arendt, who wrote about the Nazis and the "banality of evil," gives perspective and context: "One of the chief characteristics of modern masses … (is) they do not trust their eyes and ears, but only their imaginations. What convinces masses are not facts, not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the illusion."

Suchsland's first documentary on German film, "From Caligari to Hitler," was based on Siegfried Kracauer's 1947 book of the same title. It focused on the cinema of the Weimar Republic, highlighting many of the masterpieces by Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau, G.W. Pabst.

Established in 1989, the After Hours Film Society screens foreign, classic and specialty films on the second and fourth Monday of the month at the historic 1928 Tivoli Theatre.

Each presentation followed by a group discussion led by educators and film professionals.

Admission is $10, $6 for members. Complimentary coffee and cookies after the film. Live pre-film entertainment on a 1924 Wurlitzer theater organ. For information, visit www.afterhoursfilmsociety.com.