Satirical Intermedialities in 'Springtime for Hitler' (1967) and 'If You Could See Her' (1972): a Comparative Study

Abstract

Transgressing the boundaries of fiction and the real world, satire opens a dialogue between the aesthetic and political stakes of a work of art. A comparative analysis of “Springtime for Hitler” and “If You Could See Her”, comic songs from the 20th-century American musical films The Producers (1967) and Cabaret (1972) reveal multiple potentialities offered by intermediality in the construction of satirical meaning. Music critic Werner Wolf theorises narrativity and self-reflective irony as post-medial specific storytelling techniques that transgress media. An analysis of choreography and costume in the two case studies showcases how comic effect is produced through contrast, exposing the underpinnings of homogenising structures within both fascist and democratic contexts. Moreover, the works foreground their intermedialities through the aesthetic mode of Camp, defined in Susan Sontag’s seminal 1964 essay, “Notes on Camp” as a means of creating satirical meaning. Synthesising violent content with humorous form, intermedial interactions in the two case studies feature the employment of Camp–as an aesthetic and political tool–to engage their audience to expose the logical fallacies of the fascist symbolism and ideology that form the targets of musical satire.

Keywords

• intermediality
• satire
• camp
• narrativity
• irony