What's a girl to do when she is surrounded by women in a female boarding school? She falls in love with her female teacher who shares some mutual feelings. This film is not so much about lesbianism as it is about Germany was striving to become so disciplined and unfeeling towards one another. Of course, lesbianism was bound to happen. There were no other options. You have a girl who wants to be loved and love just seems unthinkable in the German culture of the Nazi uprising. Even though this film was made in 1931, the girls' uniforms reminded me of the concentration camps uniforms. The school was trying to discourage close relationships between girls and among teachers and students. I don't think of it much as a lesbian film as a chilling portrait of how Germany was bounded for destruction during World War II. Maybe the film points as a good reminder of how relationships should be encouraged and feelings are human. This school was trying to restrict the girls' humanity into an almost robotlike existence. That's how I always saw this film. I never thought of it as a lesbian film because the girls in the school had no other choice or option. They weren't allowed freedom and that's what the major theme of this movie is. Germany was beginning to restrict it's freedom on their citizens and forcing them to become less human in order to succeed but that's just my opinion.
Review of Mädchen in Uniform
