European film industries without the Nazis &/or WWII

Before the Nazis took over, Germany was home to the world's second-largest film industry. All that changed from 1933 onward, as the Nazis jailed/drove out many of the top contributors to this industry. And after WWII and the Cold War division of Europe, Hollywood's dominance in global cinema was firmly secured.

Assuming either a surviving Weimar government or a more Leftist government in 1930s Germany, how would their movie industry develop? And what alternate ways would the medium develop elsewhere in Europe?

I'll admit that my knowledge of interwar European movies is focused on Germany and the early USSR. So anyone more familiar with what the rest of the continent was producing in those years is welcome to respond.
 

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Hollywood was an increasingly dominant world force and would likely only increase over time. The thing is without the 2nd world war German as a language and culture wouldn't be internationally reviled by the late 1940s, so would likely recover for the WW1 hit it took and remain an education and science hub of the world and with that a major language in Europe. American wouldn't outright dominate the globe like it did after WW2 and Britain would decline in importance as its colonies slipped away eventually, while Germany would largely prosper eventually after the world continued to move in the direction of a more free trade environment. German cinema in that environment would likely be very big in Europe and around the world, but a distance 2nd to English language cinema by Hollywood. The Nazis actually helped fund and rebuild the German studios after the Great Depression, so despite losing some of their biggest names (who would likely eventually leave for bigger pay days in the US eventually) in some ways Nazi needs for propaganda actually saved German cinema in the 1930s. Its kind of hard to say what would have happened without that Fascist revival of cinema for propaganda purposes, but just given that the German language market in Europe wouldn't be diminished by the mass death of Germans and German speaking communities all over, plus of course the total destruction of Germany as a country for several years and only started recovering seriously in the late 1940s, it would still be a major force in Europe, but still subsumed by US cinema and likely somewhat niche globally. It would still certainly be bigger than French cinema and probably British as well and certainly much more than any other country in Europe even the USSR. I think its going to come down to having more money in their domestic market plus interest in the culture and language globally that will keep them relevant. So long as they keep making avante garde films they will stay artistically relevant like how the German Expressionists of the 1920s revived German cinema after the Great War.
 
I agree with a lot of wiking's analysis of things regarding the Germans as well as the inevitable growth of Hollywood. German film wouldn't receive the same funding and support that the Nazis directed to the studios, that being said a lot of German film stars and directors would stay in Germany and so while funding might be up in the air or variable, they'd still have a lot of talent (notable names off the top of my head include Fritz Lang and Marlene Dietrich who fled the Nazis historically) staying in Germany. With that talent staying there, you won't have German Expressionism coming over to the states, which impacts things like the Noir genre, which stylistically was heavily influenced by German Expressionism.

French Cinema would likely continue on its course, as would the English, though with the Americans not developing Noir (or not a version of Noir we're familiar with) as well as Hollywood not taking the path it did historically, it's possible the French New Wave doesn't occur, or if it does occur does in a way that is atypical (perhaps the French New Wave directors are inspired by another nation's directors or are inspired by US productions but later on). Unfortunately if the French New Wave doesn't occur or happens in a way different to how it did so in real-life, this will affect the emergence of the American New Wave which was influenced by the French New Wave as well as later Italian spaghetti westerns and Japanese cinema, so we might not have Spielburg and a bunch of the other greats rising up in Hollywood, or at least not in the ways we know they did histirocally. Italian Neo-Realism also is likely to never occur, or as a film movement might occur somewhere else. Italian Neo-Realism was a direct byproduct of the Italian studios being government-run and targeted in Allied bombing raids, leaving Italian film-makers with no studios in the immediate post-war period. Additionally with the Italians I imagine the Italian spaghetti western movements and other developments in Italian cinema will be affected though I'm not knowledgeable enough about Italian cinema to say how it could change.

Depending on if the wars in Asia don't happen we'd also see be likely to see interesting things in China and Japan. Most Chinese cinemas shut down due to the war, but had been undergoing a "Golden Age" in the preceding decade, producing a number of movies through local studios. Such films were largely leftist in focus (though not explicitly communist left) and would focus on the plight of the poor and such, so if no war occurs I'd imagine this would likely continue, films mixing showcasing the plight of the poor with Chinese nationalism and eventually likely dividing politically between communist sympathetic and anti-communist film makers. As for Japan, my knowledge of their film industry is limited, what little I know indicated that a fair amount of cinema was supported by the government in order to express nationalist overtones and such. I'd imagine Japanese cinema would likely to continue to be largely nationalistic, opting to depict Japan's recent historical victories (Sino-Japanese War of 1895, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, the invasion of Manchuria) as well as going into more historical works depicting feudal Japanese history as they did in the post-war. It'd be interesting to see how things might shift or be different as folks like Kurosawa come onto the scene, as well as if perhaps animation might get off the ground earlier in Japan, as their were some endeavors into animated productions though to my understanding animated films and shows never really began in earnest until the 1950s in Japan. One minor note though with Japan, if no war and thus no usage of the nuke then Godzilla likely won't be made, or if it does will likely not have the same focus and tone relating to nuclear energy.

Otherwise, the only other thing I'd make not of would be how long it takes Hollywood to shake off things like the Hayes Code. Historically that had been getting weaker and weaker in it's enforcement as American cinema went into the 1950s and after Bonnie and Clyde (1967) and The Graduate (1967), the Code was effectively dead, getting replaced in 1968 with the MPAA. Since those films were reliant on the American New Wave which might not be happening or will be occurring in some different way, it's possible the Code's phasing out might be delayed, though it was on its way either way with those films only being the final nail in the coffin. Additionally, only other thing of note is that aside from the Germans who fled to Hollywood who won't in this timeline, its possible other foreigners such as Billy Wilder and Alfred Hitchcock might not move to the United States to work in Hollywood, though that'd largely be up in the air.
 
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