Episode 14, My Dream of the Dream of Franz Biberkopf by Alfred Döblin, An Epilogue:
Franz has gone mad and consequently most of this final episode takes place inside of his fevered imagination. The symbolism is ratcheted up to incredible, hyperbolic heights. Franz is hoisted up on a cross, Reinhold makes an appearance in Nazi togs. In fact, Reinhold shows up a lot in various guises. He is at one point an opponent to Franz in a boxing ring, symbolizing pure, antagonistic evil. At another time he is whipping Franz as Franz kneels on a pew. They are both wearing makeup which makes them look luridly effeminate and kind of stagy. In another fantasy, Reinhold is equated with Meize, as a sort of love-interest gone wrong and rotten. Clearly, Franz is feeling deeply betrayed and confused.
All of Franz's ex-es show up, at first hostile and sneering. Later on they become mere ill omens, singing about death and standing around morbidly. Meize is only ever shown dead. Even when she is moving and speaking, Franz acknowledges her as being dead. Eva is made into a mother, as Franz suckles at her teat and dresses her as the virgin Mary. It's very extreme and tremendous fun for a while. It's a great change of pace from the usual (relatively) straight-faced storytelling.
There's many call-backs to previous characters: the Jews from the first episode, the fruit-gang, the shoelace-merchant, the salvation army, the satanic monk, Meck, Reinhold. They draw a parallel between the nefarious actions of the shoelace merchant and Reinhold, an obvious connection I'd totally missed. In both cases, a smarter, eviler man uses Franz to exploit a woman. There is an obvious parallel left for us to draw between Reinhold/shoelace merchant and Hitler and between Franz and the German populace.
Another point made which completely escaped me is how childish Franz is. He clings to women like they are his mothers. He seems best suited to Meize, because of her childish demeanor. Here, at last, was a woman on-par with his childishness. This characteristic also made him very lovable throughout the show. He comes off as cruel and stupid and, well, he is cruel and stupid, but he is also pathetic and well-meaning. He is lazy, jealous, and deeply flawed, but also soulful, vital, and noble in his own way. He is the ugly, beautiful human animal, reflecting the vices and virtues of all of mankind.
The episode revolves around Franz trying to accept the death of Meitze and come to terms with Reinhold. He imagines himself a religious penitent, begging forgiveness for his life of crime. He imagines himself insane, seeking to blame his actions on mere misfiring neurons. He imagines himself to be an animal in a slaughterhouse, passively being victimized. He hysterically imagines himself to be Jesus, suffering for some greater good. During this last fantasy, an atomic bomb goes off and the narrator declares that the man we know as Franz is dead and that another man has now taken his place. It's very Lynchian for a moment (the rest of the fantasy is much more stagy and aggressive, more like Jodorowsky.) Then we are back in the real world. Reinhold gets a mere 10 years in prison (we discover, oddly, that his is in love with his cell-mate. He is as confused as we, but perhaps his woman-troubles are more explicable now.) and Eva tells Franz his child is dead.
So endeth the lesson. The show was mostly a morality play, I think. Franz begins the film with a reprieve, a second chance. His struggle to be do good by that chance mirrors Germany's struggle to stay out of another conflict. Franz's slow slide back into vice reflects Germany's slide back into militarism and fascism. The show is more interested in the literal, real-world, moral compromises of Franz than it is in building a neat allegory, which lead to my being kind of confused by the there-and-gone-again connections.
The show spends a lot of time primly moralizing on Franz's actions, judging him but remaining optimistic and charitable. In the final episode, two angels follow Franz for a while. They cheerfully pile up imaginary dead bodies and teasingly push Franz to accept responsibility and guilt. They are willfully absurd and oblique and I believe they reflect the attitude of the show to a great extent. The show is playful and absurd, morbidly wallowing in Franz's ugly squalor but always reminding us again of his fundamental humanity. The show is ultimately on Franz's side, but doesn't give him a free pass. It's more intelligent and nuanced than that.
It's also very long and takes its time reaching any point. This is a blessing if you like nuance but a curse if you like incisive wit. I am glad the show is over however. It was very morbid and grim. It was difficult to parse (I still, for example, am not sure what the bird-cages are really meant to signify and I have no idea what that machine in the center of Franz's apartment is (a printing press? a cotton gin?)) which was wearying after a while (there's only so many times I can write "I don't know" before I begin to wonder what I do know.) An interesting series, but more interesting in hindsight. I started off looking in a slightly wrong direction and I think the show got away from me a bit. I get the sense that it would have been a bit too deep and subtle for me in any case though. I may have to return to this show someday.
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