Rape Culture and Dialectical Montage: A Radical Reframing of Menschen am Sonntag (1930)

By reframing Menschen am Sonntag (1930; People on Sunday) in terms of rape culture, this article makes radical revisions to previous scholarship. In examining the relationship between form and content, a pattern of three chase scenes emerges that situate the characters in a culture of urban decay and sexual assault. This analysis demonstrates how the filmmakers employ dialectical strategies of montage, juxtaposing these chase scenes with the well-known documentary sequences of the city in order to mock the characters and deliver a bleak message about sexual relations in the Weimar era. In the process, the article reveals the lack of attention to sexual violence in Menschen am Sonntag and suggests that common assumptions about the film be reconsidered.