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Unnatural (1952 West Germany)

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 3:50 pm    Post subject: Unnatural (1952 West Germany) Reply with quote

________

* The poster is very appealing. I'd like to see other works of art by the person who created it.

Also released as "Alraune".

Obscure West German film whose basic premise implies that if a human is conceived by artificial insemination they would have no soul (!).

Erich von Stroheim plays the scientist who conducts an experiment in artificial insemination. Hildegarde Neff is the "unnatural" woman he creates. The concept seems illogical unless you accept the film's premise that the soul is "created" by the two mating partners at the same instant the egg is fertilized.

Directed by Arthur Maria Rabenalt.

Regardless of how one feels about the concept of souls, (whether they exist, how they're created, etc.), it's actually not that hard to believe that some people have souls and others do not.

Religious views aside (if that's possible, given the subject matter) I sometimes wonder if the truly evil people in this world differ from the more humane folks for just this reason.

After all, if souls do exist, they form a kind of symbiosis with the physical body. Religions claim that the body dies, but the soul keeps going and going like that unstoppable bionic Lepus.

If souls do exist and we're just a teeny bit wrong about who made them (God), along with the idea that everybody has one (like a guarantee from the manufacturer), then maybe some folks do have souls and some folks don't.

It would certainly explain a lot about the world we live in, eh?

_________________
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Nov 24, 2022 11:04 pm; edited 8 times in total
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scotpens
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Joined: 19 Sep 2014
Posts: 871
Location: The Left Coast

PostPosted: Tue May 19, 2015 10:30 pm    Post subject: Re: Unnatural (1952 West Germany) Reply with quote

Wiki has some interesting info on the original 1911 novel, the medieval legend that inspired it, the various film versions and the story's influence on other media.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alraune

In the novel, Alraune's mother is a prostitute whom the scientist artificially impregnates with the seed of an executed murderer. (No, I don't know how he obtained it -- and I don't think I want to. Rolling Eyes )


Bud Brewster wrote:
Regardless of how one feels about the concept of souls, (whether they exist, how they're created, etc.), it's actually not that hard to believe that some people have souls and others do not.

Well, some people definitely have soul.

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