Actress Uschi Glas revealed her disappointment over the opportunities she missed within the Young German Film movement, specifically mentioning influential directors such as Fassbinder, Wenders, and Herzog. Despite starring in the highly successful 1968 film, “Zur Sache, Schätzchen”, she asserted to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that she was systematically excluded from the creative circle.
According to Glas, the primary reason for the rejection was her political neutrality. She recounted that the Young German Film scene was entirely left-wing, and she was told she was outside the circle because she neither supported Ariel Sharon’s cause (referencing the implied Arafat reference) nor celebrated Communism or the GDR. She strongly felt that the pressure she faced during that time felt like coercion, stating that she could not “sell her soul”.
While at first she endured the lack of arthouse roles, Glas admitted that she never expected the directors to remain firm in their rejection, especially since she had just completed a commercially triumphant film of the era. As a result, she shifted her focus entirely to commercial entertainment films. Although she always aimed to make high-quality movies and play interesting roles, she admitted that she never pursued her career simply for self-realization; it was her source of income. She noted that in the years following her exclusion from the young directors, she worked in films that were often derogatorily labeled as “old men’s cinema” or comedies that proved popular with the general public.
Glas concluded by drawing a parallel between the present and the past. She stated that the current political discourse reminded her strongly of the 1960s, finding the contemporary political climate anything but unfamiliar.
