ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by differentiating two cohorts of films aimed at preventing venereal diseases, produced before 1918, and during the interwar period. While both cohorts presented treatment against sexually transmitted diseases as a coming-of-age experience, the agents and structures aimed at making men more mature shifted significantly, moving from a focus on the figure of the physician to the role of the entire complex of public health institutions. The comparative analysis of Il était une fois trois amis (Once upon a time there were three friends, 1927), and Damaged lives (1933) nuances the different roles of the Bildungsroman structure in producing interwar health films for men, including an exploration of the positive aspects of becoming an adult as a possible frame for health propaganda. The Czech health film, Osudná chvíle (Fortuitous moment, 1935), is explored as an example of double Bildungsroman, which charts the different trajectories for becoming adults for men and women as an output of experiencing disease. The exclusion of women from the systematic measures for preventing venereal diseases in the film is compared to the medical practices concerning women who became infected by their husbands.
