German Cinema
Last year we discussed a variety of film ideas, directors, and actors coming from German cinema. A brief outline of these include: German Expressionism, Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), and Carl Boese and Paul Wegener's The Golem: How He Came Into the World (1920).
The Expressionist movement died down during the mid-1920s, but it continued to influence world cinema for years afterward. Its influence is particular noticeable in American and European horror films and film noir.
We spent some time viewing Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis (1927) and discussing the German production company Declar. Fritz Lang, one of the greatest early German film directors, also produced M (1931) starring Peter Lorre, Doctor Mabuse (193 ), The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (
and Woman in the Moon (1929)
After the influence of Expressionism began to fade a variety of other genres and styles developed in the 1920s. Movies influenced by the New Objectivity tackled social themes and returned to gritty realism, among them films by Georg Wilhelm Pabst such as Joyless Street (Die Freudlose Gasse) (1925) with Greta Garbo, and Pandora's Box (1929) with Louise Brooks. The movement uses reality and characters in terms of inanimate objects and personal possessions. Often associated with "street films." The influence of New Objectivity may also be seen in the trend towards so-called "asphalt" and "morality" films which dealt with "scandalous" subjects like abortion, prostitution, homosexuality, oral sex and drug addiction. American films were to pick this idea up in the 1970's and 1980's.
The occupation and reconstruction of Germany in the period immediately after the end of World War II brought a major change to the economic conditions under which the industry in Germany had operated. Many German films of the immediate post-war period are characterised as Trümmerfilm (literally "rubble film"). These films show strong affinities with the work of Italian neorealists.
The international significance of the West German film industry of the 1950s could no longer measure up to that of America, Britain, France, Italy, or Japan. German films were only rarely distributed internationally. Numerous German production and distribution companies went out of business in the 1950s and 1960s.
As a reaction to the artistic and economic stagnation of German cinema, a group of young film-makers issued the Oberhausen Manifesto on February 28, 1962. Members included Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schamoni and Franz Josef Spieker, who declared "Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen" ("The old cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema"). Other up-and-coming filmmakers allied themselves to this group, among them Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub, Wim Wenders, Werner Schroeter and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.
Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) with pet German actor Klaus Kinski, Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), and Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) found international acclaim and critical approval. Often the work of these director/auteurs was first recognised abroad rather than in Germany itself. The work of post-war Germany's leading novelists Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass provided source material for the adaptations The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) (by Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta) and The Tin Drum (1979) (by Schlöndorff alone) respectively, the Tin Drum becoming the first German film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The New German Cinema also helped female directors develop a feminist cinema which encompassed the works of directors such as Von Trotta, Helma Sanders-Brahms and Helke Sander.
Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of The NeverEnding Story (1984), and the internationally successful Das Boot (1981), which still holds the record for most Academy Award nominations for a German film (six), both were U.S. box office hits in the early 80's.
Recent film releases such as Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer, Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker, Head-On by Fatih Akin, Downfall by Oliver Hirschbiegel, and Academy Award winner The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck have managed to recapture the innovative and creative nature of 1970s New German cinema. A number of these films address the nature of totalitarianism in 20th Century Germany. A reminder of Germany's past and potential future.
The Expressionist movement died down during the mid-1920s, but it continued to influence world cinema for years afterward. Its influence is particular noticeable in American and European horror films and film noir.
We spent some time viewing Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis (1927) and discussing the German production company Declar. Fritz Lang, one of the greatest early German film directors, also produced M (1931) starring Peter Lorre, Doctor Mabuse (193 ), The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (
and Woman in the Moon (1929)
After the influence of Expressionism began to fade a variety of other genres and styles developed in the 1920s. Movies influenced by the New Objectivity tackled social themes and returned to gritty realism, among them films by Georg Wilhelm Pabst such as Joyless Street (Die Freudlose Gasse) (1925) with Greta Garbo, and Pandora's Box (1929) with Louise Brooks. The movement uses reality and characters in terms of inanimate objects and personal possessions. Often associated with "street films." The influence of New Objectivity may also be seen in the trend towards so-called "asphalt" and "morality" films which dealt with "scandalous" subjects like abortion, prostitution, homosexuality, oral sex and drug addiction. American films were to pick this idea up in the 1970's and 1980's.
The occupation and reconstruction of Germany in the period immediately after the end of World War II brought a major change to the economic conditions under which the industry in Germany had operated. Many German films of the immediate post-war period are characterised as Trümmerfilm (literally "rubble film"). These films show strong affinities with the work of Italian neorealists.
The international significance of the West German film industry of the 1950s could no longer measure up to that of America, Britain, France, Italy, or Japan. German films were only rarely distributed internationally. Numerous German production and distribution companies went out of business in the 1950s and 1960s.
As a reaction to the artistic and economic stagnation of German cinema, a group of young film-makers issued the Oberhausen Manifesto on February 28, 1962. Members included Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schamoni and Franz Josef Spieker, who declared "Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen" ("The old cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema"). Other up-and-coming filmmakers allied themselves to this group, among them Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub, Wim Wenders, Werner Schroeter and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg.
Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) with pet German actor Klaus Kinski, Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), and Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) found international acclaim and critical approval. Often the work of these director/auteurs was first recognised abroad rather than in Germany itself. The work of post-war Germany's leading novelists Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass provided source material for the adaptations The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) (by Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta) and The Tin Drum (1979) (by Schlöndorff alone) respectively, the Tin Drum becoming the first German film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The New German Cinema also helped female directors develop a feminist cinema which encompassed the works of directors such as Von Trotta, Helma Sanders-Brahms and Helke Sander.
Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation of The NeverEnding Story (1984), and the internationally successful Das Boot (1981), which still holds the record for most Academy Award nominations for a German film (six), both were U.S. box office hits in the early 80's.
Recent film releases such as Run Lola Run by Tom Tykwer, Good Bye Lenin! by Wolfgang Becker, Head-On by Fatih Akin, Downfall by Oliver Hirschbiegel, and Academy Award winner The Lives of Others by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck have managed to recapture the innovative and creative nature of 1970s New German cinema. A number of these films address the nature of totalitarianism in 20th Century Germany. A reminder of Germany's past and potential future.
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