Janine Groeschel

Minutes 10/18/04

GERM 3160

We will be watching Fear Eats the Soul on Wednesday.

New German Cinema (Mvmt)

            -Began 1962 and ended in 1982

Pre New German Film (1945-1962)

            (Post WWII films – Oberhausen Films)

*Please see slides that were emailed to us*

Genres:

-Trummerfilme (rubble films):  These were more demanding.  Made on location in the rubble of Germany.  Reminded audience of what the war had caused.  It showed how it had devastated their lives.

-Heimatfilme (Homeland films):  films about Germany’s pre war past, bucolic and uncritical.

Themes:

-Escape into countryside (Heimat Films)

            -West German films

            -Germany becomes home to hundreds of thousands of refugees, they were without        a homeland.  They liked movies that allowed them to escape to their homeland.  It

            Was a nostalgic view of a fairytale place – what was lost.

-Escape into history (Historical Romances)

            -PRE-WWI – before 1914.  (Sense & Sensibility type films)

-Escape into comedy and comic erotica (sex farces)

            -These were not pornographic but heavy on lighthearted sexual themes..

-War/Rehabilitation of military

            - An attempt to rehabilitate the military.  Germany joined NATO in the 50’s

Early Post-war Films:

            -The Murderers Are Among Us (W. Staudte, 1946)

                        -This movie was made by the Soviet Sector.  Focused on Nazis that were

                        non-rehabilitative who lived among them. 

                        -Non-vigilante justice

                        -Speech of “justice will prevail”

            -Somewhere in Berlin (G. Lamprecht, 1946)

                        -East German Film

                        -Father comes home.  He has no job, and no work because his shop was

                        ruined from the war.  He becomes depressed, but 10 yr. old son cleans up

                        rubble around shop so the father can rebuild his life.  A film of inspiration for Germans in the east sector to work together to build a new Germany.

-Fifties musicals, comedies, and Heimat Films:

            -Heidelberger Romanze (P. Verhöven, 1951)

                        -Similar to The Student Prince

            -Am Brunnen vor dem Tore (1952)

                        -From well known German folk song “The well in front of the Gate”

            -Der Förster vom Silberwald   (“The Forest from Silver Woods”)

                        -An escape into romantic times

-War Films:

            -Children, Mothers and a General (L. Benedek, 1954)

                        -About 14 and 15 year olds being drafted.  The film implies that it was not

                        due to a mistake that young boys were sent to front.

                        -Obscure Nazi philosophy that the leaders made bad decisions

            -Sharks and Small Fish (F. Wisbar, 1957)

                        -Marine movie

            -The Bridge (B. Wicki, 1959) 

            -Dogs Do You Want to Live Forever (F. Wisbar, 1959)

                        -About battle of Stalingrad

                        -Last scene:  defeat of the 6^th army who then goes to Soviet camps

                        -Soldiers are doing their duty but the leaders were not.

            -Wir Wunderkinder

                        -First comedy about the Nazis.  It was laughing at the Germans of the time

                        -Severely criticized, especially later as too uncritical of the past.

Criticisms of Pre Oberhausen films:

-Misery glossed over

-Nazis seen as anonymous power

-Nazism seen as personal sin of Hitler

-Lack of critical stance to past:  Just happens to be there (becomes almost ahistorical)

-Confirmed prejudices and biases – “we were just doing our duty”

-Restoration of Nazi directors

            -These were people who made movies for the Nazis, and now turn around and make movies about the Nazis   *Ironic*

            -The stars of some of these movies were actually convicted of war crimes.

            -Revisionism

-Oberhausen Manifesto:

            -26 signatories

            -Declared old style films (“Opas Kino”) dead.  These directors would not make            films like these

            -Fifties films too commercial

            -Fifties films too uncritical

            -Ushered in New German Cinema

New German Cinema:

            -Rainer Werner Fassbinder

            -Wim Wenders

            -Ula Stöckl (First woman of NGC)

            -Werner Herzog

            -Volker Schlöndorff

            -Margarethe von Trotta (arguably most successful woman of era – feminism)

-Initial American Reception

            -Amateurish

            -Technically clumsy

            -Obscure

            -Distanced, detached, cool (cold)

            -Very low budget

            -Lack entertaining quality of French films

            -Lack sweetness of Czech films

            -Lacked philosophical depth of Bergman (Scandinavia)

Critics asked, “why do we want to watch this”

*Please read the critics comments on the slides that were sent out*