German Cinema
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 October 2011
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0034
- LAST REVIEWED: 28 October 2011
- LAST MODIFIED: 28 October 2011
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199791286-0034
Introduction
German film has had a uniquely prolific and diverse history. Its output ranges from experimental efforts during the Weimar era, including its renowned Expressionist films; to a heavily controlled nationalized cinema under the Third Reich; to unadventurous but popular genre films from “Western” and “Eastern” industries in the 1950s; to the inquisitive Neue Deutsche Film (New German Cinema) in the late 1960s through the early 1980s; to post-unification fiction films exploring German themes in transnational, multiethnic contexts. Throughout its history, this compelling national cinema has attracted an active group of intellectuals, from cultural critics such as Walter Benjamin and Siegfried Kracauer in the Weimar era to a wide range of contemporary film historians across the globe. It attracts feminist and queer scholars and transnational and ethnic studies scholars. Germany’s two art film movements, Expressionism and the New German Cinema, have generated considerable scholarly discussion, but more recently, popular and even disparaged forms and periods (e.g., the sentimental Heimat film, Nazi cinema, etc.) have received more attention.
General Overviews
Of the overviews available in German, Jacobsen, et al. 2004 is among the most definitive, containing informed overviews of topics related to film production and consumption. Chapters range from experimental film, East German cinema, feminist cinema, “exile films,” and film and television, written by prominent scholars in the field. Another useful introduction is Schneider 1990, which gives a well-researched overview of German film and television industries. In English, Bergfelder, et al. 2002 covers the expanse of German film and emphasizes audience study, archival research, and traditional historiography. Hake 2008 is a concise scholarly overview of the entirety of German film production; it also examines the idea, assumptions, and questions of a “national cinema.” Silberman 1995, while a little older, combines film texts, social and political histories, and critical and theoretical inquiry.
Bergfelder, Tim, Erica Carter, and Deniz Göktürk, eds. The German Cinema Book. London: British Film Institute, 2002.
This sizeable anthology distinguishes itself, almost polemically, from earlier approaches by attending to underexamined periods and filmmaking, such as popular films outside of the Weimar or New German Cinema periods. Its frequent engagement with issues of ethnic diversity and transnationalism makes it one of the most up-to-date collections.
Brockman, Stephen. A Critical History of German Film. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010.
Textbook whose historical overview is provided by discussing canonical film texts; covers a century of filmmaking.
Hake, Sabine. German National Cinemas. 2d ed. London and New York: Routledge, 2008.
Hake is a leading scholar of German film history. This academic book is a straightforward introduction to the topic.
Jacobsen, Wolfgang, Anton Kaes, and Hans Helmut Prinzler, eds. Geschichte des deutschen Films. 2d ed. Stuttgart: Metzler, 2004.
Outstanding anthology that covers a range of topics across over a century of German cinema. Articles include work by top German historians and film scholars.
Schneider, Irmela. Film, Fernsehen & Co.: Zur Entwicklung des Spielfilms in Kino und Fernsehen; Ein Uberblick uber [uber neets an umlaut] Konzepte und Tendenzen. Heidelberg, Germany: C. Winter, 1990.
Overview of feature films in the television and film industries.
Silberman, Marc. German Cinema: Texts in Context. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995.
Silberman’s work is highly recommended for classroom use, situating case studies of individual films within their historical, social, and industrial contexts.
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- 8 ½
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- À bout de souffle
- Accounting, Motion Picture
- Acting
- Action Cinema
- Adaptation
- Advertising and Promotion
- African American Cinema
- African American Stars
- African Cinema
- AIDS in Film and Television
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- Censorship
- Chahine, Youssef
- Chan, Jackie
- Chaplin, Charles
- Children in Film
- Chinese Cinema
- Cinecittà Studios
- Cinema and Media Industries, Creative Labor in
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- Cinematography and Cinematographers
- Cinephilia
- Citizen Kane
- City in Film, The
- Cocteau, Jean
- Coen Brothers, The
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- Color
- Comedy, Film
- Comedy, Television
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- Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI)
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- de Oliveira, Manoel
- Dean, James
- Deleuze, Gilles
- Denis, Claire
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- Design, Art, Set, and Production
- Detective Films
- Dietrich, Marlene
- Digital Media and Convergence Culture
- Directors
- Disability
- Disney, Walt
- Doctor Who
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- Downton Abbey
- Dr. Strangelove
- Dreyer, Carl Theodor
- Eastern European Television
- Eastwood, Clint
- Ecocinema
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- Eisenstein, Sergei
- Elfman, Danny
- Epic Film
- Essay Film
- Ethnographic Film
- European Television
- Exhibition and Distribution
- Exploitation Film
- Fairbanks, Douglas
- Fan Studies
- Fantasy
- Fellini, Federico
- Festivals
- Film Aesthetics
- Film and Literature
- Film Guilds and Unions
- Film, Historical
- Film Noir
- Film Preservation and Restoration
- Film Theory and Criticism, Science Fiction
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- Finance Film, The
- Ford, John
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- Game of Thrones
- Gance, Abel
- Gangster Films
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- Garland, Judy
- German Cinema
- Gilliam, Terry
- Global Television Industry
- Godard, Jean-Luc
- Godfather Trilogy, The
- Godzilla
- Golden Girls, The
- Greek Cinema
- Griffith, D.W.
- Hammett, Dashiell
- Haneke, Michael
- Hawks, Howard
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- Hitchcock, Alfred
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- Jazz Singer, The
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- Keaton, Buster
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- Kracauer, Siegfried
- Kubrick, Stanley
- Lang, Fritz
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- Lee, Ang
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- Lee, Spike
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- Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The
- Los Angeles and Cinema
- Lubitsch, Ernst
- Lumet, Sidney
- Lupino, Ida
- Lynch, David
- Mad Men
- Marker, Chris
- Martel, Lucrecia
- Marxism
- Masculinity in Film
- Media, Community
- Media Ecology
- Melodrama
- Memory and the Flashback in Cinema
- Metz, Christian
- Mexican Cinema
- Micheaux, Oscar
- Ming-liang, Tsai
- Minnelli, Vincente
- Miyazaki, Hayao
- Méliès, Georges
- Modernism and Film
- Monroe, Marilyn
- Mészáros, Márta
- Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood
- Music and Cinema, Global Practices
- Music, Television
- Music Video
- Musicals
- Musicals on Television
- Narrative
- Native Americans
- New Media Art
- New Media Policy
- New Media Theory
- New York City and Cinema
- New Zealand Cinema
- Opera and Film
- Ophuls, Max
- Orphan Films
- Oshima, Nagisa
- Ozu, Yasujiro
- Panh, Rithy
- Pasolini, Pier Paolo
- Passion of Joan of Arc, The
- Peckinpah, Sam
- Pedagogy
- Philosophy and Film
- Photography and Cinema
- Pickford, Mary
- Planet of the Apes
- Poems, Novels, and Plays About Film
- Poitier, Sidney
- Polanski, Roman
- Polish Cinema
- Politics, Hollywood and
- Pop, Blues, and Jazz in Film
- Pornography
- Postcolonial Theory in Film
- Potter, Sally
- Prime Time Drama
- Psycho
- Queer Television
- Queer Theory
- Race and Cinema
- Radio and Sound Studies
- Ray, Nicholas
- Ray, Satyajit
- Reality Television
- Reenactment in Cinema and Media
- Regulation, Television
- Religion and Film
- Remakes, Sequels and Prequels
- Renoir, Jean
- Repo Man
- Resnais, Alain
- Romanian Cinema
- Romantic Comedy, American
- Rossellini, Roberto
- Russian Cinema
- Saturday Night Live
- Scandinavian Cinema
- Scorsese, Martin
- Scott, Ridley
- Searchers, The
- Seinfeld
- Sennett, Mack
- Sesame Street
- Shakespeare on Film
- Silent Film
- Simpsons, The
- Singin' in the Rain
- Sirk, Douglas
- Soap Operas
- Social Class
- Social Media
- Social Problem Films
- Soderbergh, Steven
- Sound Design, Film
- Sound, Film
- Spanish Cinema
- Spanish-Language Television
- Spielberg, Steven
- Sports and Media
- Sports in Film
- Stand-Up Comedians
- Star Trek
- Star Wars
- Stardom
- Stop-Motion Animation
- Streaming Television
- Sturges, Preston
- Superhero Films
- Surrealism and Film
- Taiwanese Cinema
- Talk Shows
- Tarantino, Quentin
- Tarkovsky, Andrei
- Tati, Jacques
- Television Audiences
- Television Celebrity
- Television, History of
- Television Industry, American
- Theater and Film
- Theory, Cognitive Film
- Theory, Critical Media
- Theory, Feminist Film
- Theory, Film
- Theory, Trauma
- Touch of Evil
- Transnational and Diasporic Cinema
- Trinh, T. Minh-ha
- Truffaut, François
- Turkish Cinema
- Twilight Zone, The
- Twin Peaks
- Varda, Agnès
- Vertigo
- Vertov, Dziga
- Video and Computer Games
- Video Installation
- Violence and Cinema
- Virtual Reality
- Visconti, Luchino
- Von Sternberg, Josef
- Von Stroheim, Erich
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- War Film
- Warhol, The Films of Andy
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- Wayne, John
- Weerasethakul, Apichatpong
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- Welles, Orson
- Wenders, Wim
- Whedon, Joss
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