TCF112/New German Cinema

(In German: Neues Deutsches Kino)

Overview of Germany, post WW II

1. 1945 War ended
   • Allied: US, UK, France, USSR
2. 1949 East/West split
   • Federal Republic of Germany (W)
   • German Democratic Republic. (E)
3. 1950s Cold War escalated
4. 1961 Berlin wall erected
5. 1990 Germany reunified

German Film Industry

• After 1945 War ended, Allies control film industry
  • Home-oriented
  • US films dominate theaters
• 1946 Guaranteed Credits Policy
  • Gov't-approved scripts
  • 8-film commitment required
  • 1956 discontinued
• 1961 Tax Break for "Quality" films
  • Controlled by FBW
    • Filmbewertungstelle Wiesbaden
  • Conservative committee
• Film Subsidies Bill ('67)
  • Strengthened FBW
• 1962 Oberhausen Festival
  • Manifesto issued
• Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film (1965) formed
  • Some gov't funding, BUT
    • Projects chosen by journalists
  • Created 2 film schools
  • Created film archive
• Late '60s/70s TV supports indie film

1970s Rise of the New German Cinema

• Wim Wenders
  • Road Movies (his prod. Co.)
  • Itinerant wanderers
  • E.g., Kings of the Road
  • E.g., Wings of Desire
• Volker Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta
  • Contemporary social issues
• Rainer Werner Fassbinder
  • Twisted, dark melodramas

Werner Herzog

• Makes both docs & fiction
• "I am my films"--WH
• Thematics
  • Landscape
    • Mysteriousness
    • Forces beyond human control
    • Forces beyond human understanding
  • Eccentric human behavior
    • The insane
      • E.g., Bruno S.
    • Physically impaired
      • E.g., Land of Silence and Darkness
  • Alternative states of consciousness
    • E.g., hypnosis
• Narrative Structure
  • Journey or quest
    1. Insane quest undertaken by rational men
    2. Reasonable journey by psychotics
• Visual Style
  • Mise-en-scene
    • Striking, bizarre landscapes
  • Cinematography
    • Long, meditative shots of landscape
    • Few close-ups
• Aguirre, Wrath of God stars Klaus Kinski
  • Very contentious relationship--chronicled in My Best Friend (1999)