COM 320, History of Film Young German Cinema/New German Cinema (1960's and 1970's-c.1990, respectively)

Origins: -Oberhausen Manifesto of 1962, product of 26 writers and filmmakers who had accepted West German government grants; West German govt. funding of films/TV presentations followed; 1967 Film Subsidies Board; 1974 Film/Television Agreement -Early importance of Volker Schlondorff (trained with Malle, Resnais, Jean-Pierre Melville), Alexander Kluge (one of the Oberhausen spokesmen), Margarethe von Trotta (established a “female aesthetic”) -Soon thereafter, the darlings of international film festivals: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders

Substance: -The movement emerged in a national environment of “forgetting” the Nazi past -However, across a wide variety of contexts, “diffused or denied responsibility” is a repeated theme -Also, the individual or “typical” person’s perspective is presented - The NGC auteurs were politically sensitized, but this is often submerged in their films; Auteurs not a coherent group

Form: -Variety of styles--but lacking the “slick” American style of fast editing, classic 3-point lighting, etc. -Late, some films (e.g., Michael Verhoeven’s The Nasty Girl, Lars von Trier’s Zentropa) used a unique style of composite shot

Impacts on films to follow: -A revival of the “International Style,” as well as an impetus toward a “World Market” (e.g., Schlondorff, Wenders, Herzog)

Key works: Young Torless, 1964, Volker Schlondorff Aguirre, the Wrath of God, 1972, Werner Herzog Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, 1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder Fox and His Friends, 1975, R. W. Fassbinder The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, 1975, Margarethe von Trotta The Marriage of Maria Braun, 1978, R. W. Fassbinder The Tin Drum, 1979, Volker Schlondorff Nosferatu the Vampyre, 1979, Werner Herzog Das Boot, 1981, The German Sisters, 1981, Margarethe von Trotta Querelle, 1982, R. W. Fassbinder , 1982, Werner Herzog , 1988, Wim Wenders The Nasty Girl, 1990, Michael Verhoeven

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