DOCSLIB.ORG

Stehle October 3, 2014

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

REVUE D’ÉTUDES INTERCULTURELLES DE L’IMAGE JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL IMAGE STUDIES IMAGINATIONS JOURNAL OF CROSS_CULTURAL IMAGE STUDIES | REVUE D’ÉTUDES INTERCULTURELLES DE L’IMAGE Publication details, including open access policy and instructions for contributors: http://imaginations.csj.ualberta.ca “Askew Positions—Schieflagen: Depictions of Children in German Terrorism Films” Maria Stehle October 3, 2014 To Cite this Article: Stehle, Maria. “Askew Positions—Schieflagen: Depictions of Children in German Ter- rorism Films” Imaginations 5:2 (2014): Web (date accessed) 46-66. DOI: 10.17742/IM- AGE.TGVC.5-2.4 To Link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE. TGVC.5-2.4 The copyright for each article belongs to the author and has been published in this journal under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial NoDerivatives 3.0 license that allows others to share for non-commercial purposes the work with an acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and initial publication in this journal. The content of this article represents the author’s original work and any third-party content, either image or text, has been included under the Fair Dealing exception in the Canadian Copyright Act, or the author has provided the required publication permissions. ASKEW POSITIONS—SCHIEFLAGEN ASKEW POSITIONS—SCHIEFLAGEN: DEPICTIONS OF CHILDREN IN GERMAN TERRORISM FILMS MARIA STEHLE THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, KNOXVILLE This essay discusses the appearance of children Cet article examine la représentation des in films that negotiate the legacies of West left- enfants dans des films qui traitent du legs wing German and global terrorism. The four du parti gauchiste de l’Allemagne de l’ouest films discussed in this essay depict children in et du terrorisme international. Les quatre Schieflagen (askew positions), but use these films analysés montrent des enfants en images to create rather different political postures critiques (Schieflagen), mais utilisent messages. In Deutschland im Herbst (1978), ces images pour transmettre des messages Die bleierene Zeit (1981) and Innere Sicherheit politiques radicalement différents. Dans (2000), children are melodramatic devices that Deutschland im Herbst (1978), Die Bleierene convey a sense of national tragedy, nostalgia Zeit (1981), et Innere Sicherheit (2000), les for “innocence,” and/or a nationally coded enfants sont des outils mélodramatiques qui sense of hope. As opposed to representing such communiquent un sens de tragédie nationale, an uncanny mixture between melodramatic de nostalgie pour l’ « innocence », et/ou un victim and national symbol, children in the sentiment d’espoir national. D’autre part, recent film collaboration Deutschland 09 au lieu de représenter un mélange inquiétant (2009) are the face of the present. Deutschland entre victime mélodramatique et symbole 09 depicts children as disconnected from national, les enfants dans le récent film German history, which relieves them of the Deutschland 09 (2009) se font symboles du burden of national representation and, as a présent. Deutschland 09 montre des enfants result, offers a potential for a less normative déconnectés de l’histoire allemande, ce qui and more diverse perspective on Germany’s les soulage du fardeau de la représentation history and present. While their missing nationale, et par conséquent offre la possibilité connection to national history leaves them d’une perspective moins normative et plus to appear detached and confused, this variée sur l’Allemagne des livres d’histoire confusion can be read as a search for different ainsi que sur l’Allemagne d’aujourd’hui. understandings of history and belonging in Bien que leur détachement face à l’histoire twenty-first century Germany. nationale les représente comme déconnectés et perdus, cette déroute peut se lire comme une quête interprétative du sens de l’histoire et de l’appartenance à l’Allemagne du vingt- et-unième siècle. IMAGINATIONS • ISSUE 5 - 2, 2014 • 46 STEHLE The online version of the British paper Daily about what roles child protagonists play in Mail calls the US American film Extremely cinematic depictions of violence, trauma, and Loud and Incredibly Close (2011) “the worst terrorism. More specifically of interest to this film ever to be nominated for Best Picture essay are depictions of children in films about at the Oscars”1 and tries to explain this political terrorism and its aftermath in the nomination by the fact that the film addresses German context. While scholarly discourse one of the most traumatic events of our times, has grappled with German terrorism films in the terrorist attacks of 9/11, by following the general, especially following the international search of a boy for traces of his father who success of the film Der Baader Meinhof was killed in the attacks. The main complaint Komplex (Baader Meinhof Complex, 2008),4 in this particular review does not refer to not many researchers have addressed the the way in which the film addresses the appearance of children, in spite of the fact that aftermath of the 9/11 attacks; it focuses on the children are rather prominent in German films portrayal of the child, which the reviewer calls that depict the effects of left-wing terrorism. “obnoxious,” “contrived,” and “trivializing.” In this essay, I argue that children in terrorism Two years prior to the premier of this film, the films are the embodiments of different kinds critically acclaimed film by Austrian director of Schieflagen, a term taken from the title of Michael Haneke, Das weiße Band (The White a short film from the collection Deutschland Ribbon, 2009), was released. Set just before the 09. I use Schieflagen to describe the “askew outbreak of WWI in a small German village, positions” that child characters take in the the town’s children are the “terrorizers.” Most context of these narratives; the term also popular media reviews read these abused allows me to explore how, through such child and suppressed children as representing a characters, films address the difficult situation generation of Germans that would later that terrorism and violence create in twentieth support Nazi Germany.2 The subtitle of the and twenty-first century Germany. The film, “eine deutsche Kindergeschichte”—“a films interpret these Schieflagen—and their German children’s story,” further emphasizes implications of Germany, German history, and what makes this film exceptional: it is a national identity—rather differently. After first children’s story in that it depicts the lives of discussing three films that link child characters children but tells a very brutal, frightening directly to Germany’s national past and tale full of mystery and suspense.3 These two identity, the second part of this essay focuses contemporary and popular films offer rather on the collaborative film project Deutschland different representations of children and 09, which complicates the connection between terror and/or terrorism. Nonetheless, both representations of children and national films choose children as central protagonists history in its depiction of children as detached to address the topics of terrorism and terror from Germany’s past. This detachment means in a broader sense. In both films, the children that rather than symbolizing a national past, also appear to be somewhat uncanny and present, and future, the child characters unpredictable; at the same time, the child in Deutschland 09 pose questions about character(s) are clearly nationally coded belonging and progress that go beyond the and intricately tied to national histories and national perspectives suggested in previous futures, be it in a search for national healing terrorism films. and recovery in post 9/11 America or as a foreboding sign of Germany’s Nazi atrocities. I understand “terrorism films” as German films that negotiate the legacy of West German National codings of child-characters in terrorism, mainly left-wing terrorism in the terrorism films pose a more general question 1970s and early 1980. The early twenty- 47 • ISSUE 5 - 2, 2014 • IMAGINATIONS ASKEW POSITIONS—SCHIEFLAGEN first century saw a wave of such films, most To offer a critical examination of the role famously Der Baader Meinhof Komplex of child protagonists in German terrorism (2008), but others include Baader (2002), Die films, I first contextualize my more detailed Innere Sicherheit (The State I am In, 2000), discussions of four German films about the docu-drama Todesspiel (1997), and the terrorism within a more general discussion documentary Black Box BRD (2001). In parts, of child protagonists in film. Then I survey this renewed interest in the mainly home- images of children in two West German films, grown terrorism that shook West Germany Deutschland im Herbst (Germany in Autumn, in the 1970s and into the 1980s is a result of 1978) and Die Bleierne Zeit (Marianne and the discussions surrounding global terrorism Julianne, 1981), and in a more recent German and the kinds of politics it produced in the film, Die Innere Sicherheit (The State I am In, aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. These films 2000). The following, more detailed, discussion about the legacies of German terrorism are of Deutschland 09 (2009) allows me to argue also part of a wave of so-called “heritage films” that some of the films in this collaborative (Koepnick, 2002, 2004) that renegotiate the film project offer new interpretations of the German past in the aftermath of unification Schieflagen terror and terrorism produces. In in—in some cases Hollywood-style—fiction the films from the 1970s and 1980s as well as and non-fiction films of the 1990s and early in Petzold’s Innere Sicherheit, children are the twenty-first century. ultimate victims of terror; at the same time they embody—and are burdened with carrying—a In this context, Deutschland 09—13 Filme national hope for a better, more peaceful and zur Lage der Nation (Germany 09—13 Films democratic future. Child protagonists are a About the State of the Nation), released in melodramatic device that creates a sense of 2009, plays a special role.
Recommended publications
  • Images of Ambivalence: Photography in Margarethe Von Trotta's Die

    Images of Ambivalence: Photography in Margarethe Von Trotta's Die

    Graduate Journal of Visual and Material Culture Issue 6 | 2013 Images of Ambivalence: Photography in Margarethe von Trotta’s Die bleierne Zeit Daniel Norford Abstract Taking John Tagg’s intervention in “Evidence, Truth and Order: Photographic Records and the Growth of the State” as its principle point of departure, this paper will investigate the hybrid meanings of photographic imagery in New German Women’s Cinema. Of particular interest will be the marked instances of photographic portraiture in Helma Sanders-Brahm’s Under the Pavement Lies the Strand (1974) and Margarethe von Trotta’s Marianne and Juliane (1981). Drawing from the student movements of ’68 and their aftermath, the crisis of terrorism, the specter of state surveillance and the complex struggles of the feminist movement, my argument will also move in the direction of seeing these phenomena in the context of much broader historical developments in institutional practices across the spectrum of social life. More specifically, I will attempt to articulate and explore the complex inter-textuality that informs the appearance of photographic images in these films, arriving at a perspective that reckons with the over- determined role of photography in modern society. In this way, the photographic image enfolds and disseminates an ambivalent and contradictory set of discourses that resist both state practices of social control, and leftist attempts (in the realms of cinema and art photography) to dramatize a counter-photographic practice. In Derridean terms, then, photography—and in particular portrait photography—is always somewhere “in-between” the discourses which attempt to pinpoint and define it. As such, it (and cinema) is always haunted by a trace-structure which leaves it open to both progressive and regressive lines of flight.
  • Ontologizing the Public Realm: Arendt and the Political

    Ontologizing the Public Realm: Arendt and the Political

    123 Ontologizing the Public Realm – Arendt and the Political Cecilia Sjöholm Within the tradition of German philosophy, the idea of a public realm has incarnated the possibilities of emancipation and enligh- tenment. To Immanuel Kant, the public sphere opened up in the eighteenth century represents a victory of reason over private interests. To Jürgen Habermas, the debates that are undertaken within the public sphere represent a promise of democracy. In this latter interpretation, the possibilities for communication are con- ditioned by the public realm, and the possibilities of democracy are conditioned by the communication taking place in the public realm; the goal of democracy is to make it possible, for as many people as possible, to participate in public debates. To Habermas as for Kant, the public sphere represents the possibilities of eman- cipation; we participate in open discussion and debate with a kind of unaffected enthusiasm where we are able to transcend our pri- vate interests, thereby participating in the realm of freedom opened up by the modern discovery of normativity. In a similar way, Hannah Arendt idealised the polis of ancient Greece as a retrospective vision of political freedom. But to Arendt, the political impact of the public realm is less about the trajectory of modernity, the realization of reason or normative language. It is, rather, an ontologized vision of how our concepts of reality and truth arise. Rather than defining human reality as a product of The Human, Arendt’s describes it as the product of CECILIA SJÖHOLM plurality. Through the gathering of perspectives which are realized in and through public realm, in its historical versions as given in the polis, the res publica and so on, what Arendt calls reality comes into being.
  • Academic-Handbook-2019-2020.Pdf

    Academic-Handbook-2019-2020.Pdf

    Religion .............................................................................................. 315 TABLE OF CONTENTS Romance Languages and Literatures ............................................. 323 Home ............................................................................................................. 2 Russian .............................................................................................. 337 General Information ..................................................................................... 3 Sociology ........................................................................................... 343 College Calendar .......................................................................................... 4 Theater and Dance ........................................................................... 350 The Offer of the College .............................................................................. 6 Educational Resources and Facilities .................................................... 364 Admission and Financial Aid ...................................................................... 7 Student Affairs ......................................................................................... 369 Expenses .................................................................................................... 13 Prizes ........................................................................................................ 370 A Liberal Education at Bowdoin College .................................................
  • 1 Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema

    1 Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema

    Notes 1 Modular Narratives in Contemporary Cinema 1. Evan Smith also notes the success during the late 1990s of films featuring complex narrative structures, in terms of ‘impressive reviews, Oscar wins, and dollar-for-dollar returns’ (1999, 94). 2. Lev Manovich argues that narrative and database are two distinct and com- peting cultural forms: ‘the database represents the world as a list of items, and it refuses to order this list. In contrast, a narrative creates a cause-and-effect trajectory of seemingly unordered items (events)’ (2001b, 225). As I discuss in Chapter 2, Manovich’s argument must be qualified by an understanding of narrative’s ability to make use of the database for its own ends. 3. Manuel Castells, for example, argues that the dominant temporality of today’s ‘network society’, produced through technologization, globalization and instantaneous communication, is ‘timeless time’ (2000, 494): ‘Time is erased in the new communication system when past, present, and future can be programmed to interact with each other in the same message’ (406). 4. Ricoeur’s analysis centres upon Mann’s The Magic Mountain (1924), Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway (1925) and Proust’s In Search of Lost Time (1913–27). 5. Syuzhet patterning, argues Bordwell, is medium-independent; the same pat- tern could be reproduced, for example, across literature, theatre and cinema (1985, 49). 6. In his treatment of order, duration and frequency, Bordwell is drawing upon the work of narratologist Gérard Genette. Like Bordwell, Genette distin- guishes between the narrative content (‘story’) and the way this content is organized and expressed (‘discourse’) (1980, 27).
  • Reviewed Scott Dissertation Final

    Reviewed Scott Dissertation Final

    MURDEROUS MOTHERS: FEMINIST VIOLENCE IN GERMAN LITERATURE AND FILM (1970-2000) Claire E. Scott A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Carolina-Duke Graduate Program in German Studies. Chapel Hill 2017 Approved by: Kata Gellen Stefani Engelstein Richard Langston Priscilla Layne Inga Pollmann ©2017 Claire E. Scott ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Claire E. Scott: Murderous Mothers: Feminist Violence in German Literature and Film (1970-2000) (Under the direction of Kata Gellen) This dissertation analyzes literary and filmic representations of violent mothers from late 20th-century Germany. It employs feminist theories of language and theories of the voice and the body in film to enhance close readings of texts in which female protagonists defy gendered expectations by perpetrating acts of aggression. Through an interplay between thematic violence and the transgression of aesthetic conventions, these works generate an imaginary of feminist violence that advances feminist politics. Highlighting this dynamic reveals female bodies and voices as important sites for working through both past and contemporary violence in the German context. In addition, this work has broader theoretical significance as an intermediary between feminist theories of language and materialist feminist theories. Instead of strategies for emancipation, these texts generate female subjectivities that are engaged, not in assertions of individuality, but in collective and collaborative storytelling practices. The first chapter considers Dea Loher’s Manhattan Medea (1999) and Christa Wolf’s Medea. Stimmen (1996). Both of these texts use the story of Medea to come to terms with a historical context in which the voices of outsiders are excluded.
  • In the Shadows of the Past: Exploring Moments of Identification with Christ in the Works of Anne Duden, Margarethe Von Trotta, and Anne Karpf

    In the Shadows of the Past: Exploring Moments of Identification with Christ in the Works of Anne Duden, Margarethe Von Trotta, and Anne Karpf

    In the Shadows of the Past: Exploring Moments of Identification with Christ in the Works of Anne Duden, Margarethe von Trotta, and Anne Karpf Sara Farner Budarz A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature. Chapel Hill 2009 Approved by: Dr. Anna Parkinson Dr. Eric Downing Dr. William Donahue ABSTRACT SARA FARNER BUDARZ: In the Shadows of the Past: Exploring Moments of Identification with Christ in the Works of Anne Duden, Margarethe von Trotta, and Anne Karpf (Under the direction of Dr. Anna Parkinson) This work explores moments of identification with Christ, through the imagery of the crucifix and stigmata, in the works of Anne Duden, Margarethe von Trotta, and Anne Karpf. I argue that these moments of identification are pivotal for our understanding of the process of identity formation within a post-Holocaust society. Through extensive analysis of the Christian imagery in the works, I maintain that Christ is configured as a rebellious leader, advocating radical social change, and that by identifying with Christ as rebel, the narrators are able to re-evaluate their identity and establish themselves as active agents with society. ii To my family, for their unwavering love and support, and especially to my husband Jeffrey, for sharing this beautiful life with me. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Experiencing Guilt: Suffering in Anne Duden’s “Der Übergang”.………….10 Chapter 2: Rebelling against Society: Confronting Institutionalized Silence in Margarethe von Trotta’s Die Bleierne Zeit.
  • © 2011 Kathleen Sclafani ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    © 2011 Kathleen Sclafani ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

    © 2011 Kathleen Sclafani ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ‘BORDER CONSCIOUSNESS’ AND THE RE‐IMAGINATION OF NATION IN THE FILMS OF AKIN, DRESEN AND PETZOLD by KATHLEEN J. SCLAFANI A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School‐New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Comparative Literature written under the direction of Fatima Naqvi and approved by _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ New Brunswick, New Jersey JANUARY 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION ‘Border Consciousness’ and the Re‐imagination of Nation in the Films of Akin, Dresen and Petzold By KATHLEEN J. SCLAFANI Dissertation Director: Fatima Naqvi In my dissertation I explore the role that borders play in the construction of German identity through the films of Fatih Akin, Andreas Dresen and Christian Petzold. Despite the insistence of conservatives that Germany is not an “immigration country,” I argue that the historical fluctuation of borders and the movement of populations into and out of Germany have resulted in a heightened awareness of borders and their significance that contributes to a sense of ambivalence about national identity. This heightened awareness can be seen as a type of “border consciousness,” a term that originated in Chicano/a studies and has been used to analyze exilic and diasporic cinema but which I reconsider in the context of German film. By examining tropes of borders and border crossings, as well as representations of liminality in the work of German filmmakers from various backgrounds, I argue that in these works, border consciousness can be seen as a function of a relationship to national boundaries rooted in histories of displacement, but not necessarily limited to the experiences of migrants and minorities.
  • Film Collection

    Film Collection

    Film Collection 1. Abe Lincoln in Illinois, US 1940 (110 min) bw (DVD) d John Cromwell, play Robert E. Sherwood, ph James Wong Howe, with Raymond Massey, Ruth Gordon, Gene Lockhart, Howard de Silva AAN Raymond Massey, James Wong Howe 2. Advise and Consent, US 1962 (139 min) (DVD) d Otto Preminger, novel Allen Drury, ph Sam Leavitt, with Don Murray, Charles Laughton, Henry Fonda, Walter Pidgeon. 3. The Age of Innocence, US 1993 (139 min) (DVD) d Martin Scorsese, novel Edith Wharton, m Elmer Bernstein, with Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Alexis Smith, Geraldine Chaplin. 4. Alexander France/US/UK/Germany, Netherlands 2004 (175 min) (DVD) d Oliver Stone, m Vangelis, with Antony Hopkins, Val Kilmer, Colin Farrell 5. Alexander Nevsky, USSR 1938 (112 min) bw d Sergei Eisenstein, w Pyotr Pavlenko, Sergei Eisenstein, m Prokofiev, ph Edouard Tiss´e, with Nikolai Cherkassov, Nikolai Okhlopkov, Andrei Abrkikosov. 6. The Age of Innocence, US 1993 (139 min) (DVD) d Martin Scorsese, novel Edith Wharton, with Daniel Day-Lewis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Winona Ryder, Alexis Smith, Geraldine Chaplin. AA Best Costume Design AAN Best Music; Best Screenplay; Winona Ryder; 7. The Agony and the Ecstacy, US 1965 (140 min) (DVD) d Carol Reed, novel Irving Stone, ph Leon Shamroy, with Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews. 8. All Quiet on the Western Front, US 1930 (130 min) bw (DVD) d Lewis Milestone (in a manner reminiscent of Eisenstein and Lang), novel Erich Maria Remarque, ph Arthur Edeson, with Lew Ayres, Louis Wolheim, Slilm Sum- merville, John Wray, Raymond Griffith.
  • Euro = US$ X 1.2961 Pound = US$ X 1.9657 US$ = Euro X .7716 US$ = Pound X .5087 for More Info, See Tutorial

    Euro = US$ X 1.2961 Pound = US$ X 1.9657 US$ = Euro X .7716 US$ = Pound X .5087 for More Info, See Tutorial

    TITLE YEAR NAT SIZE DESCRIPTION COND PRICE $* PRICE €* PRICE £* DLR M R1996 US 24x34 PETER LORRE NM € 50 KA M 1951 BEL 14x22 PETER LORRE EXC € 150 DB M R1960 GER 23x33 PETER LORRE F € 180 KA M R1965 GER 23x33 SCHMIDT ART; F/VF € 120 KA M R1965 GER 24x33 PETER LORRE EXC $96 MAS M R1970 GER 23x33 PETER LORRE F € 70 KA M R1978 GER 23x33 PETER LORRE F € 40 KA M. BUTTERFLY 1993 US 27x40 JEREMY IRONS VG-E $20 TCT M. BUTTERFLY 1993 US 27x40 IRONS; LONE A € 30 INT M. BUTTERFLY 1993 US 27x40 IRONS; LONE EXC $25 BPM M. BUTTERFLY 1993 GER 23x33 JEREMY IRONS VF € 20 KA M /OTHER 1999 FRE 16x23 COMBO; MIURA; A € 8 INT M3: THE GEMINI STRAIN 1978 US 27x41 KATE REID E $15 TCT MA AND PA KETTLE 1949 US 27x41 VF $125 CLT MA BARKER 1959 US 11x14 LCS; TUTTLE EXC $75 PW MA COUSINE DE VARSOVIE 1932 FRE 94x126 EXC € 300 DB MA FEMME EST FORMIDABLE 1951 FRE 47x63 GRAVEY; VALERE A € 80 INT MA FEMME EST UNE ACTRICE 2001 SWI 27x41 EXC $20 MAS MA MERE 2004 FRE 16x23 A € 8 INT MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD 1969 US 27x41 GARREL; HUPPERT A € 90 INT MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD 1969 FRE 23x31 GARREL; HUPPERT A € 120 INT MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD 1969 FRE 47x63 GARREL; HUPPERT A € 120 INT MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD 1969 GER 17x25 GARREL; HUPPERT EXC $120 MAS MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD 1969 IT 13x28 GARREL C € 40 INT MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD 1969 IT 39x55 GARREL; HUPPERT A € 55 INT MA NUIT CHEZ MAUD 1969 POL 23x31 GARREL; HUPPERT A € 200 INT MA PETITE FOLIE 1954 FRE 47x63 EXC $120 MAS MA POMME 1950 BEL 14x22 CHEVALIER; DESMARETS A € 45 INT MA POMME 1950 FRE 23x31 CHEVALIER; DESMARETS A € 150 INT MA VRAIE VIE A ROUEN 2002 FRE 16x23
  • German Actresses of the 2000S – a Study of Female Representation, Acting and Stardom

    German Actresses of the 2000S – a Study of Female Representation, Acting and Stardom

    German Actresses of the 2000s – A Study of Female Representation, Acting and Stardom Verena von Eicken Doctor of Philosophy University of York Theatre, Film and Television September 2014 Abstract This thesis centres on four German actresses active from the year 2000: Nina Hoss, Sandra Hüller, Sibel Kekilli and Diane Kruger. These performers have embodied a range of multifaceted female characters, as well as offering insightful representations of ‛Germanness’ at home and abroad. Their films are emblematic of the revival of German cinema in the 2000s, which has seen the proliferation of commercially successful historical dramas and the emergence of the critically lauded Berlin School art film movement. This research seeks to contribute to German film studies by considering the role actresses have played in the context of the resurging German cinema of the new millennium. The four actresses are discussed both in terms of the female representations offered by their films, and as performers and stars. The films of Nina Hoss, Sandra Hüller and Sibel Kekilli explore the particular social, political and cultural circumstances of women in contemporary Germany, such as the ramifications of reunification and a changing economic order, the persistent female inequality in the workplace and the family, and the nationally specific conception of the mother role. Contributing to the study of film acting and performance, analyses of the four actresses’ performances are conducted to demonstrate how they enhance the films. Analysing and comparing the work of actresses from the 1920s until the present day, a German screen acting tradition is identified that is characterised by the actresses’ maintenance of a critical distance to the character they portray: female performers working across different decades share a stilted, non-naturalistic acting style, which imbues their characters with a sense of mastery and counteracts their frequent experience of oppression or objectification.

  • Cover 3 04-Titel

    German Films Quarterly 3 · 2004 GERMAN FILMS AT THE SUMMER FESTIVALS GERMAN FILM AWARD ... and the winners are... FOCUS ON German Private Media Funds german films quarterly 3/2004 focus on 4 GERMAN PRIVATE MEDIA FUNDS directors’ portraits 16 EXPLORING NEW TERRITORIES A portrait of Dani Levy 18 BEYOND WORDS A portrait of Maria Speth producer’s portrait 20 STORIES FOR A WIDER AUDIENCE A portrait of Relevant Film actor’s portrait 22 NO COLD FEET A portrait of Birol Uenel 24 news in production 28 ANTIKOERPER Christian Alvart 28 DER BAUM DER WUENSCHE Rolf Schuebel 29 GALATASARAY – DEPOR Hannes Stoehr 30 GENERATION Mait Laas, Cristian Mungiu, Nadejda Koseva, Jasmila Zbanic, Kornel Mundruczo, Stefan Arsenijevic 30 GESPENSTER Christian Petzold 31 GRENZVERKEHR Stefan Betz 32 ICH LEBE Dagmar Knoepfel 32 LAND’S END Alex Ross 33 NIMM DIR DEIN LEBEN Sabine Michel 34 OFSAYT Buket Alakus 34 SOPHIE SCHOLL – DIE LETZTEN TAGE Marc Rothemund 35 ZEPPELIN! Gordian Maugg new german films 40 AGNES UND SEINE BRUEDER AGNES AND HIS BROTHERS Oskar Roehler 41 DIE BLUTRITTER RIDERS OF THE SACRED BLOOD Douglas Wolfsperger 42 DIRTY SKY Claude-Oliver Rudolph 43 EN GARDE Ayse Polat 44 HEIMAT 3 – CHRONIK EINER ZEITENWENDE HEIMAT 3 – A CHRONICLE OF ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS Edgar Reitz 45 IN DIE HAND GESCHRIEBEN GRAVEN UPON THY PALM Rouven Blankenfeld 46 DAS JAHR DER ERSTEN KUESSE FIRST KISS Kai Wessel 47 KAMMERFLIMMERN OFF BEAT Hendrik Hoelzemann 48 LAND OF PLENTY Wim Wenders 49 NACHBARINNEN WANTED! Franziska Meletzky 50 NAPOLA Dennis Gansel 51 DER NEUNTE TAG THE NINTH DAY

  • Press Herself Publicly

    Theatrical Booking Contact: Festival Booking & Marketing Contact: Clemence Taillandier Nadja Tennstedt Zeitgeist Films Zeitgeist Films 212-274-1989 x18 212-274-1989 x15 [email protected] [email protected] Publicity Contact (New York): Publicity Contact (Los Angeles): Julia Pacetti Sasha Berman JMP Verdant Communications Shotwell Media 917-584-7846 310-450-5571 [email protected] [email protected] OPENING AT FILM FORUM IN NEW YORK ON OCTOBER 13, 2010 AND AT LAEMMLE THEATERS IN LOS ANGELES ON NOVEMBER 5 WITH NATIONAL ROLLOUT TO FOLLOW A ZEITGEIST FILMS RELEASE VISION FROM THE LIFE OF HILDEGARD VON BINGEN Hildegard von Bingen was truly a woman ahead of her time. A visionary in every sense of the word, this famed 12th-century Benedictine nun was a Christian mystic, composer, philosopher, playwright, poet, naturalist, scientist, physician, herbalist and ecological activist. In Vision – From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen, New German Cinema auteur Margarethe von Trotta (Marianne and Juliane, Rosa Luxemburg, Rosenstrasse) reunites with recurrent star Barbara Sukowa (Zentropa, Berlin Alexanderplatz) to bring the story of this extraordinary woman to life. In a staggering performance, Sukowa portrays von Bingen’s fierce determi- nation to expand the responsibilities of women within the order, even as she fends off outrage from some in the Church over the visions she claims to receive from God. Lushly shot in the original medieval cloisters of the fairytale-like German countryside, Vision is a profoundly inspirational portrait of a woman who has emerged from the shadows of history as a forward-thinking and iconoclastic pioneer of faith, change and enlight- enment.