Is Contemporary German Filmmaking Beyond a “Cinema of Consensus”?
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Paul Cooke, Chris Homewood, eds.. New Directions in German Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris, 2011. xii + 308 pp. $29.50, paper, ISBN 978-1-84885-907-4. Reviewed by Berna Gueneli Published on H-German (September, 2013) Commissioned by Shannon Nagy A decade after Eric Rentschler referred to address thematic, aesthetic, and economic Germany's 1990s star-driven mainstream cinema achievements of contemporary German cinema. with his now iconic phrase "cinema of consensus," Acknowledging Rentschler's concerns, the authors Paul Cooke and Chris Homewood's anthology New invite the reader to see the diversity in German Directions in German Cinema undertakes a schol‐ filmic productions in the new millennium. While arly journey to discuss and reevaluate contempo‐ the anthology offers discussions of flms that rary German flmmaking.[1] Although could easily be categorized as "updated consensus Rentschler's almost cynical polemic hit a nerve at films" with a global appeal today (p. 4), it also pro‐ the time, his assessment of German cinema fo‐ vides analyses of flms that are shown to be aes‐ cused primarily on the commercial entertainment thetically more challenging, stylistically more in‐ movies of the Spassgesellschaft that had little am‐ novative, and thematically more complex than bition of being artistically challenging, or of pro‐ the so-called consensus flms. The anthology is voking political or critical thought, unlike the en‐ framed by two articles that discuss the work of deavors of the New German Cinema a generation Edgar Reitz and Alexander Kluge, two still active earlier. Rentschler only mentioned in passing directors linked to the art cinema movement of filmmakers such as Fatih Akın, Monika Treut, the 1960s and 1970s, and who both predate the Harun Farocki, or Alexander Kluge in his famous "cinema of consensus" and go beyond it, provid‐ article on consensus flmmaking. These directors, ing a continuity of non-consensus German flm‐ together with Andreas Dresen or Angelina Mac‐ making from the 1960s to today. John E. David‐ carone, would most certainly fall outside of a son's engaging opening chapter discusses Kluge, "consensus" category. one of Germany's most intellectual flmmakers The introduction of New Directions prepares and flm philosophers, and Alasdair King's closing its reader for a wide array of essays that critically chapter analyzes Reitz's Heimat 3 (2004), which H-Net Reviews received mixed reviews in comparison to his pre‐ scripted, as well as the inclusion of the Gestapo in‐ vious Heimat flms. The large selection of articles terrogator and the importance of Scholl's faith between Kluge's and Reitz's suggests that contem‐ (the latter two elements were either absent from porary German cinema continues to have a the‐ or largely left out in previous flms about the matic fascination with the German past. Generally White Rose). The author is full of praise for Scholl speaking, the majority of flms focusing on Ger‐ and the actor Julia Jentsch as an incarnation of man history range from the Third Reich to the "resilience and grace under pressure" (p. 62). Brad more recent East/West German histories, includ‐ Prager's enlightening piece on The Counterfeiters ing reunification and the life after the Wende. (2007), an acclaimed Austrian flm made with Ger‐ Aside from these, there are three articles ded‐ man collaboration, discusses the functionalizing icated to the artistically ambitious Berlin school of music in this flm about Jewish collaborators in and one article to the transnational flm produc‐ concentration camps. The flm raises uneasy ques‐ tions of Akın. The frst seven to eight chapters tions about Jewish collaboration and depicts the could be subsumed under the category of "Ger‐ "heavy burden associated with inhabiting the man Heritage flms," a term coined by Lutz Köp‐ grey zone. It emphasizes both the connections be‐ nick in 2004, or variations thereof (p. 40). Chris‐ tween the prisoners as well as the limits placed on tine Hase analyzes the frst of three flms dealing solidarity in the camp, a contradiction that is diffi‐ with the Third Reich that were commercially suc‐ cult" (p. 85). The "[m]usic is ... entangled with the cessful, yet thematically controversial. Her discus‐ attempt to cover over cosmetically what cannot sion of Downfall (2004), a flm which epitomizes be covered over; what is repressed will surely re‐ the definition of the heritage flm genre as an turn" (p. 87). Prager further suggests that The "easy to digest" flm about the past (p. 40), Counterfeiters juxtaposes complicated historical presents the problematic introduction of emotion‐ aspects of Austria's troubled relationship with the ality into the discourse of the nation's past by us‐ National Socialist past, and contemporary repre‐ ing realism as a mode of representation. Hase sentational questions of the Holocaust. gives an overview of the central debates about the Nick Hodgin offers the frst of two articles use of realism in dealing with questions of the about the GDR. Good Bye, Lenin! (2003), a com‐ Holocaust. The perceived realism in Downfall was mercially successful and, for the most part, criti‐ the reason for its sharpest criticism in Germany, cally acclaimed flm addresses the recent German particularly its ostensible Verharmlosung of the history of reunification. Hodgin contextualizes the Nazi past. Ultimately, the "representational dilem‐ film about the "forgotten year" (p. 108), as a prod‐ ma" is the main flmic shortcoming. "In its un‐ uct of Generation X Filme, a production company questioned and unreflective realist approach, that has an interest in producing challenging Downfall conceptually simplifies and streamlines films with a "distinct contemporary sensibility" a complex and largely inconceivable reality. It (p. 100). Hodgin discusses the "emphasis on au‐ thus implies the existence of a logic, order and thenticity" in the flm, and stresses that great care reason that belies the nature of the Nazi regime was taken not to glamorize the state or to repro‐ and its atrocities" (p. 53). Another Heritage flm, duce a "GDR chic" while, at the same time, no though more positively reviewed by the press, is overt criticism of the state was expressed (p. 103). Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2005). Owen Evans Ultimately, according to Hodgin, the flm, which is analyzes the strategies the flm employs to hu‐ not so much about the GDR as about the present manize the fgure of Sophie Scholl. Evans praises and its relationship to the past, acknowledges the flm's realization of the innate drama inherent both the failings and the achievements of the in the Gestapo tapes, after which the flm was GDR. Next, Cooke discusses a much more contro‐ 2 H-Net Reviews versial flm about the GDR, The Lives of Others tutions" (p. 130), this kind of analysis of left-wing (2006). While the German Agency for Political Ed‐ terrorism that encouraged the audiences to reflect ucation praised the flm's authenticity and atten‐ about its past seems to be completely absent from tion to detail, it was repeatedly condemned as a this "visually lavish" adaptation of Stefan Aust's consensus flm, as a politically and aesthetically accounts. The flm is instead a production that conservative flm that "trivialize[ed] the misdeeds caters directly to an audience used to the com‐ of the State Security System" (p. 115). Director Flo‐ modification of the RAF (Red Army Faction) in rian Henckel von Donnersmarck sees The Lives as popular culture with "Andy-Warhol-styled pop-art a response to the Ostalgie flms of the previous prints" and stylish photographs in lifestyle and years. Cooke asserts that the Ostalgie flms of Le‐ fashion magazines of its members (p. 131). This ander Hausmann et al. were in fact created as a "uninhibited popularization and glorification of response to early Stasi/Dictatorship representa‐ Baader and his comrades is problematic because tion flms that made it seem as if all of GDR every‐ it is informed by a very selective process of re‐ day life was under heavy surveillance of the Stasi. membering and forgetting, which threatens to de‐ And comparing Sun Alley to The Lives, the author contextualize and depoliticizes the RAF" (pp. 132, stresses that while the former flm highlights its 133). David Clarke discusses Requiem (2006) in own artificiality through its décor, street scenes, chapter 8. Here, the director recreates a 1970s etc., The Lives makes everything look very "real," provincial town in West Germany, in which gener‐ "in order to present a perfect re-enactment" (p. ational struggles and the dichotomy between city 120). Unfortunately though, it is precisely this and country are played out. Clarke categorizes the claim for authenticity that makes The Lives prob‐ film as a type of Heimatfilm, with "an invocation lematic. The author observes that this "chilling au‐ of Heimat motifs which actually points to the dis‐ thenticity" (p. 120) was paired with a story that solution of Heimat in the traditional sense" (p. presented Stasi member Wiesler as a humanized 156). figure who changes his ways through art. Rachel Palfreyman's chapter discusses The Wiesler's conversion becomes an apologetic nar‐ Edukators (2004) as one of many post-unification rative about the Stasi crimes. Cooke concludes by films that reflect upon the actions and concerns of stressing that the opening of the Stasi fles were the '68 generation. Like many other flms about important, but that they cannot be "seen as clo‐ this generation it tries to "present the key histori‐ sure or as the fnal word on the reality of life in cal conflict in the FRG as a family or generational the GDR" (p. 129). clash" (p. 167). Leaving out the actual violence of Moving from Ostalgie to Westalgie flms, the 1970s, the flm evaluates the values of the '68 Chris Homewood analyzes the Bernd Eichinger generation.