TCF
112 Motion Picture History and Criticism
Class Notes: New
German Cinema: Werner Herzog
(In German: Neues Deutsches Kino)
Overview of Germany, post
WW II
- 1945 War ended
- Allied: US, UK, France, USSR
- 1949 East/West split
- Federal Republic of Germany (W)
- German Democratic Republic. (E)
- 1950s Cold War escalated
- 1961 Berlin wall erected
- 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)
- 1962 Oberhausen Festival
- 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
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
- Physically impaired
- E.g., Land of Silence and Darkness
- Alternative states of consciousness
- Narrative Structure
- Journey or quest
- Insane quest undertaken by rational men
- 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)
Last revised:
January 5, 2005 10:40