Related Research Articles
New German Cinema is a period in German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, in which a new generation of directors emerged who, working with low budgets, and influenced by the French New Wave and Italian Neorealism, gained notice by producing a number of "small" motion pictures that caught the attention of art house audiences. These filmmakers included Percy Adlon, Harun Farocki, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peter Fleischmann, Werner Herzog, Alexander Kluge, Ulli Lommel, Wolfgang Petersen, Volker Schlöndorff, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Werner Schroeter, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Margarethe von Trotta and Wim Wenders. Rosa von Praunheim, who formed the German lesbian and gay movement with his film It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives (1971), also plays an important role. As a result of the attention they garnered, they were able to create better-financed productions which were backed by the big US studios. However, most of these larger films were commercial failures and the movement was heavily dependent on subsidies. By 1977, 80% of a budget for a typical German film was ensured by a subsidy.
Volker Schlöndorff is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s, which also included Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Margarethe von Trotta and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Margarethe von Trotta is a German film director, screenwriter, and actress. She has been referred to as a "leading force" of the New German Cinema movement. Von Trotta's extensive body of work has won awards internationally. She was married to and collaborated with director Volker Schlöndorff. Although they made a successful team, von Trotta felt she was seen as secondary to Schlöndorff. Subsequently, she established a solo career for herself and became "Germany's foremost female film director, who has offered the most sustained and successful female variant of Autorenkino in postwar German film history". Certain aspects of von Trotta's work have been compared to Ingmar Bergman's features from the 1960s and 1970s.
Heimat is a series of films written and directed by Edgar Reitz about life in Germany from the 1840s to 2000 through the eyes of a family from the Hunsrück area of the Rhineland-Palatinate. The family's personal and domestic life is set against the backdrop of wider social and political events. The combined length of the 5 films – broken into 32 episodes – is 59 hours and 32 minutes, making it one of the longest series of feature-length films in cinema history.
Heimat is a German word translating to 'home' or 'homeland'. The word has connotations specific to German culture, German society and specifically German Romanticism, German nationalism, German statehood and regionalism so that it has no exact English equivalent.
Robert Piet Houwer is a Dutch film producer. He studied at the University of Television and Film Munich, Germany. In 1964 he directed the short film Anmeldung (Declaration) which was awarded a Silver Bear at the Berlin Filmfest. During the 1960s, Rob Houwer became one of the most prolific producers in Germany, with directors Volker Schlöndorff, Peter Fleischmann, Johannes Schaaf (Tattoo), Michael Verhoeven and Hans-Jürgen Syberberg. Upon his return to the Netherlands in 1971, he frequently collaborated with Paul Verhoeven and produced most of his Dutch films. Turkish Delight (1973), based on the novel by Jan Wolkers, became the most frequently visited film in Dutch cinema and still holds that place today. The relationship between Houwer and Verhoeven ended when Verhoeven moved to the US in 1985. Houwer's later films did not always enjoy the huge commercial success of his early productions. The Dragon That Wasn't, supervised by Houwer and artist Marten Toonder became the All-Time Number One Dutch animated feature at the box office. Some of his later productions were considered to be among the worst in Dutch cinema by critics: De gulle Minnaar (1990), De Zeemeerman (1996) and Het woeden der gehele wereld (2006). He was appointed the Order of Orange-Nassau.
Coup de Grâce is a 1976 West German film directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Adapted from the novel Coup de Grâce by the French author Marguerite Yourcenar, the war film explores passion amid underlying political tones. The title comes from the French expression, meaning "finishing blow". An opening title dedicates the film to Jean-Pierre Melville, for whom Schlöndorff had worked as an assistant director.
Ernst Gerhard Ludwig Jacobi-Scherbening, professionally called Ernst Jacobi, was a German actor. He was known for serious character roles, especially in the 1979 film The Tin Drum, as Hans in Germany, Pale Mother (1980), as Adolf Hitler in Hamsun (1996), and as the narrator in The White Ribbon (2009). He appeared in over 200 television productions and worked at the Burgtheater in Vienna from 1977 to 1987, and at the Schauspielhaus Zürich from 1987 to 1992. In 1975 he won the Berliner Kunstpreis for his portrayal of Alexander März in the television film Das Leben des schizophrenen Dichters Alexander März.
Jaider, der einsame Jäger is a 1971 Bavarian Western film directed by Volker Vogeler. It was entered into the 21st Berlin International Film Festival. It was the film debut of Gottfried John, in which his screen presence was compared to Clint Eastwood.
Das häßliche Mädchen is a German comedy film made in early 1933, during the transition from the Weimar Republic to Nazi Germany, and premièred in September that year. It was the first or second film directed by Hermann Kosterlitz, who left Germany before the film was completed and later worked in the United States under the name Henry Koster, and the last German film in which Dolly Haas appeared; she also later emigrated to the US. A riot broke out at the première to protest the male lead, Max Hansen, who was supposedly "too Jewish." The film's representation of the "ugly girl" as outsider has been described as a metaphorical way to explore the outsider existence of Jews.
Ulzhan is a 2007 international co-production directed by Volker Schlöndorff, starring Philippe Torreton, Ayanat Xenbay and David Bennent.
The Dreamer is a 1936 German historical drama film directed by Carl Froelich and starring Emil Jannings, Hilde Weissner, and Harald Paulsen. It is based on the play of the same name by German playwrights Oskar Jerschke and Arno Holz. The film's art direction was by Franz Schroedter, a leading set designer of the era. It premiered at Berlin's Ufa-Palast am Zoo.
The Morals of Ruth Halbfass is a 1972 West German drama film directed by Volker Schlöndorff and starring Senta Berger, Peter Ehrlich and Helmut Griem.
Werner Enke is a German film actor and screenwriter.
Autobus S is a 1937 German comedy film directed by Heinz Hille and starring Hermann Speelmans, Carsta Löck, and Günther Lüders.
Der Neue Heimatfilm is an international 5-day film festival which takes place every year at the end of August in the town of Freistadt, Austria.
The Fisherman from Heiligensee is a 1955 West German romantic comedy film directed by Hans H. König and starring Edith Mill, Lil Dagover and Albert Lieven. It was part of the post-war boom in heimatfilm in Germany.
Baal is a 1970 German television film directed by Volker Schlöndorff. It is based on the 1923 play Baal by Bertolt Brecht. The film disappeared after Helene Weigel, Brecht's widow, saw it on television and demanded that it no longer be shown. Ethan Hawke asked Schlöndorff about seeing the film at the Cannes Film Festival, but Schlöndorff replied that he did not know where it was. Eventually the film was discovered in rusty, unmarked cans filed under S. At that point, the film was restored. It was given its first home video release by Criterion in 2018. The film did not make the 1919 play a period piece, and some of the interiors featured intentionally over-the-top colors. It was the first film Dietrich Lohmann shot in color. Margarethe von Trotta was the first actor cast. Fassbinder joined for the title role after Schlöndorff's first choice was unavailable. Much of the supporting cast and crew came from Fassbinder's company, whom he did not want to be put out of work by his absence.
Das Mädchen vom Pfarrhof is a 1955 Austrian Heimatfilm based on a Ludwig Anzengruber's play Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld and directed by Alfred Lehner.
Greetings and Kisses from Tegernsee is a 1957 West German musical romantic comedy film directed by Rudolf Schündler and starring Elma Karlowa, Bert Fortell and Christiane Maybach. It was part of a large number of heimatfilm produced during the decade. It was shot at the Bavaria Studios in Munich and on location around Tegernsee. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Willi Herrmann and Heinrich Weidemann.
References
Notes
Sources
- Cartmell, Deborah; Whelehan, Imelda. The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- Hake, Sabine. German National Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2002.
- Moeller, Hans Bernhard; George L Lellis. Volker Schlondorff's Cinema: Adaptation, Politics, and the "Movie-Appropriate". Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2012.
- Von Moltke, Johannes. No Place Like Home: Locations of Heimat in German Cinema. Berkeley: U of California Press, 2005.
