New German Cinema

Last updated
New German Cinema
Years active1962–1982
Country West Germany
Major figures Harun Farocki, Peter Fleischmann, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, Alexander Kluge, Ulli Lommel, Wolfgang Petersen, Edgar Reitz, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Peter Schamoni, Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Schroeter, Straub-Huillet, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg, Margarethe von Trotta, Rosa von Praunheim, Wim Wenders [1]
Influences

New German Cinema (German : Neuer Deutscher Film) is a period in German cinema which lasted from 1962 to 1982, [2] 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. As a result of the attention they garnered, they were able (particularly in the case of Wenders, Petersen, and Schlöndorff) 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. [3] By 1977, 80% of a budget for a typical German film was ensured by a subsidy. [4]

Contents

Most of the directors of the New German Cinema movement were members of their self-owned Filmverlag der Autoren association founded in 1971, which funded and distributed most of their films, and the history of New German Cinema from the 1970s onwards was largely synonymous with it.

History

As a reaction to the artistic and economic stagnation of German cinema, a group of young filmmakers issued the Oberhausen Manifesto on 28 February 1962. This call to arms, which included Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Peter Schamoni, Haro Senft and Franz-Josef Spieker among its signatories, provocatively declared "Der alte Film ist tot. Wir glauben an den neuen" ("The old cinema is dead. We believe in the new cinema"). Other younger filmmakers allied themselves to this Oberhausen group, among them Volker Schlöndorff, Werner Herzog, Jean-Marie Straub, Wim Wenders, Hans-Jürgen Syberberg and Rainer Werner Fassbinder in their rejection of the existing German film industry and their determination to build a new industry founded on artistic excellence rather than commercial dictates.[ citation needed ]

Despite the foundation of the Kuratorium Junger Deutscher Film (Young German Film Committee) in 1965, set up under the auspices of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to support new German films financially, the directors of this New German Cinema, who rejected co-operation with the existing film industry, were consequently often dependent on money from television. Young filmmakers had the opportunity to test their mettle in such programmes as the stand-alone drama and documentary series Das kleine Fernsehspiel (The Little TV Play) or the television films of the crime series Tatort . However, the broadcasters sought TV premieres for the films which they had supported financially, with theatrical showings only occurring later. As a consequence, such films tended to be unsuccessful at the cinema box-office.[ citation needed ]

This situation changed after 1974 when the Film-Fernseh-Abkommen (Film and Television Accord) was agreed between the Federal Republic's main broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, and the German Federal Film Board (a government body created in 1968 to support film-making in Germany). [5] This accord, which has been repeatedly extended up to the present day, provides for the television companies to make available an annual sum to support the production of films which are suitable for both theatrical distribution and television presentation (the amount of money provided by the public broadcasters has varied between €4.5 and 12.94 million per year). Under the terms of the accord, films produced using these funds can only be screened on television 24 months after their theatrical release. They may appear on video or DVD no sooner than six months after cinema release. As a result of the funds provided by the Film-Fernseh-Abkommen, German films, particularly those of the New German Cinema, gained a much greater opportunity to enjoy box-office success before they played on television. [6]

The artistically ambitious and socially critical films of the New German Cinema strove to delineate themselves from what had gone before and the works of auteur filmmakers such as Kluge and Fassbinder are examples of this, although Fassbinder in his use of stars from German cinema history also sought a reconciliation between the new cinema and the old. In addition, a distinction is sometimes drawn between the avantgarde "Young German Cinema" of the 1960s and the more accessible "New German Cinema" of the 1970s. For their influences, the new generation of filmmakers looked to Italian Neorealism, the French Nouvelle Vague and the British New Wave but combined this eclectically with references to the well-established genres of Hollywood cinema. The new movement saw German cinema return to international critical significance for the first time since the end of the Weimar Republic. Films such as Kluge's Abschied von gestern (Yesterday Girl, 1966), Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), Fassbinder's Fear Eats the Soul (1974) and The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979), and Wenders' Paris, Texas (1984) found international acclaim and critical approval. Often the work of these auteurs was first recognised abroad rather than in Germany itself. The work of post-war Germany's leading novelists Heinrich Böll and Günter Grass provided source material for the adaptations The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) (by Schlöndorff and Margarethe von Trotta) and The Tin Drum (1979) (by Schlöndorff alone) respectively, the latter becoming the first German film to win the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. [7] Although overlooked in early scholarship on New German Cinema, female directors were an important part of it, which encompassed the works of directors such as Danièle Huillet, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Helke Sander, and von Trotta.[ citation needed ] 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), can also be counted to the movement. [8]

List of New German movies

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Germany</span>

The film industry in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema made major technical and artistic contributions to early film, broadcasting and television technology. Babelsberg became a household synonym for the early 20th century film industry in Europe, similar to Hollywood later. Early German and German-speaking filmmakers and actors heavily contributed to early Hollywood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rainer Werner Fassbinder</span> German filmmaker (1945–1982)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, sometimes credited as R. W. Fassbinder, was a German filmmaker, actor, and dramatist. He is widely regarded as one of the major figures and catalysts of the New German Cinema movement. Versatile and prolific, his over 40 films span a variety of genres, most frequently blending elements of Hollywood melodrama with social criticism and avant-garde techniques. His films, according to him, explored "the exploitability of feelings". His work was deeply rooted in post-war German culture: the aftermath of Nazism, the German economic miracle, and the terror of the Red Army Faction. He worked with a company of actors and technicians who frequently appeared in his projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Bresson</span> French film director (1901–1999)

Robert Bresson was a French film director. Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be regarded as preeminent examples of minimalist film. Much of his work is known for being tragic in story and nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Volker Schlöndorff</span> German filmmaker (born 1939)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margarethe von Trotta</span> German film director

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brigitte Mira</span> German actress

Brigitte Mira was a German actress. She worked in both theater and film, and on many occasions, with Rainer Werner Fassbinder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanna Schygulla</span> German actress and chanson singer (born 1943)

Hanna Schygulla is a German actress and chanson singer associated with the theater and film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder. She first worked for Fassbinder in 1965 and became an active participant in the New German Cinema. Schygulla won the 1979 Berlin Silver Bear for Best Actress for Fassbinder's The Marriage of Maria Braun, and the 1983 Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for the Marco Ferreri film The Story of Piera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinema of Europe</span>

Cinema of Europe refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Sukowa</span> German actress and singer

Barbara Sukowa is a German actress of screen and stage and singer. She has received three German Film Awards for Best Actress, three Bavarian Film Awards, Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, Venice Film Festival Award, as well as nominations for European Film Awards, César Awards and Grammy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosa von Praunheim</span> German film director

Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky, known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, painter and one of the most famous gay rights activists in the German-speaking world. In over 50 years, von Praunheim has made more than 150 films. His works influenced the development of LGBTQ+ rights movements worldwide.

Room 666 is a 1982 documentary film directed by German film director Wim Wenders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irm Hermann</span> German actress (1942–2020)

Irmgard Hermann was a German actress. She worked in film, television, and the stage, appearing in over 160 film and television productions. She was discovered, without formal training, by Rainer Werner Fassbinder who cast her in many of his films. She was awarded the Deutscher Filmpreis for playing Irmgard Epp in Fassbinder's The Merchant of Four Seasons, and again for appearing as Else Gebel, a woman in prison with Sophie Scholl, in Percy Adlon's Fünf letzte Tage.

Filmverlag der Autoren is a German film distributor that was founded in 1971 to help finance and distribute independent films by German Autorenfilm directors, that is directors who are renowned for predominantly adapting their own screenplays. Many directors of the New German Cinema movement were associated with it such as Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, Percy Adlon, and Alexander Kluge; whose films were produced and distributed by the Filmverlag and many of whom were members of the Filmverlag's board.

Rosalie Helga Lina Zech, known as Rosel Zech, was a German theater and film actress, she is most well known for her works associated with the "Autorenkino" movement, which began in the 1970s.

<i>Germany in Autumn</i> 1978 film

Germany in Autumn is a 1978 West German anthology film about the period of 1977 known as the German Autumn, which was dominated by incidents of terrorism. The film is composed of contributions from different filmmakers, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge, Edgar Reitz, Bernhard Sinkel, Alf Brustellin, Hans Peter Cloos, Katja Rupé, Peter Schubert and Volker Schlöndorff. It was entered into the 28th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won a Special Recognition award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Björn Jensen</span> German filmmaker, consultant and producer

Björn Jensen is a German filmmaker, consultant and producer.

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.

The Sudden Wealth of the Poor People of Kombach is a film d'auteur from 1971 directed by Volker Schlöndorff. He also co-wrote the script with Margarethe von Trotta. The film was based on a true event that occurred in the Hessian Hinterland in the 19th century.

New German Cinema: A History is a 1989 book about the New German Cinema, a film movement in the second half of the 20th century. It was written by the German-British film historian Thomas Elsaesser and published by Rutgers University Press.

References

  1. ↑ "New German Cinema: The Displaced Image - Movie List". MUBI.
  2. 1 2 3 "Movie movements that defined cinema: New German Cinema". Empire. Retrieved 2018-06-09.
  3. ↑ Julia Knight, Women and the New German Cinema, Verso, 1992
  4. ↑ Holloway, Ronald (11 December 1977). "German Films Are Subsidized". The New York Times– via NYTimes.com.
  5. ↑ "FFA Filmförderungsanstalt - deutsch". www.ffa.de.
  6. ↑ (Blaney 1992:204)
  7. ↑ "The Tin Drum" Wins Foreign Language Film: 1980 Oscars
  8. ↑ "Germany's most famous gay rights activist: Rosa von Praunheim". Deutsche Welle . Retrieved 2018-06-14.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "15 Essential Films For An Introduction To New German Cinema". Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists. 9 July 2015.
  10. ↑ The Best New German Cinema Movies of All Time|Page 3-Flickchart
  11. ↑ „Neuer Deutscher Film“: Regisseur Peter Fleischmann im Alter von 84 Jahren gestorben
  12. ↑ The Best New German Cinema Movies of All Time|Page 2-Flickchart
  13. ↑ The Best New German Cinema Movies of All Time|Page 4-Flickchart
  14. 1 2 3 4 The Best New German Cinema Movies of All Time-Flickchart
  15. 1 2 3 4 "A retrospective of six films made by Percy Adlon, representative of New German Cinema to be shown". University of California at San Diego. March 27, 1986.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.