Okay all you high priests of cinema:
I’m working with a student on an independent project on New German Cinema. I, foolishly, thought at first that would mean stuff like Tykwer and … well, new German cinema. But no, she tells me, it’s WF, WH, and WW (see subject heading).
Couple questions for you:
1. I know my way around the latter two filmmakers, but could you nail down your favorite Fassbinder–so I could look over a couple? I think she plans to focus on “Ali: Fear Eats the Soul”…
2. Are there any good documentaries or written critical overviews of this period in German cinematic history?
3. Predecessors? After Lang, Murnau, and the assorted sundry other early German whiz kids whisked off to Hollywood, what the hell happened in German film? I mean, after the Nazi thing worked itself out.
4. PS This all seems very highbrow, doesn’t it? Damn. I’ll fix that in my next post.
The Marriage of Maria Braun, but it may be more atypical than most of his work (more accessible for an undergraduate?).
1. my favorite Fassbinder movie is “Veronika Voss” which features a morphine-addicted old actress and an evil doctor in a kind of melodrama-noir; it also features the best creepy-sad performance of “Memories are Made of This” that you’ll ever see.
2. I haven’t looked at it in a long time but I think the book New German Cinema by Thomas Elsaesser was very helpful in providing a good overview.
3. I think G.W. Pabst is one of the few great directors who stayed in Germany during the war. of course I don’t know any of his films from that period. During the 30s/40s I suspect it was all sentimental national dramas and uplift. then essentially the industry was in ruins until the 1970s.
Thanks, Michael. Very helpful. Jeff, also helpful, but not as much.
mike, i second the “veronika voss” recommendation. also, “the stationmaster’s wife”. i don’t know about critical overviews of german film but your student might want to read more general theorizing of melodrama. also, francois ozon (who i really like) made a movie of an un-filmed fassbinder script/play, “water drops on burning rocks”, which is very good and might make for an interesting juxtaposition.
Mike, you should take a look at Thomas Elsasser’s essay, “Postwar German Cinema.” It appears in a slim book called Fassbinder (Ed. Todd Rayns. London: BFI Publications, 1976. 1-16). It’s short and gives a nice historical context for the films of Fassbinder, as well as an overall account of the rise of New German Cinema (and don’t confuse New German Cinema with Young German Cinema!).
Excellent–thanks for the help, everyone.
By the by, we’re together looking at “The Testament of Dr. Mabuse” over the next week. I’ll post some reactions.
Fox And His Friends is still my favorite Fassbinder.