Code 22325
Level of study Third/Final year
Credit value 20
Semester 1 and 2 (those wishing to take this course for only one should refer to module no. 23936).NB: This course will not be offered in 2012-13.
Other pre-requisites Some experience of film studies is normally required.
The module will address the development of German cinema since the 1960s, taking as its point of departure the growth of the New German Cinema as an oppositional movement against the supposedly moribund `Papas Kino’. The first semester will consider films from both East and West Germany before 1990, dealing with key themes such as relationships to authority, the legacy of the Third Reich, the division of Germany, left-wing terrorism and the feminist movement. A key question running through this section of the course will be the relationship between cinema and the German national past and its continuing ramifications. Students will also consider how these films respond to the artistic legacy of pre-1945 German film as well as to the countervailing influences of international cinema (particularly Hollywood) on German film in this era.
The second semester will focus on German-language cinema since 1990, with a view to assessing its shifting relationship to the nation. It will consider continuing engagements with German national history, but in the changed socio-political, artistic and industrial context since 1990. Students will be invited to compare the contemporary German cinema with the New German Cinema in both thematic and stylistic terms. This semester's films will exemplify the shift away from an overtly committed national cinema in recent years, and examine the emergence of a new set of themes, such as globalisation, immigration and multiculturalism and social isolation. Films will include examples from the vibrant Turkish-German filmmaking scene and from the critically acclaimed Austrian auteur cinema of recent years.