Graduate Seminar On German Film: New German Cinema - Influences, Origins, and New Approaches

3 units

This graduate seminar examines New German Cinema, drawing on a far broader than usual selection of films and filmmakers. The course focuses specifically on 1968 through 1982, also known as the long 1970s. Paying special attention to influences from other cinematic New Waves, we will explore some of the earliest and most revolutionary films of that era. How did major stylistic hallmarks such as self-reflexivity and nonlinearity transform after German cinema's politics began to change and explore themes such as domestic terrorism and postwar guilt? The seminar will revisit major research questions, including how New German filmmakers defined Autorenkino and how that definition differed from traditional concepts of cinematic authorship. We will also examine what was at stake in New German Cinema's adaptations of German literary works (by Hoffmann, Kleist, and others). The course will explore films by the best-known German directors such as Herzog, Wenders, and Fassbinder, but it will widen its scope of inquiry to include films by Spils, Reitz, Klick, and von Trotta. Readings in both German and English will include theoretical and historical texts dealing with the films' public and scholarly receptions. Discussions will be in English. Note: Seminar participants may be expected to view as many as two films per week. Prerequisite: graduate student standing.