Germany Film

New Art. The newborn medium of film exploded onto the German art scene in the Weimar era thanks to a number of brilliant directors. Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) is an early horror film directed by Robert Wiene. Fritz Lang’s remarkable films include M., Dr. Mabuse der Spieler, and Metropolis, a dark portrayal of the techno-fascist city of the future. Meanwhile, Josef von Sternberg extended the tradition into sound with his satiric Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel), starring Berlin bombshell Marlene Dietrich.

Propoganda Film. Heeding Hitler’s prediction that “without motor-cars, sound films, and wireless, (there can be) no victory for National Socialism,” propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels became a masterful manipulator. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will) documented a Nürnberg Party Rally , and her Olympia recorded 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin .

Post-War Prowess. Germany’s film renaissance began in 1962 with the Oberhausen Manifesto, a declaration by independent filmmakers demanding artistic freedom and the right to create new feature films. Rainer Werner Fassbinder told fatalistic stories of people corrupted or defeated by society, including an epic television production of Alfred Döblin’s mammoth novel Berlin Alexanderplatz. Fassbinder’s film Die Ehe der Maria Braun (The Marriage of Maria Braun) and Volker Schlöndorff’s Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum), based on Günther Grass’s novel of the same title, brought the new German wave to a wider, international audience. Wolfgang Petersen directed Das Boot (The Boat), one of the most famous submarine films ever made.

Film In The Ddr. East German film had to be produced under the supervision of the state-run German Film Corporation (DEFA). Slatan Dudow produced the first of the DEFA’s films, Unser täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread), a paean to the nationalization of industry. After a brief post-Stalinist thaw, few East German films departed from the standard format of socialist heroism or love stories, with the exception of Egon Günther’s feminist 1965 film Lots Weib (Lot’s Wife). Frank Beyer’s politically daring Spur der Steine (Trace of Stones) was a reflection on corruption and intrigue in a communal construction project. Winfried Junge, Volker Koepp, and Jürgen Böttcher made prominent documentaries which primarily glorified the East and vilified the West.

Recent Production. Tom Tykwer wowed international audiences in 1998 with stylish, high-energy Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run); a film that is, to many, iconic of a reunified and postmodernist Germany, apace with throbbing techno and bodies relentlessly in motion. Wim Wenders’s hit documentary Buena Vista Social Club celebrates Cuban music. Caroline Link’s dramatic Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa) follows a Jewish family fleeing to Kenya in 1938, and won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Wolfgang Becker’s hit Goodbye, Lenin! is an affecting and hilarious portrait of life in the DDR after reunification. In 2007, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others), a gripping tale of Stasi surveillance in Berlin , also won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.