Introduction to German Film: The Regime on the Screen

GERMAN 171 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

This course offers an introduction to and overview of major works of German cinema from the 20th and 21st centuries. From the expressive silent cinema of Weimar Germany, to the brash propaganda films of the Nazis, to the scandalous experimentation of New German Cinema, to the sublime cinematography of contemporary German film, we will not only study a range of filmic works spanning from the early 20th century through the present day, we will also read major texts in film and social theory that help ground these works in their intellectual-historical context. 

Directors studied include Fritz Lang, Leni Riefenstahl, Werner Herzog, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Helke Misselwitz, and Michael Haneke. Students will leave this seminar with a strong command of how German film has wrestled with questions of national identity, social crisis, war, migration, violence, ambition, and love, and the ways in which its influence has become so pervasive and persistent. This course is also pre-approved and recommended for AFVS Concentration credit.

Course Notes

Screenings on Tuesdays, seminar on Wednesdays. Discussions in English; films in German with subtitles.