Berlin Replayed: Cinema and Urban Nostalgia in the Postwall Era by Brigitta B. Wagner

Abstract

Reviewed by: Berlin Replayed: Cinema and Urban Nostalgia in the Postwall Era by Brigitta B. Wagner Katharina Gerstenberger Berlin Replayed: Cinema and Urban Nostalgia in the Postwall Era. BY Brigitta B. Wagner. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015. Pp. ix + 299. Paper $30.00. ISBN 978-0816691746. Berlin continues to attract scholarly attention. Brigitta Wagner's new book is a welcome addition to this still growing corpus of works that examine various aspects of the city's past and present, often with an overarching focus on memory culture and questions of identity and belonging. Berlin Replayed explores the connections between filmic representations of Berlin and their importance for the emergence of a postwall urban identity. Setting out to understand the "intertwined nostalgic allure and danger" (2) of historical and contemporary filmic representations for present-day interpretations of the city, Wagner, who is a filmmaker herself, reconstructs how this archive of images has been created, used, and reused over time. Most important in this context, she insists early on in her well-written and carefully researched study, are two decisive events in Berlin's history, namely the destruction of World War II and the subsequent division that has shaped not only the urban landscape, but also the use and function of the film material that preserves as well as creates versions of the city at various points in time. The nostalgia for a city that is irretrievably lost, a sentiment that is probably shared by the majority of viewers today who have no personal recollections of pre-World War II Berlin, must of course always reckon with the political developments that have led to these events and Germany's responsibility in the process. Central to Wagner's thinking is the relationship between time and space in a given film and its changing meanings over the course of the film's reception. The pleasure and challenge for the viewer to reconcile locations and architecture that no longer exist in his or her imagination, and the political and cultural use of the gap between current reality, a photochemically preserved past, and future aspirations are at the heart of this project. In addition to an informative and carefully crafted introduction that outlines the theoretical framework for the book's guiding questions and a brief conclusion, the volume consists of four chapters that follow a chronological as well as spatial order. Appropriately, the study opens with a chapter on Walter Ruttmann's Berlin. Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927) and frequently returns to this quintessential Berlin [End Page 467] film throughout. Wagner then focuses on 1950s Berlin films, juxtaposing two East Berlin films—Gerhard Klein's Berlin, Ecke Schönhauser (1957) and Eine Berliner Romanze (1956) with two West Berlin films, Die Halbstarken (1956) and Endstation Liebe (1958), both by Georg Tressler. Wagner then explores representations of Potsdamer Platz, focusing mainly on Wim Wenders's Der Himmel über Berlin (1987) and the context of its creation in conjunction with the celebration of Berlin's 750th anniversary in 1987. The final chapter discusses postunification films, most importantly Tom Tykwer's 1998 Lola rennt and Wolfgang Becker's 2003 Good Bye, Lenin!. In addition, Wagner includes analyses of digital projects such as Joachim Sauter's and Dirk Lüsebrink's The Invisible Shape of Things (1995), which invites viewers on an interactive visual walk around Potsdamer Platz. A significant number of film stills, maps, and other pertinent illustrations rounds out the volume. Wagner's book is valuable for a number of reasons. First, it offers insightful interpretations of a selection of key films about and set in Berlin with regard to their use of space and location and the political and cultural implications of the filmmakers' choices. Second, Wagner provides a wealth of information about the individual films' history of reception, including data on screenings and tickets sold as well as the circumstances of production and the impact of changing funding models. In the 1920s, for instance, we have the financial interests and influence of American film studios and the resulting phenomenon of Kontingenzfilme; during the postwar and postwall periods changing funding models for films produced in Berlin brought about shifting definitions as to what constituted a...