The German Cinema Book (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: The German Cinema Book Susanne Baackmann Tim Bergfelder, Erica Carter, and Deniz Göktürk, eds. The German Cinema Book. London: BFI, 2002. 291 pp. US$ 24.95 (Paperback). ISBN 0-85170-946-x. This comprehensive collection of critical essays on German cinema is as programmatic as its title suggests. In their introduction, the editors characterize the methodological approach to the subject as inflected by an awareness of both the vicissitudes of national delineations and recent shifts in the discourse of film studies, as developed in academic film studies, independent research centers, and new microarchival studies. In different ways, the contributions evince a growing engagement with critical tropes, such as star studies, feminism, psychoanalytic theories, and the opening of archives in the former GDR. The first part, "Popular Cinema," explores a largely unacknowledged tradition within German cinema. In his essay on Heimatfilm, Johannes von Moltke argues against the pervasive tendency to assume an essentialist and ahistorical coherence of this genre. In his contribution Jan-Christopher Horak examines the deep-seated bias against this particular film genre and surveys examples from early cinema and Weimar to the Third Reich and the 1950s and 1960s. Since these films prepared the ground for what in the 1980s comes to be known as Beziehungskomödien, it would have been useful to trace historical dis-continuities within German comedy. In "Extraterritorial Fantasies: Edgar Wallace and the German Crime Film," Tim Bergfelder examines the crime film with respect to imaginary ideas of the foreign, in this case represented by London and England. Robert J. Kiss examines "Queer Traditions in German Cinema" by outlining cinematic choreographies or character conceptions that challenge what Kiss calls "heteronormativity." Taking its cue from US- or UK-based film studies, the second part is dedicated to the paradigm of the star. Both Anton Kaes and Erica Carter emphasize differences between the German and the Hollywood star system. While Kaes examines how and why the body of the Viennese actor Paul Richter, who played the Niebelungen hero Siegfried, became a corporeal metaphor for the body of the nation, Carter looks at Marlene Dietrich as the "prodigal daughter" who remained a political irritant in postwar Germany. Stephen [End Page 186] Lowry's essay on Heinz Rühmann dovetails with the arguments made by Kaes and Carter in that Rühmann also came to represent the typical German citizen facing the "economic miracle" of the 1950s. The last two contributions of this section – Claudia Fellmer's essay on Armin Mueller-Stahl and Malte Hagener's essay on German stars of the 1990s – gain more depth when read in conjunction with the theoretical considerations presented in the introduction. Hagener's article on current stars is particularly interesting in that it describes the most recent break with the classical star system. German stars, Hagener notes, are using their status not only by actively participating in their iconographic and market value but also by venturing into production. The third part, on "Institutions and Cultural Contexts," is by far the most factual section of this volume. It presents detailed socio-economic analysis of German cinema, examining the mechanics and statistics of film production, distribution, exhibition, and audience constituencies from the beginning of cinema to the present. These contributions are predominantly concerned with the emergence of film as both a modern industry and a social institution. This section is informed by recent microarchival studies and documents the rigorously fresh and thoroughly informed approach to German film studies promised in the introduction. The fourth section, on "Cultural Politics," explores a contradiction within German cinema, namely the fact that "alternative and independent cinema movements in Germany have often [...] been at the forefront of progressive socio-cultural politics, and at the same time functioned as guardians to the heritage and the memory of a literary-based national culture" (162). Both Marc Silberman and Julian Petley consider intersections between the political and the artistic by examining the appropriation of film for political purposes and – on a more general level – aesthetic strategies of opposition. Petley's article is particularly interesting in that he notes a formal proximity between Hollywood and Third Reich movies. Erica Carter's analysis of Marlene Dietrich is concerned with...