Rainer Werner Fassbinder was the leading member of a group of second-generation, alternative filmmakers in West Germany.
Werner Herzog, more than any director of his generation, has through his films embodied German history, character, and cultural richness. While references to verbal and other visual arts would be out of place in treating most film directors, they are key to understanding Herzog.
Fritz Lang's career can be divided conveniently into three parts: the first German period, 1919-33, from Halbblut to the second Mabuse film, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse; the American period, 1936-56, from Fury to Beyond a Reasonable Doubt; and the second German period, 1959-60, which includes the two films made in India and his last film, Die tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse.
Ernst Lubitsch's varied career is often broken down into periods to emphasize the spectrum of his talents?from an actor in Max Reinhardt's Berlin Theater Company to head of production at Paramount. Each of these periods could well provide enough material for a sizeable book. It is probably most convenient to divide Lubitsch's output into three phases: his German films between 1913 and 1922; his Hollywood films from 1923 to 1934; and his Hollywood productions from 1935 till his death in 1947.
F.W. Murnau was studying with Max Reinhardt when the First World War began. He was called up for military service, and after achieving his lieutenancy, he was transferred to the air service, where he served as a combat pilot. But his plane was forced down in Switzerland, where he was interned for the duration. Through the German Embassy, however, he managed to direct several independent stage productions, and he began his lifelong dedication to the motion picture, compiling propaganda film materials and editing them.
The years 1932 to 1945 define the major filmmaking efforts of Leni Riefenstahl. Because she remained a German citizen making films in Hitler's Third Reich, two at the Fuhrer's request, she and her films were viewed as pro-Nazi. Riefenstahl claims she took no political position and committed no crimes. In 1948, a German court ruled that she was a follower of, not active in, the Nazi Party. Another court in 1952 reconfirmed her innocence of war crimes. But she is destined to remain a politically controversial filmmaker who made two films rated as masterpieces.
In discussions of the New German Cinema, Volker Schl?ndorff's name generally comes up only after the mention of Fassbinder, Herzog, Wenders, and perhaps Straub, Syberberg, or von Trotta. Though his work certainly merits consideration alongside that of any of his countrymen, there are several reasons why he has stood apart from them.
Robert Siodmak is an example of the UFA-influenced German directors who moved to Hollywood when war threatened Europe. Less well known than his compatriots Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang, Siodmak demonstrated his cinematic skills early in his career with his innovative movie Menschen am Sonntag, which featured a non-professional cast, hand-held camera shots, stop motion photography, and the sort of flashbacks that later became associated with his work in America.
Douglas Sirk's critical reputation has almost completely reversed from the time when he was a popular studio director at Universal in the 1950s. He was regarded by contemporary critics as a lightweight director of soap operas who showcased the talents of Universal name stars such as Rock Hudson and Lana Turner. His films often were labelled ?women's pictures,? with all of the pejorative connotations that term suggested.
An important aspect of Margarethe von Trotta 's filmmaking, which affects not only the content but also the representation of that content, is her emphasis on women and the relationships that can develop between them. For example, von Trotta chose as the central theme in two of her films (Sisters, or The Balance of Happiness and Marianne and Juliane) one of the most intense and complex relationships that can exist between two women, that of sisters.
Of the three young German filmmakers who achieved the greatest international fame in the 1970s as the vanguard of a German New Wave, Wim Wenders had perhaps a less radical though no less distinctive film style than his compatriots R. W. Fassbinder and Werner Herzog.
Since the late 1960s, the internationally renowned German avant-garde artist Birgit Hein has collaborated with her husband Wilhelm Hein on experimental films, multimedia projects, and performances. Known for their difficult ?structural-materialist? films, the Heins have created an impressive body of work with determinedly political intentions. Though Birgit declared in 1978 that ?art cannot change society,? she conceded that it did, however, have a significant part to play in the struggle for progressive goals by conveying ideas that cannot be conveyed via other means. In addition to her av
Ulrike Ottinger emerged from a tradition of the avant-garde visual arts as a painter, lithographer, and photographer. This differentiates her from other West German women filmmakers who came to prominence in the mid-to-late 1970s, who were more traditional left-wing feminists. Ottinger is also, and has always been, openly lesbian. Both of these factors have made her somewhat marginal in the feminist community, though certainly no less interesting, and often, a great deal more fun than her contemporaries. She shares few of the thematic concerns of the New German Cinema, and has often been co
The years 1932-45 define the major filmmaking efforts of Leni Riefenstahl. Because she remained a German citizen making films in Hitler?s Third Reich, two at the Fuhrer?s request, she and her films were viewed as pro-Nazi. Riefenstahl claims she took no political position and committed no crimes. In 1948, a German court ruled that she was a follower of, not active in, the Nazi Party. Another court in 1952 reconfirmed her innocence of war crimes. But she is destined to remain a politically controversial filmmaker who made two films rated as masterpieces.
She began to learn filmmaking w
Helke Sander?s name has become synonymous with the advent of Germany?s second wave women?s movement and feminist filmmaking. Provocative in style and subject matter, her self-reflexive documentaries and later fictional explorations of women?s experiences reveal the ambition to politicize the private sphere and to challenge habitual ways of seeing. Owing to her unconventional choice of topics, Sander received no funding for a period of about five years with the justification that her proposed themes addressed only women instead of appealing to a general public. It was not until 1977 that San
The films of Helma Sanders-Brahms have been programmed with some amount of relish at film festivals and in art houses and cinematheques, but it is a safe bet that they never will be mainstream movie fare. They are not engrossing dramas in which the audience can become emotionally involved in the on-screen action. Instead, Sanders-Brahms presents, from a distance, observable archetypes of life, often with a deliberate pacing. Rather than directing actors to express emotion, she prefers ?pent-up? performers who hide their real feelings.
To her supporters, the films of Monika Treut are daring and forceful, politically radical and groundbreaking in the manner in which they depict female sexuality. Her detractors, mean-while, consider her most extreme works trashy and exploitive, even pornographic. These wildly divergent views crystallized during the world premiere, at the 1985 Berlin Film Festival, of this provocative filmmaker?s very first feature: Seduction: The Cruel Woman (inspired by Sacher-Masoch?s Venus in Furs and co-directed with her frequent collaborator, Elfi Mikesch), which was greeted with a co
Thea von Harbou worked as Fritz Lang?s principal scenarist from 1924-32, when she split with Lang on political matters, and enthusiastically joined the Nazi Party. If we are to believe Fritz Lang?s later statements, made in the 1960s in America, it was von Harbou who turned Lang in to Joseph Goebbels, the head of the Reich Propaganda Ministry.
Von Harbou?s work as a scenarist for Lang includes her scripts for Metropolis, By Rocket to the Moon, Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, and Spies. She also worked with Murnau, Dreyer, and Joe May. After writing the screenplay of Lang?s
