German Cinema

4 credits

An advanced study of the development of German cinema from the silent era to the present which centres on issues arising from German responses to the onset of modernity, the demands of the fascist period, the renegotiation of personal, social and national identity after 1945 and the experience of postmodern culture.

Where would film noir, horror or science fiction films be today without classics of Weimar Berlin cinema like W. F. Murnau’s Nosferatu: a Symphony of Terror or Fritz Lang’s Metropolis or M? From the 1920s onwards, German cinema has contributed significantly to development of international screen culture. Students of film, media and German studies will come to understand the many ways in which German moving images have responded to and helped to shape national and international screen histories to the present.

Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete the paper should be able to

• Relate examples of the screen culture of the periods studied to changes occurring in German social, political and cultural life in an international context
• Understand the role of cinematic discourse in the ongoing construction of notions of German society, gender, class, ethnicity and projections of national identity
• Show an understanding of the contribution of selected examples of German screen culture to cinema as an international culture
• Discern and articulate formal and aesthetic practices operative in selected examples of German cinema in relation to critical perspectives provided by film theory and cultural analysis