GERM 265 - German Film in English Translation

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as FILM 265) This course offers an overview of selected historical and formal developments in German films from the silent period to the present.

Topic for 2017/18b: German War Film: Propaganda, Pacifism, and Processing the Past. War and its impact on the human condition has been a prominent topos of German film from the early years of movie production to this day. While the Nazis used war movies for propaganda purposes (Kolberg, 1945), Germany also produced powerful anti-war films both before and after World War II (Westfront 1918, 1930; The Bridge, 1959). In recent decades, German war film has offered entertainment and suspense (The Boat, 1981) as well as ways to process the country’s painful past (Downfall, 2004; Generation War, 2013). This course examines war films in their historical, cultural, technical and aesthetic contexts. All films have English subtitles and classroom discussion is conducted in English. Directors include Pabst, Riefenstahl, Harlan, Petersen, Eichinger. Lioba Gerhardi.

Readings and discussions are in English, and all films have English subtitles.

Open to all classes.

Two 75-minute periods and two film screenings.