GERM 265 - German Film in English Translation

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

This course offers an overview of selected historical and formal developments in German films from the silent period to the present.

Topic for 2015/16b: The “Other” German Cinema: Films from East Germany. 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, films from the former GDR still offer a broad understanding of life during the Cold War in East Germany and the enduring legacy of this period in world history. The films from the East German state-owned DEFA studios are rich in theme, structure and style, and beautifully crafted by inventive filmmakers who tested the limits of censorship and whose films reflect on the political complexities of artistic production in the East Germany. Students will explore a diversity of film genres and styles, including Westerns, musicals, and science fiction movies. We will consider issues, such as continuities and breaks with Weimar cinema and the Nazi past; Communist Party politics and the successes and failures of socialist realist aesthetics; gender and sexuality; consumer culture in a socialist context; the enduring cult power and nostalgia of DEFA films in Germany today; and questions of German “national” cinema after unification. Ms. von der Emde.

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

Open to all classes. German majors see GERM 269 .

Two 75-minute periods and two film screenings.