Product Description

Offers a fresh perspective on this most 'national' of national cinemas, re-evaluating the arguments which view genres and movements as typically German contributions to twentieth century visual culture.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #345858 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

From the Back Cover
German cinema of the 1920s is still regarded as one of the golden ages of world cinema. Films such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Dr Mabuse the Gambler, Nosferatu, Metropolis, Pandoras Box and The Blue Angel have long been canonised as classics, but they are also among the key films defining Germany as a nation uneasy with itself. The work of directors like Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau and G.W. Pabst having apparently announced the horrors of fascism, while testifying to the traumas of a defeated nation still casts a long shadow over cinema in Germany, leaving film history and political history curiously intertwined.
Weimar Cinema and After: Germany's Historical Imaginary offers a fresh perspective on this most national of national cinemas, re-evaluating such labels as `Expressionist film' and `The New Sobriety' and even putting `fascinating fascism' and film noir in a different, international context. Thomas Elsaesser questions the conventional readings which link these genres and movements solely to

About the Author
Thomas Elsaesser is at the University of Amsterdam