Germany’s “Das Neue Kino”
WATCH: The New German Cinema (32 min)
Post-WW II:
- WEST (“Fed. Republic of Germany”) &
- EAST (“German Democratic Republic”).
1946-8: (West) Post-War Trummerfilme – “rubble films” (akin to Neorealism),
1950’s Heimatfilme–escapist fare for domestic audience offered comforting images of green fields untouched by the ravages of bombing, mountain villages strongly linked to the past, and picture postcard panoramas of a by-gone era.; ALSO lit adaptations and remakes
- seeds of das neue Kino movement began with 1962 Oberhausen Film Fest – 26 filmmakers called for “young German cinema” in a manifesto stressing need to explore reality free West Germany from Hollywood influence.
Unlike NEW WAVE–no central critical or theoretical position on filmmaking; nor did they have a strongly felt opposition to Hollywood style filmmaking.
Moreover, they had little sense of the history of the richness of German cinema (Weimar Cinema of 1920s [historical realism of Passion, expressionism Caligari, kammerspiel]
These post-war filmmakers were young, left-wing intellectuals who were skeptical and anti-authoritarian. Their movies tend to be intellectually sophisticated, more concerned with ideas than easy entertainment. Often convey a vision of deep pessimism and futility. Little success until 1980s
Characteristics Of Das Neue Kino:
National cinema obsessed with all things “German,” including its “unassimilated past” — life during Nazi era (1933-45) The shock and humiliation of defeat, the appalling devastation of the material environment, the partitioning of the country, and the collective guilt for the most terrible acts of barbarism and genocide ever committed–all conspired to rob Germany of its cultural id by robbing it of access to immediate past.
(Poll of West German teenagers in 1978 found they knew Hitler as man who built the Autobahn–and resulting fear that lack of understanding of Nazism could lead to rekindling of it--1979 showing of Holocaust –polls discovered cultural phenomena: 64 % deeply shocked and many moved to tears. East German government refused to broadcast on the grounds that its people had already been thoroughly schooled about Nazism and its crimes)
Has become increasingly technocratic–by American cultural imperialism, RESULTING in das neue Kino expressing the sense of psych and cultural dislocation, or “a worldwide homesickness.’ Their films are unsettling and sometimes depressing, but there can be no question of their unique contribution to international cinema.
Visually sophisticated–unusual degree of aesthetic closure towards formal beauty and abstraction, Sensuousness, color, and emotional luxuriance to the point of morbidity
More interested in ideas than ent; a refusal to be explicit on the level of argument and meaning. …social stance that is poignantly defensive and individualistic to a vulnerable extent. Vacillates between satirical realism and symbolism of almost oppressive bleakness often emerge with sense of pessimism & futility.
Filmmakers:
New German Cinema said to begun with 1966 release of Volker Schlondorf’s Young Torless–psych detailed adaptation of antimilitarism in a boys’ school. –began series of films of private rebellions of angry young people whose elders offer little help or advice.
Warner Herzog – most exotic in terms of settings (Sahara, Amazon, Peru). Uses locale thematically to expose superficiality of “normal” perceptions–always a matter of perspective.
Concerned w. characters at breaking point involved in mythical quests which become metaphoric (Aguirre, The Wrath Of God, Nosferatu, Fitzcarraldo (1982) These “holy fools”–outsiders and eccentrics dare more than any human should and so are closer to possible sources of deeper truth…though they are seldom capable of reaching them. w. Klaus Kinski-most famous actor of DAS; obsessive intensity/scariness—operatic performance style—frozen mask of ferocity which can suddenly twist).
Recurring issue of the idea that our technology and rationalism have become an infallible religion to us resulting in the inability of ‘civilized’ peoples to surrender their dependence on technology in situations that render technology utterly useless.
1972: Aguirre, the Wrath of God—his most powerful film shot on location in jungles of Brazil and Peru.
- Based on actual historical incident. Concerns a detachment of Spanish conquistadors in search of El Dorado in the steaming rain forests of the Andes.
- The quest is suicidal from beginning to end, since the Spaniards insist on dragging the clumsy accoutrements of modern civilization into the tangled wilderness with them. The film opens with the very image of futility, as abt. fifty conquistadors in heavy battle dress attempt to maneuver a huge cannon down a plunging forest hillside to the river valley below.
- issue of inability of ‘civilized’ peoples to surrender their dependence on technology in sits that render technology utterly useless; brilliant study of idealism turned to barbarism thru zealotry.
WATCH: Aguirre (the Wrath of God) 16:30- 24:30
https://youtu.be/weuYp-XFxAo?t=990
1974: The Mystery of Kasper Hauser: based on actual event–In 1828, young man who has been locked in a cellar since birth, w/o access to memory or speech, suddenly appears in a small German town, where he is at first treated as a freak and then gradually taught to live by the systems of rational men. His acquisition of language, logic, religion, and natural philosophy plunges him into despair and he is finally murdered by the man who had initially redeemed him from his brutish state. Uses unpredictable cam angles, awkward framing devices and unusual lighting to transfer Kaspar’s experience of perceptual disorientation to the audience. BUT most spectral and estranging effect by casting a former schizophrenic brought up in various institutions, the pseudonymous “Bruno S.” in the title role
1976 -similarly in Heart of Glass—hypnotized cast every day in advance of shooting–stylistic effort— “I wanted this air of floating, fluid movements, the rigidity of a culture caught in decline and superstition, the atmosphere of prophecy
1979: Nosferatu
1982: Fitzcarraldo–Herzog returned to terrain of Aguirre in fact-based tale of a Peruvian rubber baron, played by Kinski, who attempts in about 1894 to build an opera house in the Amazon jungle–a project that involves the portage of a 320 riverboat across a mountainous mile-wide isthmus by 500 Indians.
- WATCH: plague of production probs in Les Blanck’s doc Burden of Dreams
- parallel belief that our technology and rationalism have become an infallible religion to us