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September 1997, Week 1

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Subject:
From:
Tim Bergfelder <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 4 Sep 1997 11:21:07 GMT
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 Is there anybody on this list who has something to
>offer about one or more of the films and/or their directors? The films
>are as follows:
>1)We can do otherwise --dir. Detlev Buck
>2)The Wismut--dir. Volker Koepp
>3)Waller's Last Round-dir. Christian Wagner
>4)The Summer of the Falcon--dir. Arend Aghte
>5)Mailna--dir. Werner Schroter
 
All of these mentioned films are more or less recent German productions, and
 seem to comprise a
selection of diverse strands of new (or post-) New German Cinema. All of them
 have received
fairly good critical attention domestically.
The most well-known and established name among the directors is Werner Schroeter
 who is a
veteran of New German Cinema. During the 1970s and 1980s he was at the forefront
 of German
art and avantgarde cinema, and has also directed operas on stage. 'Malina' is a
 highly stylised and
tense psychological drama about a disintegrating relationship, and is based on a
 novel by Austrian
author/poet Ingeborg Bachmann. As far as I can remember the film was given a
 number of
national and international awards.
In stark contrast 'We can do otherwise' is a whimsical comedy about two half-wit
s from North
Germany traveling to the East in the aftermath of unification and joining forces
 with a deserted
Soviet soldier in fighting backwood thugs. The film is a pastiche of several
 genres (road movie,
Spaghetti Western, Laurel and Hardy) though part of the humour may depend on the
 knowledge
of regional differences or dialects. Buck's films are very popular in Germany
 and enjoy
something of a cult following.
I haven't seen the other films personally, but I know that they were highly
 regarded at the time of
their release.
How you define the quality of these films is of course a matter of taste, but as
 an overview of
recent German film culture,this package seems to me reasonably well put
 together.
 
Tim Bergfelder
School of Modern Languages
University of Southampton
Southampton SO17 1BJ
UK
 
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