Dismantling the Dream Factory: Gender, German Cinema, and the Postwar Quest for a New Film Language / Edition 1

by Hester Baer

Overview

The history of postwar German cinema has most often been told as a story of failure, a failure paradoxically epitomized by the remarkable popularity of film throughout the late 1940s and 1950s. Through the analysis of 10 representative films, Hester Baer reassesses this period, looking in particular at how the attempt to ‘dismantle the dream factory’ of Nazi entertainment cinema resulted in a new cinematic language which developed as a result of the changing audience demographic. In an era when female viewers comprised 70 per cent of cinema audiences a ‘women’s cinema’ emerged, which sought to appeal to female spectators through its genres, star choices, stories and formal conventions. In addition to analyzing the formal language and narrative content of these films, Baer uses a wide array of other sources to reconstruct the original context of their reception, including promotional and publicity materials, film programs, censorship documents, reviews and spreads in fan magazines. This book presents a new take on an essential period, which saw the rebirth of German cinema after its thorough delegitimization under the Nazi regime.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781845456054
Publisher:	Berghahn Books
Publication date:	09/01/2009
Series:	Film Europa , #9
Pages:	318
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Hester Baer is Associate Professor of Germanic Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park. She has published widely on postwar and contemporary German cinema, women's literature, and feminism.

Table of Contents

Figures
Acknowledgments

Introduction: Postwar German Cinema

Chapter 1. The Female Gaze in The Murderers Are Among Us
Chapter 2. Authorship and Stardom in Film Without a Title
Chapter 3. Love ’47 as Woman’s Film
Chapter 4. Race, Ethnicity, and Gender in Epilogue
Chapter 5. Regendering Representation in The Sinner
Chapter 6. Visual Pleasure and Cinematic Realism in The Forester of the Silver Wood
Chapter 7. Gender and Sexuality in Different From You and Me
Chapter 8. Spectatorship and Genre in Engagement in Zurich
Chapter 9. Critical Strategies of The Girl Rosemarie
Chapter 10. The Bread of Those Early Years as Transitional Film

Epilogue: Adapting the 1950s

Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

"...[a] fascinating study...[that] makes a major contribution to a burgeoning field dedicated to the investigation of what was once dismissed." - Monatshefte

"...makes a significant and original contribution, is well researched as well as written, and would lend itself conveniently to the teaching of any of these films...[It] bring[s] to bear theories from Anglo-American film studies as well as German cultural studies and history. The result is a felicitous mixture of theory, cultural-historical context, and informed film readings." - Jaimey Fisher, University of California, Davis

From the Publisher