New Directions in German Cinema (PDF)

Following the demise of the critically lauded New German Cinema in the mid-1980s, German national film culture quickly lost much of its critical appeal and German-language cinema more broadly came to be dismissed by critics as lacking in substance. No one could have foreseen the dramatic return to prominence enjoyed by Germany's national film industry in the first decade of the new millennium, when German-language films began to receive critical acclaim, from Cannes to Sundance, along with numerous Oscar nominations and wins. German-language cinema is again attracting widespread attention at home and abroad. New Directions in German Cinema explores these development. The volume investigates German cinema's remarkable turn in fortunes through the detailed examination of a number of its best-known films and filmmakers. Written by specialists in German film, society, culture, and politics, it explores the great diversity of contemporary German-language film. This includes discussion of those 'heritage films' that engage with the country's problematic past and that have been a driving force behind the industry's current international visibility, as well as a number of films that examine the contemporary social reality of the Berlin Republic, films that often also explore the representational possibilities of film itself.