GERMAN 671 -- GERMAN CINEMA TO 1945

Graduate / Advanced Undergraduate

COURSE DESCRIPTION

German 671 -- German Cinema to 1945 is a survey of the development of film in Germany from its origins in the German Empire of the late nineteenth century through the end of the National Socialist period. While this course centers on close readings of works that belong to the canon of German film, it also investigates the consequences of proposing the notion of any unified national cinema, specifically a "German" cinema. This course will investigate how factors such as the potentially international audiences for films, the competition between different agents of production and distribution, and the relation of film to other intellectual and artistic traditions shape German film. The course hopes to achieve three interrelated aims:

1) to introduce students to fundamental elements of film and film analysis;

2) to foster a critical understanding of how film functions as an art form;

3) to explore the developments within German film in light of specific historical and cultural frameworks; but also to make students aware of the complicated issues involved in defining any unified national cinema, specifically, the pitfalls inherent in ready conceptions of German cinema.

This course assumes no prior knowledge of German, German films, or film theory in general. It is taught in English and all sound-films have English subtitles.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Students are not required to purchase textbooks for this course; however,

they be held responsible for the materials from the book Film Art: An Introduction, Bordwell / Thompson (4th ed.) McGraw Hill 1994. Sections of this book which are important to each week’s topic appear in brackets [ ] in the ‘Reading’ portions of the syllabus.

Students will also be assigned reading from a course packet on reserve in the Main Library Closed Reserve Room and 314 Cunz Hall.

Brecht / Dudow Kuhle Wampe (Kuhle Wampe, oder wem gehört die Welt?)

Fanck The White Hell of Piz Palü

Käutner Under the Bridges (Unter den Brücken)

Lang Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler)

Pabst Joyless Streets (Die freudlose Gasse)

Riefenstahl Olympia

Ruttmann Berlin, Symphony of a Great City (Berlin, Sinfonie einer Großstadt)

Steinhoff Hitler Youth Quex (Hitlerjunge Quex)

Wiene The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari)

Also: Murnau Taboo (Tabu) OR Vertov Man with the Movie Camera

NB: Where possible 16mm films will be used in the screenings and form the basis of class discussion. Video copies of all films will be on reserve in Cunz Hall, where they may be checked out for viewing in the lab. Please note that video-viewing is considered a supplement to and not a replacement for attending the screenings.

REQUIREMENTS

Item % of Grade

Regular attendance and participation in discussion 10

Two papers (25% each: Undergraduates -- 4-5pp; Graduates -- 6-8pp) 50

Midterm 20

Final 20

Attendance & participation are mandatory: more than 2 absences will affect this portion of the grade significantly.

The papers must analyze one specific aspect of a single film. Paper topics will be distributed; you may write on a topic of your own choice but the topic must be approved by me first. While these assignments are designed to develop your own skills in understanding film form, you are encouraged to incorporate relevant references from the readings. But do NOT use sources to pad the papers and do NOT rely on critics to do your thinking about form, content, or context for you!

- Paper #1, due at the end of Week 4, is on Caligari, Dr. Mabuse, or Piz Palü.

- Paper #2, due at the end of Week 9, is on Berlin, Quex, or Kuhle Wampe.

The midterm and final examinations each will consist of:

- a 60 minute in-class portion that consists of short-answer questions on historical events, key terms, insights from readings and class-discussions, and film form and content; and

- a take-home essay of NOT MORE THAN 2 [Undergraduates] or 4 [Graduates] typed pages comparing two or more works we have viewed.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Date Formal Questions Thematic/Historical Issues Film Example

1/6 Film analysis, narrative Film History & Weimar Cinema Caligari

1/8 perspective

Reading: Eisner The Haunted Screen 9-37; Kracauer Caligari to Hitler 3-11 & 61-76

[Film Art 3-24; 459-62]

1/13 Film form, time, and space German film and hypnosis Dr. Mabuse

1/15

Reading: Burch "Notes on Lang’s First Mabuse" [Film Art 40-60 & 64-84]

1/20 Cinematography Bergfilm, National Mythos …Piz Palü

1/22

Reading: Rentschler "Mountains and Modernity"; Eisner 251-68 & 295-307 [Film Art "185-238]

1/27 Flow cutting, realism & Crises of Gender & Class Joyless Streets

1/29 mise-en-scene

Reading: Kracauer "Cult of Distraction " & Petro Joyless Streets 132-47 [Film Art 145-72 & 246-76]

Suggested reading: Witte "Intro to Kracauer" & Kracauer "Mass Ornament"

Session 2 -- PAPER #1 DUE (1/29)

Date Formal Questions Thematic/Historical Issues Film Example

2/3 Ethnography & film Fear / Love of the Other Taboo

2/5

Reading: Review for Midterm

Session 2 -- IN-CLASS MIDTERM, TAKE-HOME DISTRIBUTED(2/5)

2/10 Non-narrative & avant garde Approaches to Modernity Berlin (also Shorts)

2/12 cinema

Session 1 -- TAKE-HOME MIDTERM DUE (2/10)

Reading: Eisenstein "Dialectic Approach..."; Kuleshov, "Principles of Montage" [Film Art 102-05; 112-38 & 277-87]. Suggested reading: Vertov "Kino Eye"

2/17 Epic approaches, Soviet Working class public sphere, Kuhle Wampe

2/19 influence, sound radical alternatives

Reading: Eisenstein "Film Form"; Kuleshov "Principles of Montage"; Brecht on Theatre 31-33 & 47-51. [Film Art 292-326 & 413-17] Suggested reading: Brecht "Short Organum for the Theatre"

2/24 Modes of viewer identification Continuities between Quex

2/26 Weimar & Nazi film

Reading: Welch "History and Organization of Nazi Cinema" 6-38; Rentschler "Power of Illusion"

3/3 Visual Aesthetics -- light, speed, The fascist body & non-reason Olympia

3/5 spatial position [Extra Screening]

Reading: Cooper, "Olympia in America" [Film Art 105-12 & 345-48]

Session 2 -- PAPER #2 DUE (3/5)

3/10 Entertainment under Nazism Non-Political Films and ideology Under the Bridges

3/12 in the Third Reich

Reading: Witte Visual Pleasure Inhibited"; Rentschler "Epilogue: The Testament of Dr. Goebbels"

Session 2 -- TAKE-HOME FINAL DISTRIBUTED

Exam Week IN-CLASS FINAL; TAKE-HOME DUE TUESDAY 3/17 at 5PM.

Office: 393 Cunz Hall Office Hours: MTR 1:30 - 3 and by appt.

Phone: 2-6985; 2-1401 E-Mail: davidson.92@osu.edu