Dismantling the Dream Factory

Gender, German Cinema, and the Postwar Quest for a New Film Language
1. Auflage 2009
ISBN: 978-1-84545-605-4
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 9, 318 Seiten, Format (B × H): 162 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 559 g

Reihe: Film Europa

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.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Baer, Hester

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Filmwissenschaft, Fernsehen, Radio Filmgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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

Über Autor(innen)

Baer, Hester
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.

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.