German Postwar Films: Life and Love in the Ruins (Studies in European Culture and History)

This Volume Of Essays By Scholars Of German Film And Culture Examines The Relatively Neglected German Films Of The Immediate Post-world War Ii Period, The So-called Rubble Films. Often Seen Merely As Symptoms Of A Particular German Malady--the Supposed Inability To Confront The Sins Of Its Immediate Past--these Films Have Rarely Been Examined For Their Aesthetic Qualities And For What They Actually Depict About Postwar German Life, Attitudes, And Fears. Placed Within The Context Of German Film History Of The Postwar Period And Allied Censorship, The Essays Examine Both Well-known And Nearly Forgotten Films For Their Narrative Structure, Aesthetic Strategies, Political Ideologies, Psychological Portraits Of Damaged Adults And Orphaned Youth, And The Nuances Of The History They Reveal. Introduction : Looking Again At The Rubble / William Rasch -- When Everything Falls To Pieces : Rubble In German Films Before The Rubble Films / Erhard Schütz -- Rubble Without A Cause : The Air War In Postwar Film / Wilfried Wilms -- A Time For Ruins / Dagmar Barnouw -- Rubble Film As Archive Of Trauma And Grief : Wolfgang Lamprecht's Somewhere In Berlin / Anke Pinkert -- The Stones Begin To Speak : The Laboring Subject In Early Defa Documentaries / Brad Prager -- What's New? Allegorical Representations Of Renewal In Defa's Youth Films, 1946-1949 / Marc Silberman -- In The Ruins Of Berlin : A Foreign Affair / Gerd Gemünden -- Rubble Noir / Jennifer Fay -- When Liebe Was Just A Five-letter Word : Wolfgang Liebeneiner's Love 47 / Robert G. Moeller -- Kampf Dem Kampf : Aesthetic Experimentation And Social Satire In The Ballad Of Berlin / Claudia Breger -- Planes, Trains, And The Occasional Car : The Rubble Film As Demobilization Film / Jaimey Fisher -- The Sound Of Ruins / Lutz Koepnick. Edited By Wilfried Wilms And William Rasch. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [209]-217) And Index. Contents......Page 6 Introduction: Looking Again at the Rubble......Page 8 1 "When Everything Falls to Pieces"—Rubble in German Films before the Rubble Films......Page 14 2 Rubble without a Cause: The Air War in Postwar Film......Page 34 3 A Time for Ruins......Page 52 4 Rubble Film as Archive of Trauma and Grief: Wolfgang Lamprecht’s Somewhere in Berlin......Page 68 5 The Stones Begin to Speak: The Laboring Subject in Early DEFA Documentaries......Page 84 6 What’s New? Allegorical Representations of Renewal in DEFA’s Youth Films, 1946–1949......Page 100 7 In the Ruins of Berlin: A Foreign Affair......Page 116 8 Rubble Noir......Page 132 9 When Liebe Was Just a Five-Letter Word: Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s Love 47......Page 148 10 "Kampf dem Kampf": Aesthetic Experimentation and Social Satire in The Ballad of Berlin......Page 164 11 Planes, Trains, and the Occasional Car: The Rubble Film as DeMobilization Film......Page 182 12 The Sound of Ruins......Page 200 Bibliography......Page 216 B......Page 226 G......Page 227 L......Page 228 O......Page 229 S......Page 230 Z......Page 231 Contents 6 Introduction: Looking Again at the Rubble 8 1 "When Everything Falls to Pieces"—Rubble in German Films before the Rubble Films 14 2 Rubble without a Cause: The Air War in Postwar Film 34 3 A Time for Ruins 52 4 Rubble Film as Archive of Trauma and Grief: Wolfgang Lamprecht’s Somewhere in Berlin 68 5 The Stones Begin to Speak: The Laboring Subject in Early DEFA Documentaries 84 6 What’s New? Allegorical Representations of Renewal in DEFA’s Youth Films, 1946–1949 100 7 In the Ruins of Berlin: A Foreign Affair 116 8 Rubble Noir 132 9 When Liebe Was Just a Five-Letter Word: Wolfgang Liebeneiner’s Love 47 148 10 "Kampf dem Kampf": Aesthetic Experimentation and Social Satire in The Ballad of Berlin 164 11 Planes, Trains, and the Occasional Car: The Rubble Film as DeMobilization Film 182 12 The Sound of Ruins 200 Bibliography 216 Index 226 A 226 B 226 C 227 D 227 E 227 F 227 G 227 H 228 I 228 J 228 K 228 L 228 M 229 N 229 O 229 P 230 Q 230 R 230 S 230 T 231 U 231 V 231 W 231 Y 231 Z 231 This volume offers a cultural, aesthetic, and critical reappraisal ofGerman 'rubble films' produced in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and constructs their meaning in a historical context. This volume offers a cultural, aesthetic, and critical reappraisal of German'rubble films'produced in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War and constructs their meaning in a historical context.