New German Cinema: A History

From Publishers Weekly In this exemplary analysis of what is arguably the most vital national cinema since the French New Wave, Elsaesser, a British professor, defines New German Cinema as the fruit of government sponsorship of independent filmmaking that peaked during the 1970s. Works by its disparate talents, from Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders to Werner Herzog and Volker Schlondorff, are illumined by close readings here that adopt a variety of perspectives: political, biographical, historical, literary, generic, etc. Elsaesser's examination of German culture, customs and regional character is especially edifying. An equal triumph is his skilled unraveling of West Germany's unique film-subsidy system, which arose to fill the void of postwar German filmmaking; ironically, gifted artists of the New German Cinema had access to funding, but found it nearly impossible to market their films domestically, despite foreign acclaim. Illustrations not seen by PW.  From Library Journal In the mid-1970s, a talented collection of German filmmakers burst onto the international scene, revitalizing that country's long-dormant film industry. Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Volker Schlondorff, and especially Rainer Werner Fassbinder were the leading lights of this movement. Elsaesser's meticulous and well-informed study is virtually a history of postwar German film, providing a rich historical context (including valuable insights into financing and TV production) for his subject. With Fassbinder's death in 1982, New German Cinema seemed to lose some momentum, but the author points out that the movement had already been subsumed into the mainstream of international coproductions. A masterly study, aimed at an academic audience.