This 15 credit module provides an analysis of German film in its social context, from Weimar to the present day. Looking at films set in Berlin, this course investigates the ways in which German cinema has reflected and contributed to the development of 20th-century Germany. Berlin has long figured as Germany's quintessential city and has long been at the centre of socio-political and cultural developments as well as at the forefront of German cinema.

The module looks at films made in and about Berlin and in so doing offers students the opportunity to see how filmmakers have used the city to comment on important (inter)national developments, trends and ideas (including modernism, gender discourses, class discourse,  propaganda, multiculturalism, youth culture, postmodernism). These tales of the city with their panoply of residents – from Brecht to Bowie, from angels to gangsters, dealers and ideologues – tell us much about the metropolis and, more broadly, about Germany in the twentieth century and the present day.

• demonstrate analytical skills for the study of films and for linking these to social, historical and political contexts
• demonstrate skills relating to close reading and evaluation of scholarship and of images;
• demonstrate critical understanding of the ways in which urban development and theories of urbanity have contributed to modern German culture, in particular to literature and film;
• plan and write an essay analysing cultural, historical and political questions as they are articulated in a range of films
• contribute to discussions individually and show evidence of collaborative work
• demonstrate critical-creative work in the form of either a poster presentation or photo essay

The module is taught according to a lecture/seminar format. The lectures, however, are often organised in such a way that students have opportunities to ask questions and include time in which students are asked to reflect on a proposition, or to react to a particular claim. Weekly film screenings will be arranged at a time convenient to all (films will also be available in the library). Clear instructions and relevant reading are provided in advance of each seminar giving students time to prepare for each session. There will also be some online activities (a discussion forum for some weeks; research tasks etc). Seminars will include group work, film clips, and non-assessed mini-presentations.

You will receive continuous feedback (both oral and written) throughout the semester. Guidance on how to write a quality essay will be given in advance of the essay and students are encouraged to submit an essay plan for feedback.

Communicate ideas effectively and fluently, both orally and in writing

•           Use communications and information technologies for the retrieval and presentation of information

•           Work independently, demonstrating initiative, self-organisation and time-management

•           Collaborate with others and contribute to the achievement of common goals

Students will practice to:

•           Gather, organize and deploy evidence, data and information from a variety of sources

•           Develop a reasoned argument, synthesize relevant information and exercise critical judgement

•           Reflect on their own learning and make use of constructive feedback

•           Manage their own learning self-critically

Formative assessments:

Students will be expected to give presentations on films or topics (individually or as a group depending on the size of the cohort). Guidance for these will be provided in advance.

Summative assessments:

This module has one assessment:

An essay of 2500 words (100%)

Assessments are in English

THE OPPORTUNITY FOR REASSESSMENT IN THIS MODULE:

Students failing the module will have the opportunity for reassessment of the relevant work in line with University regulations. Typically, reassessment takes place during the summer. Students will be able to resubmit  the failed element(s), to achieve a maximum of 40%.

We will be studying a broad range of films (including cult film, documentary film and box office hits) in terms of their narrative structures and formal composition, but analysing also their role in mediating social/political messages. The course will draw on a range of theories and disciplines including film studies, urban studies, critical and cultural studies (pop music, photography, art). The study of film and film theory offers an ideal opportunity to gain a comprehensive understanding of German society and culture. It is a medium which appears to the viewer to be “real”, and yet it is perhaps the most mediated and ideologically constructed form of cultural production. By the end of the semester students will have developed their knowledge of some of the key issues in Germany's recent history and deepened their understanding of German cinema.

Among the topics we will be examining are:

•           The nocturnal city

•           Metropolitan vices

•           Youth cultures

•           The city as a site of subversion

•           Berlin’s geopolitical significance

•           Multiculturalism

•           Berlin and its subcultures

•           Berlin and tourism

•           Architecture and urban living

Recommended Reading:

Alter, Nora M. & Koepnick, Lutz P. eds., 2004. Sound matters: essays on the acoustics of modern German culture, New York: Berghahn Books

Berghahn, Daniela, 2005. Hollywood behind the Wall: the cinema of East Germany, Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Brady M. & Hughes H., 1998. German Cinema. In The Cambridge companion to modern German culture. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 302–321.

Brockmann, Stephen, 2010. A critical history of German film, Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House.

Clarke, David, 2006. German cinema: since unification, London: Continuum.

Cooke Paul., 2013. ‘The lives of others’ and contemporary German film: a companion, Berlin: De Gruyter.

Corrigan, Timothy, 1994. New German film: the displaced image, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Davidson, John E. & Hake, Sabine, 2007. Take two: fifties cinema in divided Germany, New York: Berghahn Books.

Elsaesser, Thomas, 1989. New German cinema: a history, New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press.

Elsaesser, Thomas & Wedel, Michael, 1996. A second life: German cinema’s first decades, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Fisher J. ed., 2013. Generic histories of German cinema: genre and its deviations, Rochester, New York: Camden House.

Ginsberg, Terri & Thompson, Kirsten Moana, 1996. Perspectives on German cinema, New York: G.K. Hall.

Haase, Christine, 2007. When Heimat meets Hollywood: German filmmakers and America, 1985-2005, Rochester, N.Y.: Camden House.

Halle R. & McCarthy M., 2003. Light motives: German popular film in perspective, Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University Press.

Hillman, Roger, 2005. Unsettling scores: German film, music, and ideology, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hodgin, Nick, 2011. Screening the east: Heimat, memory and nostalgia in German film Since 1989, New York: Berghahn Books.

Jung, Uli, 1993. Der Deutsche Film: Aspekte seiner Geschichte von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart, Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag.

Kaes, Anton, 1989. From Hitler to Heimat: the return of history as film, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Kata Gellen, 2012. Special Issue on German Film Studies: Introduction. The German Quarterly, 85(1). Available at: https://ezproxy.bangor.ac.uk/login?qurl=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41494710.

Knight, Julia, 2004. New German cinema: images of a generation, London: Wallflower.

Kracauer S. & Quaresima L., 2004. From Caligari to Hitler: a psychological history of the German film, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.

Prinzler, Hans Helmut & Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, 1995. Chronik des deutschen Films, 1895-1994, Stuttgart: Metzler.

Reichmann, Hans-Peter, Worschech, Rudolf & Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main, 1991. Abschied vom Gestern: bundesdeutscher Film der sechziger und siebziger Jahre : Ausstellung/Filme 19.12.1991-12.04.1992, Frankfurt am Main: Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main.

Rentschler, Eric, 1986. German film & literature: adaptations and transformations, New York: Methuen.

Sandford, John, 1981. The new German cinema, London: Eyre Methuen.

Scheunemann, Dietrich, 2003. Expressionist film--new perspectives, Rochester, NY: Camden House.

Schönfeld, Christiane, Rasche, Hermann & Galway Colloquium, 2007. Processes of transposition: German literature and film, Amsterdam: Rodopi.

Shandley, Robert R., 2001. Rubble films: German cinema in the shadow of the Third Reich, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Wedel, Michael & Elsaesser, Thomas, 1999. The BFI companion to German cinema, London: British Film Institute.

Welch, David, 2001. Propaganda and the German cinema, 1933-1945, London: I.B. Tauris.

Films (indicative)

Kuhle Wampe(Dudow, 1932)     

Menschen am Sonntag (Siodmak et al, 1930)

Irgendwo in Berlin (Klein, 1946)

Sommersonntag in Berlin (n/d 1942)

Die Mörder sind unter uns (Staudte, 1946)

Berlin Ecke Schönhauser (1957)

Die Halbstarken (1956)

Jahrgang ‘64 (Böttcher, 1965)

Die Legende von Paul und Paula (1972) 

Der geteilte Himmel (Wolf, 1964)

Christiane F. (Edel, 1981)

BMovie: Lust and Sound in West Berlin (Maeck, 2015)

Himmel über Berlin (Wenders, 1987)

Herr Lehmann (Haußmann, 2003)

Berlin is in Germany (Stöhr, 2001)

Ostkreuz (Klier, 1999)

Das Leben ist eine Baustelle (Becker, 1997)

Good Bye, Lenin! (Becker, 1999)

Dealer (Arslan, 1999)

Nachtgestalten (Dresen, 1999)

Victoria (Schipper, 2015)           

Oh Boy (Gerster, 2012)