CIN201Y1 Lecture 6: lecture 6
Lecture I-6: Kammerspiel and After
Lecture Structure:
1) Introduction: What Happens in 1924?
2) The Kammerspielfilm and Die Neue Sachlichkeit
3) The Decline of the German Film Industry
4) Kracauer Revisited
Introduction: What Happens in 1924?
This period sees a shift from German film’s rise to prominence and links
with Expressionism to decline and links to Neue Sachlichkeit.
The year 1924 is a pertinent dividing line, both because the nature of the
subject matter of German cinema changes, and because the industry
begins to falter.
The Kammerspielfilm and Die Neue Sachlichkeit
The influence of Expressionism in German cinema becomes far less
marked during the second half of the decade, displaced by both the
Kammerspielfilm and the street film.
Kammerspielfilm shares qualities (emphasis on mood, intensity and
intimacy) with its theatrical predecessor.
Carl Mayer wrote the screenplays for virtually all of the important
examples of Kammerspielfilm.
The intensity of expression relies on the cultivation of stimmung, “the
vibrations of the German soul.” (Lotte Eisner)
The increasing emphasis on the everyday and on the social roots of the
action depicted, even more obvious in the street film, finds its equivalent
in broader trends in art, labeled Die Neue Sachlichkeit (1924-29).
The realistic observation of social reality could be pitiless and even
cynical, as it depicted a country plagued by moral and spiritual decay.
The Decline of the German Film Industry
In some ways, hyperinflation helped the film industry, while stabilisation
did not.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
