Introductory description

A module which examines Germany's filmic legacy between 1918-1945. It considers the relationship between film and society at a time of massive social change and, ultimately, war. The section focussing on Weimar film considers aesthetics, gender relations, images of modernity, and messages of hope and despair. The section focussing on Nazi film covers some of these elements but also considers how film can serve ideological goals as propaganda.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Indicative programme:

1. Expressionist cinema and anxiety: Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari
2. Myth, dream and legend: Nosferat
3. Cityscapes and modernity: Metropolis
4. Gender and power: Die Büchse der Pandora
5. Ideology and propaganda I: Kuhle Wampe
6. Reading week
7. Ideology and propaganda II: Hitlerjunge Quex
8. Ideology and propaganda III: Triumph des Willens
9. The 'Durchhaltefilm': Kolberg
10. Popular cinema and melodrama: Die Große Liebe

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Critically assess the development of the formal aspects of cinema in the Weimar Republic and under National Socialism
• Situate the films studied in their historical and socio-political contexts
• Understand film as a tool of social and cultural policy in differing political systems

Indicative reading list

Indicative filmography:
Robert Wiene, Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920)
F. W. Murnau, Nosferatu (1922), Der letzte Mann (1924)
Fritz Lang, Metropolis (1927), M. Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931)
G. W. Pabst, Die Büchse der Pandora (1929)
Josef von Sternberg, Der blaue Engel (1930)
Leontine Sagan, Mädchen in Uniform (1931)
Bertolt Brecht/Slatan Dudow, Kuhle Wampe (1932)
Hans Steinhoff, Hitlerjunge Quex (1933)
Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph des Willens (1935)
Rolf Hansen, Die Große Liebe (1942)
Eduard von Borsody, Wunschkonzert (1940)
Veit Harlan, Kolberg (1944)
Detlef Sierck, Schlussakkord (1936)

View reading list on Talis Aspire

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language. It will build students’ capacity to engage with aspects of German culture through analysis of this primary material and through seminar discussion aimed at deeper critical thinking. In particular, students’ awareness of film and national socialism in the Weimar Republic will be enhanced through lectures and seminars which engage in scholarship in the field.

Transferable skills

All SMLC culture modules demand critical and analytical engagement with artefacts from target-language cultures. In the course of independent study, class work and assessment students will develop the following skills: written and oral communication, creative and critical thinking, problem solving and analysis, time management and organisation, independent research in both English and their target language(s), intercultural understanding and the ability to mediate between languages and cultures, ICT literacy in both English and the target language(s), personal responsibility and the exercise of initiative.