Golden week for German cinema

Film is undeniably the art form of this century. It is becoming impossible to write and discuss visual art without considering the great film minds the world has produced. With multimedia and interdisciplinary work, museums can no longer ignore film when planning an exhibition. Many of the world's great art museums have film series as part of exhibits to show off art both on the walls and on the screen.

This week, the Allen Memorial Art Museum presents a series of German films representing a broad overview of the 20th century. This is in conjunction with their current exhibit "Utopia and Alienation: German Art and Expressionism, 1900-1933." Three of the individuals responsible for putting the series together were kind enough to share their views on the films.

Dr. Timothy Corrigan, considered the English-language expert on German Cinema, is an English professor at Temple University in Philadelphia and is the keynote speaker for the week-long event. Stephan Jost, Curator of Academic Programs and Exhibitions at AMAM, is primarily in charge of setting the series up and Elizabeth Hamilton, visiting professor of German, who is currently teaching a class on the New German Cinema movement of the 1970s and 80s.

Jost said, "I wanted to have something that dealt with German culture from Expressionism to the present and films are a great way of doing this. Early German films, such as Murnau's Nosferatu, are very influenced by Expressionism. I wanted to present a series that reflected the complexities of German History in the 20th century. Of course

German history is very complex and full of contradictions. I have included poetic films such as Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire as well as Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, which is Nazi propaganda and a truly evil film."

Corrigan expanded on this thought. "It's a terrific group of films that individually could stand alone as high points in film history. Von Sternberg, Murnau, Wenders, Fassbiner - these are some of the great filmmakers of the century. And with actors like Marlene Dietrich, Emil Jannings (The Blue Angel), Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire), Klaus Kinski (Aguirre, Wrath of God) and Franka Potente (Run, Lola, Run) you get performances of a sort you won't find in Hollywood."

Hamilton agreed. "These films are so different," she said in her office earlier this week. "They capture the characters beautifully in new ways. Or they use a particular film technique. There are examples of new styles in these films as well. They are films that are bound up with the personalities that made each film, and they are films that know film history."

Undoubtedly, Corrigan, Jost and Hamilton agree that these German films are individual pieces of art. The movies even quote from other pieces of art. "With the example of Run Lola Run," Hamilton pointed out, "we have a movie that is quoting from a piece of literature. In the film, Lola shrieks and breaks glass. This is directly out of Gunter Grass's novel The Tin Drum, which itself was turned into a movie."

Enthuses Corrigan, "Anyone who has doubts about the power of old films in black and white - films that are just learning to experiment with sound - should certainly see The Blue Angel and Nosferatu. The images are absolutely mesmerizing and one gets to see an 'art cinema' that is also completely entertaining. For those with an interest in history, the creepy and twisted story of both films might give people a glimpse at the desperate state of German culture in the 1930s. In a way, Dietrich as Lola Lola (The Blue Angel) is the cinematic grandmother of Potente in Run, Lola, Run.

The films in the AMAM series are based solidly on specific points in film history. Corrigan said, "The series represents four of the most significant periods in German film history: The so-called Golden Age of German Expressionism, the dark years of Nazi cinema, the New German Cinema of the 1970s and '80s, and then with Run Lola Run, one gets a look at what's going on in Germany today, post-unification. Film became the right vehicle for [these directors] to engage and debate these issues, and these young filmmakers were willing to take big risks and experiment with film form in new ways in order to get, if not answers, clear questions. That the rest of the world quickly rallied around them suggests that those questions are/were simply not 'German'."

The Allen Memorial Art Museum's German Film Series runs tonight through Wednesday. All films will be introduced by a different professor, and will be screened in Kettering 11. Check the Campus Arts Calendar for exact tiles and times.