The “Young German Cinema” : Germany

In the 1960s and 1970s, the film industry in western Germany experienced a revival: Announcing that “Papa’s cinema is dead,” the “young German cinema” appeared on the scene in 1966. This new generation of German filmmakers went on to produce a series of remarkable films over the course of the following decades, films which exhibited an extraordinary diversity of genres and
themes.

Alexander Kluge, for instance, skillfully fused fiction with documentary material in the film “Yesterday Girl” (1966). Werner Herzog sensitively depicted the life and suffering of the enigmatic foundling Kaspar Hauser in his film “Every Man for Himself and God Against All” (1974). Berhard Sinkel and Alf Brustellin directed “Una Braake” (1975), a delightful comedy. Rainer Werner Fassbinder provided impressive panoramas of German society in films such as “Katzel-macher” (1969), “The Marriage of Maria Braun” (1978) and the Berlin epic “Berlin Alexanderplatz” (1980). For “Veronika Voss” Fassbinder was awarded the Golden Bear at the 1982 Berlin Film Festival.

In the 1980s the filmmakers of the young German cinema increasingly enjoyed commercial and international success. Wim Wenders (born in 1945) portrayed taciturn heroes in search of themselves in films such as “The State of Things” (1982) or “Paris, Texas”, for which he was awarded the Golden Palm at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. In 1987 Wenders surprised the film world with his “Wings of Desire”, in which an angel falls in love with a trapeze artist in Berlin. This film, which won the prize for best director at the Cannes Film Festival, was also a success abroad. Mar-garethe von Trotta made a name for herself with her impressive portrayals of women in films such as “Rosa Luxemburg” (1986). In “Leaden Times” (1981) and “The Promise” (1994), she critically commented on the situation in the Federal Republic. Werner Herzog (born in 1942) offered exciting action films with unconventional heroes, subjects and locations. “Fitz-carraldo”, which won the prize for best director at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, depicted the efforts of a manic opera fan bent on building an opera house in the heart of the Brazilian jungle.