German National Cinema (National Cinemas) [Paperback]

Sabine Hake (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415420989 | ISBN-13: 978-0415420983 | Publication Date: December 27, 2007 | Edition: 2

German National Cinema is the first comprehensive history of German film from its origins to the present. In this new edition, Sabine Hake discusses film-making in economic, political, social, and cultural terms, and considers the contribution of Germany's most popular films to changing definitions of genre, authorship, and film form.

The book traces the central role of cinema in the nation’s turbulent history from the Wilhelmine Empire to the Berlin Republic, with special attention paid to the competing demands of film as art, entertainment, and propaganda. Hake also explores the centrality of genre films and the star system to the development of a filmic imaginary.

This fully revised and updated new edition will be required reading for everyone interested in German film and the history of modern Germany.

Editorial Reviews

Review

German National Cinema provides colleagues and students with a stimulating and comprehensive historical summary of German cinema from Skladanowsky to Tykwer. The author's arguments are cogent, persuasive, and incorporate numerous current theoretical approaches without the use of technical jargon. It will serve as a valuable resource tool for colleagues teaching German cinema and should be in every college library.
–Franz A. Birgel, Muhlenberg College

Hake (German studies, Univ. of Pittsburgh) offers an impressively comprehensive account that bristles with intriguing questions and opens new perspectives on many of the seven phases she persuasively identifies in German film history. She provides a more balanced presentation of the 1950s than has heretofore been available in English and also does a good job sketching East German cinema and the new initiatives since national reunification in 1991.
–S. Liebman, CHOICE

...an excellent introduction to the history of German cinema.
–Jaimey Fisher, Tulane University German Studies Review, 2003 --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Sabine Hake is the Texas Chair of German Literature and Culture in the Department of Germanic Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of several books on German cinema and Weimar culture, including The Cinema's Third Machine: German Writings on Film 1907-1933 (1993) and Popular Cinema of the Third Reich (2001).

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (December 27, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415420989
• ISBN-13: 978-0415420983
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Coherent Work on German National Television, January 3, 2010

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This review is from: German National Cinema (National Cinemas) (Paperback)

This is really the first work to review German national television as a whole, rather then discuss the twenties, the forties and then the New German Cinema. This coherent work suffers only from an enormous task at hand and too little space to do it. Her sections on Heimat film bring new ideas to the table and the book is intelligently written.