Beyond Caligari: The Films of Robert Wiene

Jung, Uli; Schatzberg, Walter

ISBN 10 : 1571811567 ISBN 13 : 9781571811561

Editeur : Berghahn Books, Incorporated, 1999

Synopsis

While the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari became an international film classic, its director, Robert Wiene, was disparaged and even forgotten. Wiene's oeuvre, however, exhibits a surprising versatility and quality, featuring Raskolnikov, an expressionist adaptation of Dostoevsky's novel, INRI, a monumental Bible epic, Orlac's Hands, a psychological thriller, and Der Rosenkavalier, an ambitious opera film. His last film, Ultimatum(1938), is a vehement warning of approaching war, which remains relevant today. With painstaking research of the major European film archives, the author's detailed portrait reveals a career far more differentiated than hitherto acknowledged. Caligar/i - though rated the second most important film in German film history in a recent critic's and scholar's poll - was a landmark rather than a culmination in a career that successfully oscillated between artistic and commercial interests.

As the field of film studies rediscovers film history and the value of historical context for the analysis of individual films, monographs on filmmakers are increasingly valuable to scholars and students of both film history and cultural studies. Through the provocative and prolific career of Robert Wiene, a wider, more dynamic view of fantasy production in the Weimar Republic is revealed, enabling the reader to better appreciate the complex shapes of Weimar cinema, its inimitable blend of modernism and mass culture, of avant-garde enterprie, and generic production.

A propos du livre

À propos des auteurs

Uli Jung is a film historian who received his training at the RWTH Aachen, Clark University, Worcester, and Trier University. He has been working as a freelance researcher for the Cinématèque Municipale de Luxembourg and co-edited its series Filmgeschichte international.

Walter Schatzberg is a professor of German and an adjunct professor of screen studies at Clark University. His research interests include the history of German-Jewish culture and German film history.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Berghahn Books, Incorporated
• Date d'édition: 1999
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1571811567
• ISBN 13: 9781571811561
• Reliure: Belle reliure
• Nombre de pages: 240
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible