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Course Information
 Course Description Format Requirements Texts Syllabus
Course Description :
We have two objectives in this course: to survey the major German-speaking women filmmakers (German and Austrian), focusing particularly on the postwar period, and to study three of those filmmakers in somewhat greater depth (by viewing a number of films by them, reading about their lives, and/or viewing documentaries about their lives and work). The three filmmakers whom we will study in greater depth are Leni Riefenstahl (notorious as "Hitler’s filmmaker"), Margarete von Trotta (the most prolific and best-known of the German women filmmakers internationally), and Valie Export (an experimental, avant garde filmmaker from Vienna).
We will be interested not only in the topics women filmmakers choose to treat cinematically (including the issue of literary adaptations vs. auteur films), but also in their filmic innovations—what they have contributed to the development of film technique as a whole.
Course Format :
Since the class meets once a week for a two and one-half hour period, we will be able to view the films together and then discuss them in the same class session. Readings will consist of articles about the films and filmmakers that will be on reserve in the departmental office (264 Comer) and/or in Gorgas Library and should be read prior to the class session in which we view the film.
Requirements :
Students are expected to attend all classes, view all films, do the assigned readings, and participate actively in the discussions. Written work will consist of:
- Four mini-essays (2-3 pages) on various topics assigned throughout the semester, often comparing some aspect in several of the films (40% of final grade)
- A midterm examination (30% of final grade)
- A final examination (30% of final grade)
Students taking the course for graduate credit will be expected to write a research paper in lieu of the final examination, and will lead one of the class discussions.
Texts :
Readings for this course are taken from the following sources:
- Frieden Sandra, et al., eds. Gender and German Cinema, Gender and Representation in New German Cinema, v. I, Providence: Berg, 1993. [dept. reserve]
- Frieden, Sandra, et al. eds. Gender and German Cinema, German Film History/German History on Film, v. II, Providence: Berg, 1993. [dept. reserve]
- Knight, Julia. Women and the New German Cinema. NY: Verso, 1992.
PN1993.5/.G3K58/1992 [dept. and Gorgas reserve]
- Rentschler, Eric, ed.. West German Filmmakers on Film: Visions and Voices. NY: Holmes & Meier, 1988. [dept. and Gorgas reserve]
Syllabus
January 8 Introduction. Women and Film: Issues and Problems
FILM: "Women Who Made the Movies" (55 min.)
READING: "The Absent Directors," Julia Knight, Women and the New German Cinema
January 15 Leontine Sagan
FILM: "Mädchen in Uniform" 1931 (90 min.)
READINGS:
"From Repressive Tolerance to Erotic Liberation: Girls in Uniform," B. Ruby Rich
The Filmic Adaptation of the Novel The Child Manuela: Christa Winsloe’s child Heroine Becomes a Girl in Uniform," Lisa Ohm
January 22 Leni Riefenstahl
FILM: "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl," Documentary, Dir. Ray Müller, Part I., 1993 (96 min.)
READING: "Just What did Leni Riefenstahl’s Lens See?" Janet Maslin (New York Times, 3.13.94)
January 29 Leni Riefenstahl, cont.
FILM: "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl,"Part II., 1993 (92 min.)
READING: "Fascinating Fascism," Susan Sontag (New York Review of Books, 6 February 1975: 23-30)
February 5 Leni Riefenstahl, cont.
FILMS: "Triumph of the Will," 1935 (110 min.)
"Olympia," Part I., 1936 (excerpts)
READING: "Leni Riefenstahl: A Crystal Grotto," Women Filmmakers: A Critical Reception, Louise Heck-Rabi, 1984
February 12 Jutta Brückner
FILM: "Ein ganz und gar verwahrlostes Mädchen," 1977 ( 76 min.) [A thoroughly demoralized Girl]
READINGS:
"Interview with Jutta Brückner; Recognizing Collective Gestures,"
Marc Silberman "Women’s Films Are Searches for Traces," Jutta Brückner (1981)
February 19 Helma Sanders-Brahms
FILM: "Deutschland, bleiche Mutter" 1979-80 (130 min.) [Germany, Pale Mother]
READINGS:
"Confronting German History: Melodrama, Distantiation, and Women’s Discourse in Germany, Pale Mother," Richard W. McCormick "My Critics, My Films and I," Helma Sanders-Brahms (1980)
February 26 Marianne Rosenbaum
FILM: "Peppermint Frieden" [Peppermint Peace], 1983 (100 min.)
READING: "Marianne Rosenbaum and the Aesthetics of Angst (Peppermint Peace), Gabriele Weinberger
March 5 Valie Export
FILM: "Unsichtbare Gegner" [Invisible Adversaries], 1977 (112 min.)
READING: "Valie Export’s Invisible Adversaries: Film as Text," Margret Eifler
March 12 Valie Export, cont.
FILM: "Menschenfrauen" [Human Women], 1980 (100 min.)
READING: "The Female Image as Critique in the Films of Valie Export (Syntagma)," Ramona Curry
March 19 Valie Export, cont.
FILM: "Die Praxis der Liebe" [The Practice of Love], 1984 (90 min.)
READING: "Interview with Valie Export," M. Eifler and S. Frieden
March 26 Doris Dörrie
FILM: "Männer" [Men], 1985 (96 min.)
READING: "Searching for Stories in a Gray Germany," Doris Dörrie (1978)
April 2 SPRING BREAK
April 9 Margarethe von Trotta
FILM: "Die bleierne Zeit" [Marianne and Juliane], 1981 (103 min.)
READINGS:
"German History and Cinematic Convention Harmonized in Margarethe von Trotta’s Marianne and Juliane," Barton Byg
"Working with Jutta Lampe," Margarethe v. Trotta (1979)
April 16 Margarethe von Trotta, cont.
FILM: "Rosa Luxemburg" 1986 (122 min.)
READING: "A Heroine for Our Time: Margarethe von Trotta’s Rosa Luxemburg," Anna Kuhn
April 23 Margarethe von Trotta, cont.
FILM: "Das Versprechen" [The Promise], 1996 ( 114 min.)
READING: "Female Film Aesthetics," Margarethe v. Trotta (1982)
April 30 Monika Treut
FILM: "My Father is Coming," 1990 (82 min.)
READINGS:
"Is There a Feminine Aesthetic?," Julia Knight, Women and the New German Cinema
""Feminism and Film," Helke Sander (1977) "The Pressure to Make Genre films: About the Endangered Autorenkino," Ulrike Ottinger (1983) |
