Read more
Both politically and aesthetically, the contemporary German and Austrian film landscape is a far cry from the early days of the medium, when critics like Siegfried Kracauer produced foundational works of film theory amid the tumult of the early twentieth century. Yet, as Leila Mukhida demonstrates in this innovative study, the writings of figures like Kracauer and Walter Benjamin in fact remain an undervalued tool for understanding political cinema today. Through illuminating explorations of Michael Haneke, Valeska Grisebach, Andreas Dresen, and other filmmakers of the post-reunification era, Mukhida develops an analysis centered on film aesthetics and experience, showing how medium-specific devices like lighting, sound, and mise-en-scène can help to cultivate political sensitivity in spectators.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations
Introduction Chapter 1. The Twenty-First-Century Worker Film:
Workingman's Death (2004) by Michael Glawogger and
Karger (2007) by Elke Hauck
Chapter 2. Radical Realisms: Angela Schanelec's
Marseille (2004), Andreas Dresen's
Halt Auf Freier Strecke (2011), and Gerhard Friedl's
Hat Wolff Von Amerongen Konkursdelikte Begangen? (2004)
Chapter 3. Fragmented Stories for Fragmented Viewers:
71 Fragmente einer Chronologie des Zufalls (1994) and
Code Inconnu: Récit incomplet de divers voyages (2000) by Michael Haneke
Chapter 4. Sensitive Subjects: Shock and Distraction in
Hundstage (2001) by Ulrich Seidl, and in
Sehnsucht (2006) by Valeska Grisebach
Conclusion Filmography
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Leila Mukhida is Lecturer in Modern German Studies at the University of Cambridge.
Summary
Sensitive Subjects examines how contemporary German-language cinema may be read as seeking to produce greater political sensitivity in audiences through its form-that is, by employing medium-specific devices such as lighting, sound, editing and mise-en-scene in ways that prompt a more critical stance towards the societies it depicts.
