Hollywood behind the wall The cinema of East Germany [Paperback]

This book is a representative history of East German film culture from 1946 to the present, examining both DEFA's celebrated classics and the most acclaimed post-unification feature films by East German directors.

'Hollywood behind the wall' demonstrates that East German cinema occupies an ambivalent position between German national cinema on the one hand and East European and Soviet cinema on the other. It includes a wide-ranging exploration of post-unification cinema from East Germany, including cult films such as 'Sun Alley' and 'Goodbye, Lenin!' and provides contextualised, close readings of twenty significant films, referencing one hundred and ninety East German films in total, along with numerous West German and East European classics.

The book's scope and its critical consideration of archival materials and scholarly literature make it an authoritative compendium for students and scholars of film studies, German studies and modern European history.

List of figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction

1. The East German film industry and the state

2. Coming to terms with the Nazi legacy: DEFA's anti-fascist films

3. In the guise of costume drama: The appropriation of Germany's cultural heritage

4. The forbidden films

5. Women on film, or how political is the private sphere?

6. German cinema after unification

References

Index

Daniela Berghahn is Principal Lecturer in German and Film Studies at Oxford Brookes University