The BFI Companion to German
Cinema
Thomas Elsaesser, Michael
Wedel (eds.)
London: BFI Publishing,
1999, pp. 224, ISBN 0-85170-750-5, £13.99
Reviewed
by Daniela Berghahn
The BFI Companion
to German Cinema is part of a series of currently six short reference books
to national European cinemas and film genres. It has obviously evolved from
the Encyclopedia of European Cinema (Cassell and BFI, 1995) but contains significantly
more entries on German cinema than the Encyclopedia. With more than 200 entries
on film actors, directors, producers, cinematographers, film movements, the
film industry and festivals, which are in most cases complemented by bibliographical
references and a filmography, this 260-page volume provides an excellent source
of reference for scholars and teachers of German cinema. While focusing primarily
on German film culture from 1890 to the present, it also includes entries
on Swiss and Austrian cinema. But rather disappointingly, the six-page survey
on Austrian and the twelve-page entry on German cinema are not matched by
a corresponding entry on Swiss cinema. It is only by referring to the Encyclopedia
of European Cinema that we learn that Swiss film production is rather insignificant,
at least in terms of production volume: 'between 1908 and 1964, the total
number of feature-length standard format 35mm films produced in Switzerland
was probably about 230'. It might have been a good idea to have included these
statistics in the Companion to German Cinema as well, so that the reader would
have been reassured that Swiss film production is, numerically speaking, comparatively
insubstantial, and therefore receives so little attention here.
The extensive article on
German cinema ('Germany') is a film-history-in-a-nutshell, paying particular
attention to Weimar, Nazi, and New German Cinema as well as considering popular
genres such as musicals, costume, doctors', sex, ruin and social problem films.
Although numerous entries on East German actors and directors as well as 'DEFA',
the former GDR state-owned film production and distribution company, are included
in the volume, there is a certain bias in favour of pre-war and West German
cinema. Under 'censorship' no mention is made of the censorship practices in
the former GDR and their significant impact on East German film production;
similarly, under 'cinema and state' we find only a cursory reference to the
GDR's nationalised film industry and its precarious position in relation to
party control and propaganda. These omissions are, however, outweighed by the
Companion's indisputable strengths: it is the most up-to-date reference book
on German cinema currently on the market; published in 1999, entries cover films
released as recently as 1999. The introduction, written by Thomas Elsaesser,
one of the most eminent and prolific scholars of German cinema, provides an
excellent survey of contemporary German film culture of the 1990s, dispelling
the myth that German cinema is dead — artistically as well as economically.
In tracing the fate of the leading filmmakers of the New German Cinema, Elsaesser
answers one of the most frequently asked questions on film studies courses.
Adopting an industrial perspective, Elsaesser disproves the common notion that
German cinema and commercial success are mutually exclusive concepts: not only
does he provide hard figures which show that German filmmakers of the nineties
are winning back their home ground, he also reminds the reader that some of
Hollywood's recent box-office hits, such as Godzilla and Independence Day were
made with the help of German talent. In addition, he introduces the reader to
the themes, directors and stars of the new German comedy as well as to the increasing
prominence of Turkish-German films.
The
BFI Companion to German Cinema is the only book of its kind on the English-language
market. Even a standard German-language reference work, such as Reclams Filmführer
(11th revised edition, 2000), which lists and reviews over a thousand German-language
films, is no competition for The BFI Companion to German Cinema, since film
titles do not appear as entries at all. The wide-ranging scope of its entries,
combined with useful bibliographical references and a good balance of concise
and more extensive articles, make this Companion an indispensable and authoritative
short reference book for anyone interested in German-language film, but in
particular for those who teach and research in this area.