The Great German Films

Traces the history of the German movie industry from its beginnings in 1895 to 1981 and analyzes influential German movies

This popular survey divides the history of German film into eight periods, matching a narrative summary of the political and economic events which shaped film production in each era with a group of exemplary films. Ott discusses 45 of these in detail, summarizing their plots and critical reactions to them. Unfortunately, the survey of recent "New German Cinema" is the text's weakest section, for Ott ignores the political dimensions of these filmsparticularly in his naive summary of Ali: fear eats the soul and harshly criticizes Wim Wenders for his very strengths. Otherwise, the text is readable and accurate and the numerous illustrations generally well chosen, though captions for ads reproduced from trade journals are often inadequate. Marshall Deutelbaum, English Dept., Purdue Univ., W. Lafayette, Ind.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.