German Film after Germany: Toward a Transnational Aesthetic

4. The Historical Genre and the Transnational Aesthetic

4 The Historical Genre and the Transnational Aesthetic Imagining a Common Past If in the preceding chapter I argued that the transnational aesthetic is not the property of a single genre, I would offer a corrective at this point: particular genres do engage the transnational imaginary more intensely at particular times. The historical genre presents a special form of narration that harbors many of the complexities attendant to the rather fraught nature of European transnationalism. That the process of European union is fraught should present no surprise. It is not just material circumstances in the present —stagnating economies, conflicting banking practices, differing visions of environmentalism, pressures from outsourcing and downsizing to the East, migrant labor to the West, and so on—that cause tensions at the sessions of the European parliament. The past, the history of Europe, threatens the project of European union. The future of any community lies in its ability to imagine a common past, but up to this point “global memories” have established difference rather than cohesion.1 National perspectives have dominated over a century of European historiography. And if we try to find a new perspective, we still must recognize that the terrain of Europe has been crossed by centuries of war and sectarian violence so that the possibility of producing a common history seems at least hampered if not impossible. What tales could inspire the imagining of a European community? Consider the story of the French Revolution, for instance, truly a European event: is it liberation or invasion? It certainly takes on a different quality if told by a French, British, Polish, or i-xii_1-244_Hall.indd 89 4/25/08 1:57:32 PM 90 . german film after germany German filmmaker. The great stories of the Golden Age, begun in Spain in 1492, offer dross to Europe’s Jewish and Muslim filmmakers; they are simply fraught with imperialism and genocide, making it difficult for any filmmaker to find positive historical substance there. What German biopic of Martin Luther could ever succeed in Italy, Austria, or even Bavaria? It is thus significant that throughout the decade of the 1990s, the decade of the foundation of the European Union, historical films proved particularly successful. During this period, of course, the historical genre proved especially successful for the British film industry through the box office draw of Merchant-Ivory productions, but during the same time production and distribution of historical films increased throughout the European film markets. This is significant because typically the historical genre has been deployed within the national ensemble precisely as a vehicle for the imagining of the national community. Moreover, if we survey general film production during the period we note a rapid expansion in the war genre, the historical form that focuses directly on conflicts and aggressions (see table 1). And if we explore the full extent of European film production during the 1990s, we also note the rise in audiovisual productions not about just any historical period but, most pointedly, about the period from the mid-1920s to 1945. This is the period of World War II, European fascism, and the Holocaust. This is the period of extreme, even fanatical nationalist struggles—hardly the stuff for imagining transnational union. The future of the European Union lies in these contemporary productions of its past. If the cultural producers in Europe have not yet succeeded in portraying a compelling universalizing vision of the past, we should not overlook their efforts to try. Indeed, here under development are models of import for the future of all transnational unions. This chapter will take up the question of the relationship of this increase in the historical genre to the Table 1. Number of films in the War, World War II, and Holocaust genres Country 1969–79 1980–89 1990–2001 Germany 35 50 99 France 33 27 62 United Kingdom 54 60 96 United States 164 249 443 Total 286 386 700 Note: Numbers were compiled from the BFI, the FIAF, and the Internet Movie Database. These tend to represent completed films that have additionally gone into distribution. i-xii_1-244_Hall.indd 90 4/25/08 1:57:32 PM the historical genre · 91 transnational aesthetic. Whereas up to this point, this study has surveyed film production in order to discover general trends, in this chapter closer readings of films will help draw out specificity and nuance. We will focus here on two films...