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2 German Film, Aufgehoben Ensembles of Transnational Cinema Transforming the National Ensemble of Production In the 1990s, the politics and financing of the big screen came under increasing scrutiny; the national subsidy systems particularly came under attack by free-market advocates, unleashing still unresolved debates in the meetings of the World Trade Organization (WTO). As with the broadcast sector of the audiovisual industry, national film production urgently needed to confront the need to open up to new market structures and become economically viable. Thus, in Germany in the mid-1990s, when the minister of the interior strongly stated as quoted earlier, “Film is the expression of the cultural identity of a country vis-à-vis its own citizens as well as foreign countries,”1 the German state was actually downsizing its primary funding roles in the film industry and removing restrictions on international co-production possibilities . His statements, set against this backdrop of economic and political transformation, appear actually hollow, a strange misunderstanding of the industry about which he was supposed to be an expert.2 Three major transformations in film financing around this time marked the shift into transnational circumstances, fundamentally altering the techniques of film production in Germany.3 The first two transformations took place in the relationship of the state to the national film industry. The third derives from the space opened up for private investment by the state’s withdrawal from its role as primary funding source. Specifically, the first transformation occurred through a legal redefinition of the parameters of the existing institutions . The supporting institutions of the FFA have undergone various forms i-xii_1-244_Hall.indd 30 4/25/08 1:57:24 PM german film, aufgehoben · 31 of restructuring, but most dramatic and significant here were the changes in the FFA itself. In 1986, during a period of sharp decline in the German share of the film market, the definition of what constituted a German film was expanded so that a film qualified as German if “only the film script author or a leading actor is a German citizen and if the film premiers in German in the territory of the FFA or if it premiers in an A level film festival as a German entry.”4 The FFA did not undertake this redefinition out of a cynical gesture simply to include more films under the designation “German”; rather, the rationale of film as national prestige object that had motivated the formation of the FFA in the 1960s gave way to a policy that sought to foster greater economic cooperation in the national film industry. The redefinition opened up German public financing to co-productions, facilitating old-model arrangements of international cooperation, and it also allowed for integration into new European production mechanisms. In addition, it led many involved in the film industry to question contemptuously if Germany had a national film policy, or if there was a German film production at all anymore.5 If we examine the type of film funded by the new parameters of the FFA, we recognize where these questions came from. An obvious example is House of the Spirits, from 1993.6 It received FFA support and is listed as a German film. Its director is Bille August, a Dane, and its narrative is based on a novel by Chilean author, Isabel Allende. Bernd Eichinger of Neue Constantin produced it. Eichinger is the most successful German producer—if the criterion is box office draw—with films like Das Boot, The NeverEnding Story, and Downfall to his credit. The film touts an international cast, with Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Winona Ryder, Antonio Banderas, Vanessa Redgrave, Maria Conchita Alonso, and Jeremy Irons. Significant to fulfill requirements for the funding, wecannotetheeminentGermanactorArminMueller-Stahlamongthecast— in a supporting role. Regardless of the narrative’s setting in Latin America, the filming locations were in Denmark and—for that Latin look—Portugal. Its language was English.7 The presence of Mueller-Stahl and the site of the premier were enough to qualify the film for FFA funding. It was able to attract 3,070,472 spectators in Germany, making it the eighth most popular film of the year.8 In spite of this success, such a film bore little resemblance to the films of the New German Cinema that the FFA had spent two decades funding . House of the Spirits marked a new direction in “German” film funding. The second transformation was more broadly sweeping in its effect on the film industry. In these changes we recognize...

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