A Critical History of German Film ed. by Stephen Brockmann (review)

When the first edition of A Critical History of German Filmwas published in 2010, it was a singular work: no other volume set out to offer a comprehensive overview of the development of German film and to simultaneously present analyses of specific exemplary films. In its revised second edition, Stephen Brockmann's Critical Historyhas only grown, adding and redeveloping certain sections while retaining its ambitious scope and its singularity. Brockmann rightly argues that most studies focus either on the development of film in Germany—as an example, he cites Sabine Hake's German National Cinema(2008)—or on individual films, pointing to volumes like Robert C. Reimer and Reinhard Zachau's German Culture through Film(2005) and Joseph Garncarz and Annemone Ligensa's The Cinema of Germany(2012). Projects that aim to offer both historical overview and individual analyses are, indeed, few and far between; perhaps the sole competitor to Brockmann's work is Jennifer M. Kapczynski and Michael David Richardson's New History of German Cinema(2012), where introductions to key periods supplement the broad range of entries focused on key dates and films.

A Critical Historyis, of course, a different type of work. Brockmann aligns his approach with that of Siegfried Kracauer, whose seminal study From Caligari to Hitler(1947) "analyzed individual films as symptoms of Germany's collective psyche" (2). Brockmann's methodology is guided by his belief that "the serious study of German film history must confront German films themselves as aesthetic objects" and that "the interpretation of aesthetic objects, including film, can help to understand history" (4). Dividing the book into seven chronological sections of varying length, Brockmann introduces each section by sketching out key historical, cultural, and cinematic developments, and then turns to individual films in analytical chapters. In its current incarnation, A Critical Historyadds five analytical chapters, focused on Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed(Lotte Reiniger, 1926), Hallo Janine(Carl Boese, 1939), Grün ist die Heide(Hans Deppe, 1951), Männer(Doris Dörrie, 1985), and Toni Erdmann(Maren Ade, 2016), as well as a brief conclusion. These additions are certainly significant. For one, they expand the genres that Brockmann includes, with Grün ist die Heideserving as occasion for a discussion of the Heimatfilmand Männerand, though less straightforwardly, Toni Erdmannadding to the representation of comedies. More pressingly, the addition of Achmed, Männer, and Toni Erdmannbrings the number of female filmmakers included to five: previously, Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willen(1935) and Margarethe von Trotta's Die bleierne Zeit(1981) were the only two films by women treated in the history.

Which hints at one of the difficulties of a work like this: how to decide which films areexemplary? Over the years, a canon of German film has developed, but it is one that has also been contested and challenged. Certainly, a film like Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari(Wiene, 1920) would unequivocally be considered canonical; still, both inclusions and omissions are significant and serve not only to reflect a stable canon of German films, but also to shape and validate it. Brockmann notes that his choices are motivated not only by a given film's significance, but also by its "availability and accessibility to English-language audiences" (6). This might be seen as a weakness, as it, to some degree, limits from the start the potential innovation of the volume: if most of these films are available with English subtitles, that surely is connected to how broadly known and studied they are. Brockmann's analyses are solid, offering insight into each film's historical context and significance and paying careful attention to the cinematic components that both shape how the film is read and reflect its position in film history; However, simply because the status of many of these films is canonical, analyzing them requires reflecting some of the consensus built through previous work and...