| Description |
1 online resource (xi, 312 pages) : illustrations |
| Contents |
The war at home. The wounded soldier -- The spirit of 1914 -- Film and nation -- The battle of images -- A medium for deception -- The new empire -- Mental breakdowns -- Tales from the asylum. War neurotics -- Recovering the past -- Phantoms and freaks -- From Dr. Charcot to Dr. Caligari -- Madness as resistance -- The Hitler connection -- Shattered space -- The return of the undead. The lost generation -- Mass death -- Dracula revisited -- A community under siege -- Hysteria on the home front -- The allure of the occult -- The work of mourning -- Myth, murder, and revenge. The national project -- Posing for Germany -- The will to form -- The fallen hero -- Excursus: Lang in World War I -- The sacred battle -- The end of violence -- The industrial battlefield. Rise of the machines -- Moloch war -- Lang's America -- The hunger for religion -- The workers' revolt -- Destruction and regeneration -- Aftershocks -- Conclusion |
| Summary |
Shell Shock Cinema explores how the classical German cinema of the Weimar Republic was haunted by the horrors of World War I and the the devastating effects of the nation's defeat. In this exciting new book, Anton Kaes argues that masterworks such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, The Nibelungen, and Metropolis, even though they do not depict battle scenes or soldiers in combat, engaged the war and registered its tragic aftermath. These films reveal a wounded nation in post-traumatic shock, reeling from a devastating defeat that it never officially acknowledged, let alone accepted. Kaes uses the term “shell shock”—coined during World War I to describe soldiers suffering from nervous breakdowns—as a metaphor for the psychological wounds that found expression in Weimar cinema. Directors like Robert Wiene, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang portrayed paranoia, panic, and fear of invasion in films peopled with serial killers, mad scientists, and troubled young men. Combining original close textual analysis with extensive archival research, Kaes shows how this post-traumatic cinema of shell shock transformed extreme psychological states into visual expression; how it pushed the limits of cinematic representation with its fragmented story lines, distorted perspectives, and stark lighting; and how it helped create a modernist film language that anticipated film noir and remains incredibly influential today. A compelling contribution to the cultural history of trauma, Shell Shock Cinema exposes how German film gave expression to the loss and acute grief that lay behind Weimar’s sleek façade. -- Publisher |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 267-297) and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Motion pictures -- Germany -- History -- 20th century
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World War, 1914-1918 -- Motion pictures and the war
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World War, 1914-1918 -- Influence
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Silent films -- Germany -- History and criticism
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War and motion pictures
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Psychic trauma in motion pictures.
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Culture in motion pictures.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- German.
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ART -- Film & Video.
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Culture in motion pictures
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Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
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Motion pictures
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Psychic trauma in motion pictures
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Silent films
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War and motion pictures
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Germany
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| Genre/Form |
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
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History
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
1400831199 |
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9781400831197 |
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0691031363 |
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9780691031361 |
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9786612303883 |
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6612303883 |
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