New German Cinema: Images of a Generation explores the context within which films made by Fassbinder, Wenders, Herzog, von Trotta and others emerged during the late 1960s through to the mid-1980s. It examines the American dominance of the German market place, the notion and politics of an Autorenkino, the framework of European art cinema, and distribution and exhibition initiatives that helped facilitate the birth and shape of a new national cinema. The author discusses the way in which the New German Cinema engaged with contemporary West German reality and how the films raised important questions about West Germany’s self-understanding in the postwar era.

Julia Knight is Principal Lecturer in the Media Arts department at the University of Luton. She has published widely on German cinema and various aspects of British independent film and video.

2003
144 pages
978-1–903364–28–4   £12.99 (pbk)

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Reviews
'Destined to become required reading for students and scholars of German cinema … Delineates and explains with welcome lucidity how historically specific conditions made possible the birth of the New German Cinema in the 1960s and brought about its demise.'
Klaus Phillips, Hollins University

'In this short, well-written volume, media scholar Julia Knight traces the birth, life and seeming demise of New German Cinema, a genre that spans twenty years from the mid-1960s to the early 1990s ... The strength of Knight's work lies in her framing of different examples of New German Cinema within social, historical and political contexts and in making the reader aware of certain aesthetic influences working at the personal, directorial level. Because of this New German Cinema: Images of a Generation would make an excellent introduction not only for film students concentrating upon this particular time and place in cinematic history, but also for students of post-WWII West German history interested in art and culture.'
Richard John Ascárate, MEDIENwissenschaft

books of related interest
The Cinema of Wim Wenders: The Celluloid Highway