Modern German Films

History

Directors

Modern German Films

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I have decided to call all German films that were made after the Second World War 'modern' because they have sound and because film - just like the rest of German culture after the Nazis - had to begin afresh. Goebbels had exploited film just as he had other media, so that he could broadcast Nazi propaganda across all of Germany and Austria. Therefore, the new German film industry had to break with the past. Das Boot was a very good beginning.

A few good German films are:

• Das Boot (1981), Director: Wolfgang Petersen
• The Tin Drum (1979), Director: Volker Schlöndorff
• Run Lola Run (1998), Director: Tom Tykwer
• Goodbye Lenin (2003), Director: Wolfgang Becker
• The Edukators (2004), Director: Hans Weingartner
• Nowhere in Africa (2002), Director: Caroline Link
• barfuss (2005), Director: Til Schweiger
• Hard on (2004), Director: Fatih Akin
• The Life of the Others (2006), Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Many of these films show how German producers treated the troublesome history of Germany in the twentieth century. The majority of the films have political or historical themes, but despite of this they are by no means boring, since the theme has been treated in a fresh and humorous way.

Reviews of new German films appear on Deutsche Welle as well as at FilmPortal.de and filmforum.

In Germany there is a difference between cinema films and TV films. Some films are only made for the television audience, which means that the film's production company is the television broadcasting company. Broadcasting companies can also make films for the cinema, which mean that when the film comes to television, it is only played by this particular company. Of course, there are also films that play first in cinemas, and whose production company is not a broadcasting company. After being shown in cinemas, broadcasting companies must fight amongst themselves for the licence for this film so that other companies do not show it.