
Screen Nazis
Cinema, History, and Democracy
Sabine Hake(Author)
University of Wisconsin Press
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
368 pages
978-0-299-28714-6 (ISBN)
Description
From the late 1930s to the early twenty-first century, European and American filmmakers have displayed an enduring fascination with Nazi leaders, rituals, and symbols, making scores of films from Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) and Watch on the Rhine (1943) through Des Teufels General (The Devil's General, 1955) and Pasqualino settebellezze (Seven Beauties, 1975), up to Der Untergang (Downfall, 2004), Inglourious Basterds
Probing the emotional sources and effects of this fascination, Sabine Hake looks at the historical relationship between film and fascism and its far-reaching implications for mass culture, media society, and political life. In confronting the spectre and spectacle of fascist power, these films not only depict historical figures and events but also demand emotional responses from their audiences, infusing the abstract ideals of democracy, liberalism, and pluralism with new meaning and relevance.
Hake underscores her argument with a comprehensive discussion of films, including perspectives on production history, film authorship, reception history, and questions of performance, spectatorship, and intertextuality. Chapters focus on the Hollywood anti-Nazi films of the 1940s, the West German anti-Nazi films of the 1950s, the East German anti-fascist films of the 1960s, the Italian 'Naziploitation' films of the 1970s, and issues related to fascist aesthetics, the ethics of resistance, and questions of historicisation in films of the 1980s-2000s from the United States and numerous European countries.
Probing the emotional sources and effects of this fascination, Sabine Hake looks at the historical relationship between film and fascism and its far-reaching implications for mass culture, media society, and political life. In confronting the spectre and spectacle of fascist power, these films not only depict historical figures and events but also demand emotional responses from their audiences, infusing the abstract ideals of democracy, liberalism, and pluralism with new meaning and relevance.
Hake underscores her argument with a comprehensive discussion of films, including perspectives on production history, film authorship, reception history, and questions of performance, spectatorship, and intertextuality. Chapters focus on the Hollywood anti-Nazi films of the 1940s, the West German anti-Nazi films of the 1950s, the East German anti-fascist films of the 1960s, the Italian 'Naziploitation' films of the 1970s, and issues related to fascist aesthetics, the ethics of resistance, and questions of historicisation in films of the 1980s-2000s from the United States and numerous European countries.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Wisconsin
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
73 black & white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 20 mm
Weight
457 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-299-28714-6 (9780299287146)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sabine Hake is the Texas Chair of German Literature and Culture at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of numerous books and anthologies on German cinema and culture, including Topographies of Class: Modern Architecture and Mass Society in Weimar Berlin.