Hollywood in Berlin : American cinema and Weimar Germany / Thomas J. Saunders.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Saunders, Thomas J., author.

Contributor:

American Council of Learned Societies.

Series:

Weimar and now ; 6.

Weimar and now ; 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Motion pictures--Germany--History.

Motion pictures.

Motion pictures, American--Germany--Influence.

Motion pictures, American.

Motion pictures, German--United States--Influence.

Motion pictures, German.

National characteristics, American, in motion pictures.

National characteristics, German, in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 332 p. ) ill. ;

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, [1994]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The setting is 1920s Berlin, cultural heart of Europe and the era's only serious cinematic rival to Hollywood. In his engaging study, Thomas Saunders explores an outstanding example of one of the most important cultural developments of this century: global Americanization through the motion picture. The invasion of Germany by American films, which began in 1921 with overlapping waves of sensationalist serials, slapstick shorts, society pictures, and historical epics, initiated a decade of cultural collision and accommodation. On the one hand it fueled an impassioned debate about the properties of cinema and the specter of wholesale Americanization. On the other hand it spawned unprecedented levels of cooperation and exchange. In Berlin, American motion pictures not only entertained all social classes and film tastes but also served as a vehicle for American values and a source of sharp economic competition. Hollywood in Berlin correlates the changing forms of Hollywood's contributions to Weimar culture and the discourses that framed and interpreted them, restoring historical contours to a leading aspect of cultural interchange in this century. At the same time, the book successfully embeds Weimar cinema in its contemporary international setting.

Contents:

Front matter

CONTENTS

ILLUSTRATIONS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1. THE SETTING: WEIMAR GERMANY AND THE MOTION PICTURE

CHAPTER 2. GERMAN-AMERICAN FILM RELATIONS: COMPETITION AND COOPERATION

CHAPTER 3. HOLLYWOOD IN BERLIN: THE INITIATION, 1921-1923

CHAPTER 4. THE HOLLYWOOD INVASION: AMERIKANISMUS AND AMERIKAMÛDIGKEIT

CHAPTER 5. EXCURSUS: POPULAR CULTURE AND AMERICAN HEGEMONY

CHAPTER 6. COMIC REDEMPTION: THE SLAPSTICK SYNTHESIS

CHAPTER 7. GERMAN-AMERICAN PRODUCTION IN HOLLYWOOD AND THE MEANING OF NATIONAL CINEMA

CHAPTER 8. THE COMING OF SOUND AND THE WANING OF AMERICA

CONCLUSION

NOTES

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Okt 2020)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520914162

0520914163

9780585079226

0585079226

OCLC:

1198929759