Shell Shock Cinema: Weimar Culture and the Wounds of War

by Anton Kaes

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 fa�ade.

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, History, World War I, Cultural Studies, World History, War

400 pages, Hardcover

First published June 30, 1999

About the author

Anton Kaes is Professor of German and Film & Media at the University of California, Berkeley. He has written and edited numerous books, including Shell Shock Cinema and The Weimar Republic Sourcebook, and is coeditor of the Weimar and Now series.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Far and away the best book of film theory/criticism I’ve read. Superbly researched (includes 100 pages of notes, bibliography, and index) and beautifully written, Kaes dissects post World War I German (and beyond) culture and filmmaker’s response to war and its aftermath. Focusing primarily on four iconic films - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, The Nibelungen, and Metropolis - which are described and analyzed on virtually a frame by frame basis, Kaes lays out all the cultural backdrop and provides great detail on the film techniques used to provide the visual expression of the extreme psychological states rendered by the war. The classic Film Noir cycle begun during World War II draws on many of these same techniques and sensibilities and this book is really indispensable for understanding the cinematic response to World War II found in Film Noir because it was prefigured in the “Shell Shock Cinema” of the 1920s.

[smokeandmirrors · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was good, it's a good "writing about film" book. It was recommended to me on the basis of writing about films in their sociopolitical contexts, working to link the films back to the societies they were made in, so I was reading with an eye to that and I think it succeeded pretty well. Something I did learn about myself though is that whatever referencing system has a superscript number that links to notes at the back of the book absolutely destroys my reading experience lol I'd get to the end of the chapter going "Hmm I see what he's saying but I wish there'd been more to back it up :/" and then remembering I hadn't flipped to look at the notes as they came up. The book is meticulously researched! I am bad at interrupting my own reading unless the footnote is right there in my face. I need to work on this

[zeynep]

This take on Caligari is quite good, the others um they're ok (skipped nibelungen chapter cuz i have not watched)

[Jelena R · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mildly interesting, but well written.