A Second Life: German Cinema's First Decades

by Thomas Elsaesser

German cinema is best known for its art cinema and its long line of outstanding individual directors. The double spotlight on these two subject has only deepened the obscurity surrounding the popular cinema. German Cinema performs a kind of archaeology on a period largely the first two decades of German cinema. This collection of essays by established authors refocuses the terms of a debate that will develop in the years to come concerning the historical and cultural significance of popular cinema in Wilhelmine Germany.

Genres: Film

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Thomas Elsaesser was a German film historian and professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Amsterdam.