German Popular Cinema And The Rialto Krimi Phenomenon

German Popular Cinema and the Rialto Krimi Phenomenon: Dark Eyes of London examines the Kriminalfilme—or Krimis—based on the novels of English author Edgar Wallace, released by Rialto Film between 1959 and 1972 as part of the post-World War II era of German popular cinema that enjoyed extraordinary popularity with the German public. Nicholas G. Schlegel analyzes how this group of West German thrillers not only nurtured a convalescing film industry, but also provided unequaled national entertainment while canonizing Rialto’s Krimi productions in terms of their historical genesis, aesthetic characteristics, and social reception. Schlegel surveys the Krimi’s enduring legacy, calculable global influence, inevitable decline, and eventual migration to television in the 1970s, where it thrived but ultimately took on a more somber tone. Scholars of film, television, history, and German culture will find this book particularly useful.

In this book, William Mahan analyzes German feature films and TV series centered around the figure of the computer hacker as a hero over the past twenty-five years. The author introduces the German hacker genre to the ongoing academic discussion of genre in German cinema and argues for its continued relevance in both national and global contexts.

West German cinema of the 1960s is frequently associated with the emergence of a new generation of filmmakers, collectively known by the 1970s as the "New German Cinema." Yet for domestic and international audiences at the time, German cinema primarily meant popular genres such as exotic adventure films, Gothic crime thrillers, westerns, and sex films, which were dismissed by German filmmakers and critics of the 1970s as "Daddy's Cinema." International Adventures provides the first comprehensive account of these genres, and charts the history of the West German film industry and its main protagonists from the immediate post-war years to its boom period in the 1950s and 1960s. By analyzing film genres in the context of industrial practices, literary traditions, biographical trajectories, and wider cultural and social developments, this book uncovers a forgotten period of German filmmaking that merits reassessment. International Adventures firmly locates its case studies within the wider dynamic of European cinema. In its study of West German cinema's links and co-operations with other countries including Britain, France, and Italy, the book addresses what is perhaps the most striking phenomenon of 1960s popular film genres: the dispersal and disappearance of markers of national identity in increasingly international narratives and modes of production.

The first edited volume devoted to the legendary cult director Jess Franco.

Offers a fresh approach to German film studies by tracing key genres -- including horror, the thriller, Heimat films, and war films -- over the course of German cinema history

Film Genres in Hungarian and Romanian Cinema: History, Theory, and Reception discusses how the Hungarian and Romanian film industries show signs of becoming a regional hub within the Eastern European canon, a process occasionally facilitated by the cultural overlap through the historical province of Transylvania. Andrea Virginás employs a film historical overview to merge the study of small national cinemas with film genre theory and cultural theory and posits that Hollywood-originated classical film genres have been important fields of reference for the development of these Eastern European cinemas. Furthermore, Virginás argues that Hungarian and Romanian genre films demonstrate a valid evolution within the given genre’s standards, and thus need to be incorporated into the global discourse on this subject. Scholars of film studies, Eastern European studies, cultural studies, and history will find this book particularly useful.

From 1968 to 1977, Spain experienced a boom in horror-movie production under a restrictive economic system established by the country’s dictator, Francisco Franco. Despite hindrance from the Catholic Church and Spanish government, which rigidly controlled motion picture content, hundreds of horror films were produced during this ten-year period. This statistic is even more remarkable when compared with the output of studios and production companies in the United States and elsewhere at the same time. What accounts for the staggering number of films, and what does it say about Spain during this period? In Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema: The Spanish Horror Film, Nicholas G. Schlegel looks at movies produced, distributed, and exhibited under the crumbling dictatorship of General Franco. The production and content of these films, the author suggests, can lead to a better understanding of the political, social, and cultural conditions during a contentious period in Spain’s history. The author addresses the complex factors that led to the “official” sanctioning of horror films—which had previously been banned—and how they differed from other popular genres that were approved and subsidized by the government. In addition to discussing the financing and exhibiting of these productions, the author examines the tropes, conventions, iconography, and thematic treatments of the films. Schlegel also analyzes how these movies were received by audiences and critics, both in Spain and abroad. Finally, he looks at the circumstances that led to the rapid decline of such films in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By examining how horror movies thrived in Spain during this decade, this book addresses a sorely neglected gap in film scholarship and also complements existing literature on Spanish national cinema. Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema will appeal to fans of horror films as well as scholars of film history, European history, genre studies, and cultural studies.

Migration, Mobility and Sojourning in Cross-cultural Films: Interculturing Cinema draws on existing scholarship on global movements and intercultural communication in cinema to analyze six cross-cultural films. Ishani Mukherjee and Maggie Griffith Williams locate key themes that tie into the complexity and implications of global movements, including migrants’ experiences of culture-shock, cultural assimilation and/or integration, cultural identities in transition, social mobility and movements, and the short-term intercultural impact that sojourners experience in unfamiliar cultural space. Mukherjee and Williams explore how intercultural communication functions in the storytelling and in the formation of character relationships in these films, arguing that the depictions of migration, mobility, and the resulting intercultural communications are complex and stressful moments of conflict that lead to mixed results. Scholars of film studies, communication, migrant studies, sociology, and cultural studies will find this book particularly useful.