OXFORD GERMAN NETWORK

Literature & Film

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Find more learning and teaching resources for German film at the German Film Learning Initiative, a collaborative project between the University of Leeds and Cardiff University.

Raymond Moody's Blues - Friedrich Kunath at Modern Art Oxford in November 2013

von Clara Henssen

Eine knurrende Espressomaschine, ein lächelnder Kellner hinter der Bar, die Aussicht auf den Museumsshop und die Frage danach, was jetzt kommt. Wir sind im Erdgeschoss des Modern Art Oxford und im ersten Stock erwartet uns die Kunst Friedrich Kunaths. Friedrich Kunath? Wer ist das?

1974 in der Karl-Marx-Stadt Chemnitz geboren, lebt und arbeitet er seit 2007 in Los Angeles. Sein Werk umfasst Malerei, Video, Skulpturen und Grafik. Inspirationsquellen: Konzeptkunst, Deutsche Romantik und Symbolismus. Aber Kunaths Biografie muss keine Rolle darin spielen, an seiner Kunst Gefallen zu finden. Und das ist das Schöne an ihr.

Auf in den ersten Stock.

Click here to read the full review.

Barbara

Directed by Christian Petzold, Germany, 2012

Review by Ben Schofield

Poster for Barbara Emblazoned in red across the top of the poster for Christian Petzold’s latest film Barbara is the tag-line: “Anyone who loved The Lives of Others should see this!” Like the 2006 Oscar-winning film, Barbara is a tale of life and love in the former German Democratic Republic – a world of Stasi surveillance, political dissidents, and desperate attempts to lead an everyday life under a totalitarian regime.

Click here to read the full review

Goodbye Lenin!

Directed by Wolfgang Becker

By Georgina Baird Film poster

Der Film “Goodbye Lenin!” erzählt die Geschichte der Familie Kerner, die in der DDR wohnt, aber deren Vater in den Westen umgezogen ist. In der Familie Kerner gibt es Alexander, seine Schwester Ariane und seine Mutter Christiane. Als ihr Vater die Familie verlässt, wird Christiane sehr deprimiert. In der Abwesenheit des Vaters wird sie Unterstützerin der DDR. Am 7. Oktober 1989, auf dem Weg zu einer Feier des 40. Jahrestages, sieht sie Alex, der an einer Demonstration teilnehmt. Als Christiane Alex sieht, der von der Volkspolizei festgenommen wird, hat sie plötzlich einen Herzinfarkt, und sie fällt ins Koma.

Click here to read the full review.

Book review: Benedict Wells's Becks letzter Sommer by Christina Ostermann

In a manner of speaking, Robert Beck is quite satisfied with his life. Why would he not be? A 37-year-old former musician, he has settled down in Munich, teaching at his old school, just like his father used to do. Not that Beck was particularly close to his father – but that’s a different story. Becoming a teacher just seemed the easiest way to avoid all the difficult decisions life was constantly asking him to make. And, to be perfectly honest, he wasn’t made for the music business anyway. Instead, Beck simply accepts the fact that life most probably doesn’t have any surprises in store for him anymore. At least, there are still a couple of people whose presence stops him from dying of boredom. There’s his best friend Charlie with his passion for drugs and dancefloors. And then there’s Lara, a waitress in a café he suddenly goes to regularly only because she works there. But strictly speaking, she isn’t his type anyway.

Everything changes when Rauli Kantas enters Beck’s classroom... read more.

Time Out called it the 'top half-term show': Erich Kästner's Emil and the Detectives at the National Theatre in spring 2014

'Erich Kästner’s 1929 tale of Emil Tischbein’s quest to retrieve his money stolen by the mysterious Mr Snow has long held the status of a “children’s classic”. In his introduction to the 1959 English-language edition, Walter de la Mare stressed the universality of Emil’s adventure, while former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen has noted how groundbreaking Kästner’s story was. Emil and the Detectives, he argues, was the “first book for children which treats the city as a place of excitement and worth” and which delighted, almost anarchically, in its depiction of “children coming together for a common purpose, without the guidance of adults”. For many, then (including myself) Emil and the Detectives was a seminal work of childhood – and the news of the National Theatre’s production prompted both excitement and anxiety. Could Emil’s adventure – essentially an extended chase sequence across a lovingly detailed Weimar Berlin – ever be successfully represented on stage?'

Read Ben Schofield's full review here... Find out about Erich Kästner's classic children's book here.

[Above left: Judy Flynn (Mrs Keuchen), Stuart McQuarrie (Mr Snow), Daniel Patten (Emil), Ella Kenion (Mrs Jakob). Below right: Oliver Clement (The Professor) and Daniel Patten (Emil)]

Franz Kafka's Amerika (1927)

Dr Carolin Duttlinger (University of Oxford) recently gave a talk for Source - a magazine for contemporary photography - on Kafka's use of photography in his unfinished novel Amerika - now known under its modern title Der Verschollene - which he started writing between 1911 and 1914, but which was only published posthumously in 1927. The novel tells the story of a teenage boy who must emigrate to America and follows his social decline.

You can watch Carolin's fascinating talk here and look at a copy of the 1927 edition here (digitised by the University and State Library in Düsseldorf).

Groupies bleiben nicht zum Frühstück

Directed by Marc Rothemund

By Alex Wild

Lassen Sie sich nicht von dem Titel täuschen, dieser Film ist eine romantische Komödie. Es geht um die Junge Lila, die sich in Chriz, einen Rockstar, verliebt, obwohl sie das noch nicht weiß. Witzigerweise ist Chriz der Leadsänger von der Lieblingsgruppe ihrer Schwester, ‘Berlin Mitte‘. Die Geschichte ihrer sich entfaltenden Romantik findet in Berlin statt.

Ich habe die Handlung sehr vorhersehbar gefunden, aber der Film hat mir sehr gut gefallen. Der Film zeigt Teile Berlins, und kürzlich war ich in Berlin, so daß ich viel von der Stadt aus dem Film erkannt habe. Ich finde den Film total super, weil die Mädchen nicht perfekt sind, denn das ist so wie im richtigen Leben. Der Schauspieler, der Chriz spielt, ist auch wirklich gutaussehend. Meiner Meinung nach ist dieser Film eine lustige Liebesgeschichte mit einem tollen Soundtrack . Ich empfehle Ihnen, diesen Film zu sehen, und das Deutsch ist sehr einfach zu verstehen, was großartig ist.

Film poster

Literature & Film

'A performance of 'The Last Days of Mankind' is rare enough (even in Germany and Austria), but the production at the Oxford Playhouse Burton-Taylor Studio, starting 18 February, is very special indeed. It is an adaptation that does something surprisingly unusual outside the German-speaking world, which is to focus on Kraus's text. Die letzten Tage der Menschheit is in German, produced by the University's ambitious German-language drama company, The Oxford German Play, but it does something I am sure is unique: there will be surtitles in English. I have provided the translations that the company will work with to create the surtitles. This is something that anybody who is within reach of Oxford should take the opportunity to see - and hear. Not only a genuinely substantial, text-based adaptation of Kraus's writing, but the chance to hear it as it should be heard, and yet to be able to understand it even if you don't speak German.' Read more...

Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui by Bertold Brecht (1941)

Written by Bertolt Brecht

By Benjamin Schaper

Written in 1941 during his exile in Finland, Brecht originally conceptualised Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui [The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui] for an American audience. Brecht intended to stage the play after his arrival in the US in the same year, but the plan for a New York production eventually had to be abandoned and the play did not premiere until 10 November 1958, over two years after Brecht’s death on 14 August 1956. Since its premier in Stuttgart, Der aufhaltsame Aufstieg des Arturo Ui has been revived many times on both the German and international stage, including several long running productions at the Berliner Ensemble (e.g. one directed by Heiner Müller, which premiered in 2002 and is still part of the repertoire). Brecht’s Historienfarce [historical farce] is now set to be performed in English translation at the Duchess Theatre, London, from 18 September to 7 December 2013 and the Oxford German Network will be organising coinciding events.

Click here to read more about the play and an exciting competition!