TY - GEN T1 - Shell shock cinema : Weimar culture and the wounds of war A1 - Kaes, Anton LA - English PP - Princeton PB - Princeton University Press YR - 2009 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/jstor_eba_ocn475131754 AB - 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 façade. -- OP - 312 CN - PN1993.5.G3 K295 2009eb SN - 1400831199 SN - 9781400831197 SN - 0691031363 SN - 9780691031361 SN - 9786612303883 SN - 6612303883 SN - 1282303880 SN - 9781282303881 SN - 9780691008509 SN - 0691008507 KW - Motion pictures : Germany : History : 20th century. KW - World War, 1914-1918 : Motion pictures and the war. KW - World War, 1914-1918 : Influence. KW - Silent films : Germany : History and criticism. KW - War and motion pictures. KW - Psychic trauma in motion pictures. KW - Culture in motion pictures. KW - Cinéma : Allemagne : Histoire : 20e siècle. KW - Guerre mondiale, 1914-1918 : Influence. KW - Films muets : Allemagne : Histoire et critique. KW - Traumatisme psychique au cinéma. KW - Culture au cinéma. KW - LITERARY CRITICISM : European : German. KW - ART : Film & Video. KW - Culture in motion pictures KW - Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) KW - Motion pictures KW - Psychic trauma in motion pictures KW - Silent films KW - War and motion pictures KW - Germany KW - 1900-1999 KW - Criticism, interpretation, etc. KW - History ER -