Germany says thank you, because an American streaming service had to come along first to make German film socially acceptable again internationally. I explain why this is a stroke of luck in the current issue of the GIGA weekend column.
When I think of the German film at night, I lose sleep. I don’t have a second Heinrich Heine in me, but I am a convinced film lover. However, he only knows the majority of German productions from hearsay.
There is a good reason for this: either the thousandth comedy with Til Schweiger is running again, or alternatively Matthias Schweighöfer, alternatively a cerebral author’s film tries to answer questions that nobody had ever asked. In this country, this interested less and less moviegoers and Internationally, the German film plays almost no role.
Netflix saves the German film
Apart from a few individual cases, a deplorable permanent state that describes the German film landscape aptly. To this day, German film has not been able to recover from the cuts after 1933. First came the Nazis, then kitschy homeland films that unspeakable cinema comedies of the nineties found their inevitable sequel.
As late as the 1920s, German film was in the lead, internationally significant and innovative. This status could never be restored. Germany also closed itself to the popular and successful genre cinema. Action, adventure or science fiction films came from Hollywood, not from Germany.
One of the reasons why important German directors of this genre, such as Wolfgang Petersen or Roland Emmerich, fled and tried their luck in Hollywood – with success.
Hope for the German film:
But there is hope and it is now given to us by an American streaming service. Netflix finances across national borders and thus also promotes German talent. The best example is the recent Oscar success “Nothing New in the West”. Nominated for nine Academy Awards, the makers were able to take home four Oscars last week. No German-language film had ever enjoyed such success.
With a few exceptions (“Nowhere in Africa”, “Downfall” or “The Lives of Others”), German films have played no international role in recent years, but this one has catapulted incredible success of Netflix the German-language cinema finally back in the front row.
A stroke of luck and probably not an isolated case. Even before that, Netflix had a flair for local talent. The “Dark” series is an example, even if the makers’ latest work (“1899”) was unfortunately discontinued too early.
Netflix gives exciting insights into the film in this documentary:
Netflix is finally bringing good German films and series to an international audiencesomething that German cinema has so far hardly been able to do on its own.
Streaming services are often accused of heralding the end of the cinema and film landscape. In the case of the German film, however, Netflix turns out to be a kind of concrete contrast Savior with a fat wallet.
My thoughts for the weekend: The column aims to provide food for thought and reflect on the week’s “news flood” towards the end. A small selection of previous articles in the column:
Don’t be ashamed of the money
One may criticize the latter, but exactly this one German stinginess has held back success so far. Not only in the film landscape, by the way. For example, many football fans hate a certain East German football club owned by an Austrian energy drink maker. Commerce is denounced with hypocritical arguments, although it had arrived long before that and is ultimately necessary for success.
Neither German film sponsored from the USA nor German football sponsored from Austria need be ashamed of it. Im just wanting to end up good and professional cinema enjoy, whether on screen or in the stadium.
Don’t want to miss any more news about technology, games and pop culture? No current tests and guides? Then follow us
Facebook
or Twitter.
