This is the first comprehensive account of Germany's most enduring film genre, the Heimatfilm, which has offered idyllic variations on the idea that "there is no place like home" since cinema's early days. Charting the development of this popular genre over the course of a century in a work informed by film studies, cultural history, and social theory, Johannes von Moltke focuses in particular on its heyday in the 1950s, a period that has been little studied. Questions of what it could possibly mean to call the German nation "home" after the catastrophes of World War II are anxiously present in these films, and von Moltke uses them as a lens through which to view contemporary discourses on German national identity.
Johannes von Moltke Book order (chronological)
Johannes von Moltke is a distinguished literary scholar and critic whose work delves into German cinema and its cultural dimensions. His scholarship investigates how themes of identity and belonging, particularly the concept of 'Heimat', are articulated through visual media. Through insightful analysis of filmic works, he uncovers the complex ways cinema shapes and reflects societal notions of home and belonging. His approach offers readers a nuanced understanding of the interplay between film, culture, and lived experience.
