Fwd: Cold War internationally

From: Jadzia Biskupska <[email protected]>:

*Dlug/The Debt* (1999), a drama/thriller set during the Polish transition
to a capitalist economy.

*Czesc Tereska* (2001), about a couple of working class Polish girls
growing up in 1970s urban Poland.

I believe there is writing about both films and they portray a lot of
Polish society/politics while being interesting themselves.

*****

From: *Benita Blessing.* <[email protected]>

Hi,
Although it is hard to not use *Goodbye Lenin* and *Lives of Others* for
the GDR, I would suggest looking at films from the East German production
company DEFA during the Cold War. So many of them are now on DVD with
subtitles, with the occasional fairy tale film (for which they were very
well known) dubbed (with the rationale that children would watch them and
thus not be able to read subtitles).

Since I write on East German children's films, I am partial to the fairy
tale films - but films like *Somewhere in Berlin* (1946) beside
Rossellini's *Germania anno zero* make a great introduction to how two
different societies viewed the responsibilities of Germany after the war.
Students have consistently been awed by both films.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst DEFA Film Library has a great
listing of films that are available and summaries -
https://defafilmlibrary.com/film-search-alpha

I would highlight films that dealt with the Holocaust (*Stars*), the
Science Fiction Series (*Eolomela*, *Silent Star*, *In the Dust of Stars*),
and the "banned" films that after 1989 were remastered (the series is
called "Wende Flicks," and includes most of the banned films and some of
the last films of the GDR - *The Architects* is particularly good, as is
*Born in '45.*

Also recently re-found and released is *Dove on the Roof*, one of the few
films from DEFA to be directed by a woman (Iris Gusner).

A lot of work is coming out on DEFA in English, but there was a 2008
on-line forum of using films to teach about the GDR on H-German which I
commented on -

http://www.h-net.org/~german/discuss/GDRfilm/TeachingGDR.htm

best, Benita Blessing
University of Vienna (Austria)

*****


From: *Erica Sheen* <[email protected]>


Just to add: the obvious  French films would probably be Rivette's *Paris
nous appartient *(1961) and Godard's *Alphaville* (1965) .

Erica Sheen

*****


From: *Erica Sheen* <[email protected]>
People interested in *The Lives of Others*  might like to note a new
collection published in about a week's time by Palgrave Macmillan:
The*Writer on Film: Screening Literary Authorship
*_, edited by Judith Buchanan.

This includes substantial essays on T*he Lives of Others, Diary of a
Country Priest, Letter from an* *Unknown Woman, Julia, My Brilliant Career,
Prospero's Books, Adaptation, Shakespeare in Love, Sylvia, Becoming Jane,
Atonement, Bright Star, Enid* and *Howl*.

http://us.macmillan.com/thewriteronfilm/JudithBuchanan

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