역사적 정체성 탐구와 파시즘에 대한 우려, 뉴 저먼 시네마(New German Cinema, 1962-1982)

Abstract

The 1962 Oberhausen Manifesto, which proclaimed the break of New German Cinema, showed the situation the German cinema of the postwar period was facing as the opposite notion of the old cinema and young cinema. As far as this notion is concerned, it demonstrates against not only the old cinema of Germany of that time, but also the older generation. Its critique of the old cinema, at this point, relatively aims to reform the form and content, and institution of west German cinema of that time; that of the older generation is based on German social circumstance at a crisis resulting from the unsatisfactory liquidation of the Nazi past. In this sense, New German Cinema could be characterized by aesthetic and formal innovations such as Bertolt Brecht's Alienation effect, theatrical mise-en-scène in the closed space, American mass culture, and the melodramatic features of Douglas Sirk. In fact, what is really characteristic of New German Cinema is, rather than these aesthetic aspects, is its question of Germany's national identity and anxiety for the return of the Nazism. After World War II, German society could not practically achieve the comprehensive liquidation of the Nazi past. It was so rarely discussed in the open because they experienced the Cold War and then, what was more urgent was German economic recovery. At that time, consequently, the current of the German society toward political conservatism was clearly witnessed. The National Democratic Party of Germany(NPD), for example, which declared a direct successor to the Nazi party and claimed to stand for nationalism, emerged in the 1960s; that is to say, the anxiety about re emerging of the Nazism past still loomed over West German society. The director of the New German Cinema,especially Alexander Kluge, Volker Schlöndorff, Hans Jürgen Syberberg, Jean-Marie Straub, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Werner Herzog, and Win Wenders issued the question of the national identity and showed problemmatic anxiety the Nazi past, that is, the repressed of German history which did seem to return. West German film-makers considered it their mission to look for the roots of this crisis in the German past. In brief, The problemmatic rejection of the Nazi past and anxiety for the national identity became a cornerstone of the identity and unity of German film from 1962-1982; that is, New German Cinema.