Berlin School is a term used for a new movement inGerman films that has emerged in the early 21st century. The German termBerliner Schule has been applied to a number of intimate German films that received critical acknowledgement, first inFrance.
A circle of directors of penetrating, realistic studies of relationships and characters informally constitutes the Berlin School. Among these directors areChristian Petzold,Christoph Hochhäusler andAngela Schanelec.
The older directors of theBerliner Schule –Christian Petzold,Thomas Arslan andAngela Schanelec – started filmmaking in the early 1990s. At that time they started to develop the aesthetics of what is now called theBerliner Schule.[1]In 1998, the directorsBenjamin Heisenberg,Christoph Hochhäusler and Sebastian Kutzli founded the film magazineRevolver in Munich. They published interviews with certain directors and opened a new discourse about filmmaking aesthetics.
In 2003, the filmMilchwald (This Very Moment) byChristoph Hochhäusler was shown at theBerlinale.In 2004, the filmMarseille byAngela Schanelec was shown at theCannes Film Festival. Both films garnered critical acclaim from French film reviewers inCahiers du cinéma andLe Monde. The French press called the phenomenon theNouvelle Vague Allemande, while the German press and German audiences initially ignored it.[2]Later they called it theBerliner Schule. This term works as a marketing label, but the films subsumed under that label are very diverse.[1]
The majority of theBerliner Schule directors studied at theDeutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (dffb) and got to know each other there. But theBerliner Schule is not specifically a Berlin-based phenomenon.Christoph Hochhäusler studied at theHochschule für Fernsehen und Film in Munich, Henner Winckler andUlrich Köhler [de] studied at theHochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg, and Valeska Grisebach studied at theFilmacademy Vienna. Some of the directors work together (Revolver), while some of them don't know each other personally or reject any Berlin School collectivism.[1]
The now Berlin-basedRevolver is the biannual organ of theBerliner Schule directors. It is published by Jens Börner,Benjamin Heisenberg,Christoph Hochhäusler,Franz Müller, Nicolas Wackerbarth and Saskia Walker. This periodical develops and represents the filmmakers'Berliner Schule discourse.[3]TheRevolver group organizes film-related events, including panels, screenings and discussions. Young German directors and experienced international directors are presented and contribute to the discourse. For instance, AmericanMumblecore directorAndrew Bujalski was invited for a workshop discussion in January 2012. A new generation of prospective Berlin School directors was presented by theRevolver crew in May 2012: Jessica Krummacher (Totem), Hannes Lang (Peak), Maximilian Linz (Das Oberhausener Gefühl)[4] and Timo Müller (Morscholz).[5]
TheRevolver group published an anthology that is important in cinema discourse,Kino muss gefährlich sein (Cinema Must Be Dangerous).[6]The anthology contains interviews with influential directors, translated discussions and manifestos, as well as texts byBerliner Schule directors and their colleagues.Contributors includeMaren Ade,Barbara Albert, Jens Börner,Jean-Claude Carrière,Katrin Cartlidge,Patrice Chéreau,Jacques Doillon, Jean Douchet,Christopher Doyle,Bruno Dumont,Harun Farocki, Helmut Färber, Dominik Graf,Michael Haneke, Jessica Hausner,Benjamin Heisenberg,Werner Herzog,Christoph Hochhäusler,Romuald Karmakar,Wong Kar-Wai,Abbas Kiarostami, Roland Klick,Alexander Kluge,Harmony Korine,Peter Kubelka,Noémie Lvovsky,Jonas Mekas,Christian Petzold,Jacques Rivette,Eric Rohmer,Ulrich Seidl,Angela Schanelec,Lars von Trier,Jeff Wall and others.[7]
The films of the Berlin School have sometimes been criticized on the grounds that they are "brittle", "slow", or "lacking narrative impetus", criticisms echoed by German directorOskar Roehler, who has said of Berlin School films, "they are always slow, always depressing, nothing is ever really said in them [...] they are always well thought of and have an audience of between five and ten thousand".[8] An implicit criticism is the lack of mainstream accessibility and commercial viability of the films, concerns which German directorDominik Graf has also shared aboutNew German Cinema.[8]
