Cineaste - Reading Report One

The reason that I chose this magazine and website is because as I was going through the articles I noticed that they had a lot about contemporary film making, filmmakers, and other subjects. Not just from the U.S. either, but from around the world. Another thing that really interests me is how some more famous filmmakers get their starts. I sometimes have trouble with getting ideas for films and it helps me out a lot to read about other filmmaker's inspirations and stories. Not to copy, but to learn techniques or examples. That is another reason why I picked this website, they have a lot of interviews with accomplished filmmakers and those are very interesting to me.

I decided to read an article about the Berlin School called Intensifying Life: The Cinema of the "Berlin School" and about how they are starting to reappear after being fairly dormant for quite some time. This article was very interesting to me for a few reasons. Since I started learning about film history, the Berlin school was what I had thought to be one of the biggest influences on how I looked at film. After reading this article I realized that they have been sticking close to one topic that works for them, and that is the World War II effect and post war effects. I also found that this wasn't quite the Berlin School I had previously thought. I can't say I have seen a whole lot that has come from Germany in the past sixty years, but most of the films that obtain national or international success seem to be the ones that stick close to the war. Marco Abel points out this fact that the most famous of German films show Hitler, the Stasi, or the reunification period. While it is a highly influential time in the countries history, it is time to move on and try something new. That is what the Berlin School that I read about is trying to do, albeit unsuccessfully right now. Most of the directors of this school seem to be stuck on representing a Germany that is not yet in existence and is more of a hope. At the same time most of those same directors say that they do not want to give in and do political films to rag on the current state of the country, so they are stuck in the middle somewhere and trying to find a way to invent another "New Wave". I felt this article to be very important because it shows something outside of the U.S. and how a new genre of film could eventually be formed out of these beginnings in Germany.

The other article I read was an interview with filmmaker William Klien titled Mr. Freedom: An Interview with William Klien. As I stated before this is one reason why I chose this magazine to write about. Not only is Klien a contemporary filmmaker, but also a historical one. This interview is about his history and how he got started in film in France. He was a writer to begin with and since he couldn't get his work published in New York, he went across seas to France to get it published and there he met Chris Marker, who pushed him into film from there. He ended up meeting Malcolm X and Mohammed Ali and making films on them. To me, this is a great way for new filmmakers to get inspired by all the possibilities there are in the artwork. It is really inspiring to me to read about other people's journeys that are based on an art form that I am also trying to make. While the article is not contemporary, I believe that the ideas and inspirations are there for filmmakers of the future.