Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"A valuable contribution to understanding and interpreting a visually and philosophical ambitious and at the same time provocatively eccentric film maker."--"German Studies Review"

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Both Rentschler and the writers of these 20 articles share an enthusiasm for explaining the complex, problematic, generally ignored relationships between literary sources and their film adaptations. The kinds of questions they consider indicate this: Why and how does a play popular many years earlier have relevance at the time of its adaptation? How do the differences between the two versions reveal their differences in vision and values? How can a narrative film be said to be an adaptation of a poem or a diary? How does the attitude about the prestige or value of literary sources at a particular time affect an adaptation? Such questions are asked concerning 20 German films, from the first German art film, Stellan Rye's The Student of Prague (1913), to Rainer Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1979). Some from the Third Reich period are considered. With its broad cultural concerns, supporting close analyses, useful appendixes of production credits, lists of film distributors, and bibliographies of books on German film history, this is an important book. It should be useful to anyone interested in the implications of adaptation theory, criticism of the specific films considered, modern German history and culture, and film history (German or other). Highly recommended for upper-division and graduate collections.-I. Deer, University of South Florida