Christian Petzold

Interviews

Marco Abel, Aylin Bademsoy, Jaimey Fisher, Marco Abel, Aylin Bademsoy, Jaimey Fisher

• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781496846105
• eBook ISBN: 9781496846129
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

Christian Petzold (b. 1960) is the best-known filmmaker associated with the "Berlin School" of postunification German cinema. Identifying as an intellectual, Petzold self-consciously approaches his work for both the big and the small screen by weaving critical reflection on the very conditions of contemporary filmmaking into his approach. Archeologically reconstructing genre filmmaking in a national film production context that makes the production of genre cinema virtually impossible, he repeatedly draws on plots from classic films, including Alfred Hitchcock's, in order to provide his viewers with the distinct pleasures only cinema can instill without, however, allowing his audience the comforts the "cinema of identification" affords them. Including thirty-five interviews, Christian Petzold: Interviews is the first book in any language to document how one of Germany's best-known director's thinking about his work has evolved over the course of a quarter of a century, spanning his days as a flailing student filmmaker in the early 1990s in postunified Germany to 2020, when his reputation as one of world cinema's most respected auteurs has been firmly enshrined. The interviews collected here—thirty of which are published in English for the first time—highlight Petzold's career-long commitment to foregrounding how economic operations affect individual lives. The volume makes for a rich resource for readers interested in Petzold's work or contemporary German cinema but also those looking for theoretically challenging and sophisticated commentary offered by one of global art cinema's leading figures.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chronology
• Filmography
• Three to Two a Potential Hit: A Conversation with Christian Petzold Stefan Ertl and Rainer Knepperges / 1995
• In the Hinterland of Nihilism Ulrich Kriest / 2001
• The Flying Dutchman: An Interview with Christian Petzold Jörg-Uwe Albig and Christoph Gurk / 2001
• How the Politburo Made the Circumstances in German Film Dance Michael Althen and Bert Rebhandl / 2002
• The Music Has to Sell Itself Christian Buss / 2002
• Dead Man, What Now? A Frontrunner for the Television Prize—Christian Petzold between Andersen and Vertigo Rainer Gansera / 2002
• “This Typical FRG-Generation” Claudia Lenssen / 2003
• The Cinema as an Experimental Setup: A Workshop Conversation with Director Christian Petzold Stefan Reinecke / 2003
• Interview: Christian Petzold Nicolas Wackerbarth and Christoph Hochhäusler / 2003
• “A Novel No Longer Holds Us Together Today” Rüdiger Suchsland / 2004
• To Listen with Closed Eyes Cristina Nord / 2005
• Stories of Ghosts Tim Stüttgen / 2005
• Carnival of Souls: Plot or World—A Conversation with Christian Petzold Susan Vahabzadeh and Fritz Göttler / 2005
• “The Cinema of Identification Gets on My Nerves”: An Interview with Christian Petzold Marco Abel / 2006/2007
• Emigrating from Brandenburg Ralf Schenk / 2007
• “You Don’t Want to Fall in Love” Lars-Olaf Beier and Moritz von Uslar / 2007
• How Many Drilling Holes Exist? Alexander Reich / 2007
• “The Car Is a Rich Location” Cristina Nord / 2009
• “Poverty Films Well? I Don’t Like This” Katja Nicodemus and Christof Siemes / 2009
• “Nothing Is Innocent Anymore” Denis Demmerle / 2009
• “It’s Risky Business” Holger Kreitling / 2011
• An Interview with Christian Petzold Jaimey Fisher / 2011
• “I Wanted for the GDR to Have Colors” Cristina Nord / 2012
• “Our Identity Defines Itself through Work” Wenke Husmann / 2012
• “What Lunatics There Were!” Stefan Schirmer and Martin Machowecz / 2013
• Interview with Christian Petzold about Phoenix Peter Osteried / 2014
• “Uuuuuh, This Won’t Only Be Pleasant” Norbert Thomma and Christiane Peitz / 2014
• To Truly See: Christian Petzold at the dffb Volker Pantenburg and Michael Baute / 2015
• The Cinema Is a Warehouse of Memory: A Conversation among Christian Petzold, Robert Fischer, and Jaimey Fisher Robert Fischer and Jaimey Fisher / 2016
• “A Space in Which We Are at Home”: Interview with Christian Petzold Ilka Brombach / 2017
• “Escape Is the Normal Condition” Christiane Peitz / 2018
• “The Cigarette Was a Respite in Life” Carolin Ströbele / 2018
• Lives in Transit: An Interview with Christian Petzold Richard Porton / 2019
• “I Write in a Condition of Complete Mental Derangement” Andreas Busche / 2020
• “As If We Were Dreaming It”: Christian Petzold’s Undine James Lattimer / 2020
• Key Resources
• Index
• About the Editors