The Department of Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies (CENES) is thrilled to host an exciting array of courses in Winter 2022-23. Among these is GERM 304 001: German Cinema (in English), taught by Dr. Ervin Malakaj, a three-credit course that explores the political, social, and economic processes that shaped the German “Golden Age” of cinema: the Weimar Era (1918–1933).
CENES: What is the main focus of this course?
Ervin Malakaj: The course focuses on the cinema of Germany’s Weimar Era (1918–1933). This period in Germany’s cultural history is affiliated with progressive ideas about sexuality, gender expression, and intimacy. Our aim is to think about what role Weimar cinema cultures played in engaging with these various topics.
CENES: What are the particular highlights?
EM: We watch some of the most iconic films from the era like Fritz Lang’s live-action film Metropolis alongside lesser known, but equally intriguing works such as Lotte Reiniger’s silhouette stop-motion film Harlequin. I appreciate acknowledging the cultural processes that helped some films become part of the canon while also interrogating those processes through examples.
CENES: What gave you the idea to design this course?
EM: My main area of interest lies in queer German studies. Currently I am finishing a book on the 1918 film Different from the Others, which is an early example of a movie dedicated to same-sex desire and intimacy. The film was quite well-known during its time, in particular because of the anti-queer backlash it received and is, to me, one of the most important pieces of Weimar’s cinema history. However, it is not taught enough nor is it extensively acknowledged for the important role it played in Weimar cinema history. I wanted to change that by designing a course around it.
CENES: What part of the course do you look forward to most?
EM: As is the case with my other courses, I absolutely love close analysis. My favourite moments are those when we play a short clip and structure a conversation around it that often lasts an entire class period. The course gives students the opportunity to develop various skills needed to conduct such an extensive conversation and I am most excited when we reach a point where the class feels bad that we don’t have more time than our scheduled 1.5 hours to carry the conversation forward.
CENES: Have you recently updated the material, and why?
EM: Yes, I have expanded the course to include a very important, recently restored film: E.A. Dupont’s The Ancient Law. It is a riveting melodrama about a rabbi’s son who leaves the shtetl in order to become a theater performer. The film considers the intricacies of desire and how these intersect with questions of tradition and social expectations.
CENES: Which students do you think might be particularly interested in this course?
EM: The class is suited for first-timers to cinema studies as much as it can accommodate those with some background in film analysis. In my experience, students from all backgrounds are able to find something meaningful in the course in particular because of my interest in connecting what we discuss in class to our lived experiences as today.
CENES: What do you think are the most important insights students can take from this course?
EM: In the class, we engage with what some might call “problematic” texts. The critical tools students develop over the course of the semester become their friends in encountering violent material. That is, I hope that students are able to conceive of film analysis as a support system in the face of violent representational material.
