Shell Shock Cinema

How war trauma haunted the films of Weimar Germany Shell Shock Cinema explores how the classical German cinema of the Weimar Republic was haunted by the horrors of World War I and the the devastating effects of the nation's defeat. In this exciting new book, Anton Kaes argues that masterworks such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, The Nibelungen, and Metropolis, even though they do not depict battle scenes or soldiers in combat, engaged the war and registered its tragic aftermath. These films reveal a wounded nation in post-traumatic shock, reeling from a devastating defeat that it never officially acknowledged, let alone accepted. Kaes uses the term "shell shock"-coined during World War I to describe soldiers suffering from nervous breakdowns-as a metaphor for the psychological wounds that found expression in Weimar cinema. Directors like Robert Wiene, F. W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang portrayed paranoia, panic, and fear of invasion in films peopled with serial killers, mad scientists, and troubled young men. Combining original close textual analysis with extensive archival research, Kaes shows how this post-traumatic cinema of shell shock transformed extreme psychological states into visual expression; how it pushed the limits of cinematic representation with its fragmented story lines, distorted perspectives, and stark lighting; and how it helped create a modernist film language that anticipated film noir and remains incredibly influential today. A compelling contribution to the cultural history of trauma, Shell Shock Cinema exposes how German film gave expression to the loss and acute grief that lay behind Weimar's sleek façade.

Anton Kaes

Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: The War at Home 7
The Wounded Soldier 8
The Spirit of 1914 16
Film and Nation 20
The Battle of Images 25
A Medium for Deception 29
The New Empire 34
Mental Breakdowns 37
Chapter 2: Tales from the Asylum 45
War Neurotics 46
Recovering the Past 49
Phantoms and Freaks 55
From Dr. Charcot to Dr. Caligari 63
Madness as Resistance 71
The Hitler Connection 75
Shattered Space 81
Chapter 3: The Return of the Undead 87
The Lost Generation 88
Mass Death 93
Dracula Revisited 98
A Community under Siege 108
Hysteria on the Home Front 113
The Allure of the Occult 120
The Work of Mourning 127
Chapter 4: Myth, Murder, and Revenge 131
The National Project 132
Posing for Germany 135
The Will to Form 141
The Fallen Hero 145
Excursus: Lang in World War I 151
The Sacred Battle 153
The End of Violence 157
Chapter 5: The Industrial Battlefield 167
Rise of the Machines 168
Moloch War 175
Lang's America 181
The Hunger for Religion 186
The Workers' Revolt 193
Destruction and Regeneration 200
Aftershocks 205
Conclusion 211
Notes 217
Weimar Cinema on DVD 251
Bibliography 267
Shell Shock and Trauma Theory 267
World War I and the Weimar Republic 272
Weimar Film History 278
Films Discussed 283
Index 299