Abstract
One of the most welcome of trends in European cinema since the turn of the millennium has been the work produced by a talented new generation of directors from across the continent offering new perspectives on the European cinematic imaginary. Despite some of the national specificities of these directors’ work, the universal themes and innovative approaches of their successful films, which have achieved notable critical acclaim, point up European cinema’s enduring cultural and aesthetic richness. In particular, there have been some striking new films emerging from central Europe by the German directors Maren Ade and Valeska Grisebach, and Małgorzata Szumowska from Poland, whose work will be the focus of this essay. Their films are characterized by a form of poetic realism that seeks to aestheticize the real in order to convey the ‘intangible feelings, moods and atmospheres, hinting at something “deeper” or “higher”, locked within the everyday world’ (Driskell, 2008: 57). In their different ways, their cinematic vision is thus predicated on an aspiration to confront their audience with a fresh perspective on the world.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | The Routledge Companion to European Cinema |
Publisher | Routledge |
Chapter | 7 |
Pages | 77-84 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780367461850 |
Publication status | Published - 30 Dec 2021 |
Keywords
- Maren Ade
- Valeska Grisebach
- Malgorzata Szumowska
- poetic realism
- European cinema
- defamiliarusation