THE German film industry has had more ups and downs than a roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain.
After World War I, German Expressionist cinema -- created by such directors as F.W. Murnau, G.W. Pabst and Fritz Lang -- astonished and influenced filmmakers. Hitler put an end to that. German directors fled the country (several landed in Hollywood), and Hitler turned the cinema into a propaganda tool. It took years for Germany to reclaim its early legacy.
Finally, in the 1970s such innovative directors as R.W. Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog and Volker Schlöndorff arrived on the scene with provocative films such as "Fox and His Friends," "Fitzcarraldo," "The Tin Drum" and "Wings of Desire."
And three decades later, German cinema seems to be going through another renaissance. Certainly, American filmgoers are more aware of German films, especially with the success this year of "The Lives of Others" by first-time feature director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, which won the Oscar for foreign language film.
"German Currents: New Films From Germany," which opens Friday at the American Cinematheque's Aero Theatre, offers six recent features and one documentary from some of the country's established and new voices.
Producer Corina Danckwerts, the West Coast U.S. representative for German Film Services and Marketing GmbH, says Tom Tykwer's frenetic 1998 thriller, "Run Lola Run," energized the country's cinema.
"From my point of view, this is when American distribution . . . spent a little more attention to the films we had," she says. Parallel with the success of "Run Lola Run" was the opening of the German Film Academy.
"You have to be a filmmaker to join," Danckwerts says. "It really puts a lot of focus into the nurturing of filmmakers.
"I don't want to say it is a new wave of filmmaking, but I think it is a very smooth development of storytelling, self-esteem in filmmaking and tremendous financial support," which has encouraged filmmakers. "Germany is a great country for filmmakers to bring their vision to the screen," Danckwerts says. "They get support from the government and from the local funding institutions. I think the German filmmaking arena has become a bit more commercial, so to speak. . . stories that can travel have become more prominent."
