I'm rather late to the discussion, but I'd like to chime in.Trees wrote:This thread seems to illustrate something I have been thinking about for some time -- that Germany's contribution to cinema in the last half century has not been very substantial compared to even small countries like Sweden or Taiwan.
Why?
We know historically that German-speaking peoples have made tremendous contributions to the arts. One need only look at classical music, for example. Even look at the wonderful German contributions to cinema before WWII. So I wonder, if maybe, some kind of real psychological trauma and scaring still afflict the German people as a result of guilt over WWII, for example? -- that they are essentially still traumatized? Some of lubitsch's posts seem to indicate that there is just not a desire to make great cinema among many Germans, that "they don't care". There must be some reason why German cinema has been lagging behind even tiny places like Hong Kong, for example?
The core reason is probably the one vexation that impacts all the arts: money. If there was a steady font of money funding cinema in Germany we'd see a lot of creative output. But, apparently, like Japan and United States, the funding just isn't there to the level that it needs to be.
To me, a national homegrown cinema so important nowadays in conveying a more complete understanding of one's country, culture, and people that government support of independent film is almost imperative. There are grant programs and private financing to some extent, to be sure, but to truly development a robust national cinema a lot more support is needed, and, realistically, that can only come from public sources.