Magical History Tour – New German Cinema, Nouvelle Vague, Tradition and Modernity in Japan

"Old cinema is dead. We believe in new cinema." Once again a manifesto marking the start of a fundamental renewal. "We" consisted of 26 young German filmmakers and critics including Edgar Reitz, Alexander Kluge and Peter Schamoni, who with their "Oberhausen Manifesto" on February 28, 1962, heralded the "New German Cinema". With this call and several short works they set themselves off against "old cinema", the plain films produced during the "economic miracle" of the 1950s, "papa's cinema". The first full-length films of "New German Cinema" were produced a few years later. Inspired by British Free Cinema and the French Nouvelle Vague, the signatories of the manifesto, along with other auteur filmmakers, e.g., Volker Schlöndorff, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wim Wenders, created the most various images of West German reality in terms of content and style. An important point of reference in their works was also the National Socialist past. At the center of the selection are debut films and works from the early years of "New German Cinema".