Screening Work: The Films of Christian Petzold

Christian Petzold (b. 1960) is arguably the most prominent filmmaker working in Germany today, with a growing international reputation for his carefully fashioned narrative studies of identity and relationships. Running through the core of his films is the theme of work, in various forms - manual, intellectual, psychological, emotional, ethical, social, political, economic and aesthetic. Focusing on close reading of key scenes, Stephan Hilpert and Andrew J. Webber demonstrate the crucial role of this theme in his filmmaking. Each chapter engages with particular aspects or modes of work, as evidenced by specific films, across the span of the director’s career. The analysis of Petzold’s own ways of working - including the crucial forms of collaboration that he has undertaken - is supported by the inclusion of material drawn from two interviews conducted with the director around the themes of the volume.

Stephan Hilpert is a filmmaker and Professor of Film and Television at Macromedia University, Berlin. Andrew J. Webber FBA is Professor of Modern German and Com-parative Culture at the University of Cambridge.