As we continue our walk thru Mark Cousin’s The Story of Film, we’ve now reached the 1970’s, one of the defining decades in cinema history. As we saw in the last column, an influx of talent from television, film schools and independent filmmaking had led to the birth of the “New Hollywood” movement in America. At the same time, major filmmakers continued to emerge from other countries, creating new and even more challenging cinema, with a group of maverick directors arising from West Germany and the New German Cinema movement.
Perhaps the two most well-known members of the New German Cinema 
movement would be the directors Wim Wenders and Werner Herzog. Wenders would first find acclaim with his Road Trilogy, which introduced his preoccupation with characters on often aimless journeys. Later films, such as Wings of Desire and the documentary Buena Vista Social Club, would solidify Wenders’ reputation. Werner Herzog’s films, often focusing on flawed protagonists with impossible dreams, would also find world acclaim. A prolific director of both fiction and documentary films, pictures like Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Heart of Glass, and Grizzly Man, would give Herzog a reputation as an accomplished, and somewhat eccentric, director.
Just as important to New German Cinema was director Margarethe Von Trotta, perhaps German cinema’s foremost female director. Trotta’s work would focus primarily on the relationships between women and the societal and political pressure placed on them. Films like The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages, and Sheer Madness were just as acclaimed as the work of Trotta’s male peers, with her pictures often garnering just as many awards, though her name remains less well-known.
In Italy, the work of directors Pier Paolo Pasolini and Bernardo Bertolucci were reflecting the political turmoil of the country during the 60’s & 70’s. An acclaimed poet and journalist, Pasolini’s films often focused on the cruel realities of daily life (Accattone, Hawks & Sparrows), though he would also direct adaptations of classical literature (The Gospel According to St. Matthew, Oedipus Rex), mainly cast with non-professional actors. Bertolucci’s films were more politically oriented, with his masterpiece The Conformist playing as a critique of the fascist ideals of Mussolini’s Italy, and the later 1900 critiquing the struggles between Left and Right ideologies.
Finally, a new group of directors were emerging from a country that had yet to make much impact on world cinema: Australia. Directors Peter Weir and Gillian Armstrong would be perhaps the most successful of this group. Weir’s early film, Picnic At Hanging Rock, was considered the first film in the “Australian film renaissance”, and was closely followed by the acclaimed war drama Gallipoli. Armstrong’s career took off with the film My Brilliant Career, following a young woman’s struggles becoming a writer in the 19th century. Her next film, the New Wave musical Starstruck, also followed a young woman’s creative struggles but transposed them to the modern Australian music industry.
~ Post by Deanna H.
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