The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (Die verlorene Ehre der Katharina Blum)

Description

"Brisk forceful." Sight & Sound "Lucidly argued." Total Film Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schloendorff's The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975) was a pivotal film for the New German Cinema movement. Julian Preece considers what makes Katharina Blum new and radical, in particular in respect of women's cinema and its portrayal of the ordeal of its female lead in a world run by men. Drawing on archival material including drafts of the screenplay, brochures and props, reviews and interviews, Preece traces the conception of the film and its development from Heinrich Boell's original novel. Preece analyses how the film continues to resonate with our contemporary moment and has influenced film-makers from the German-Turkish director Fatih Akin to the British screenwriter Peter Morgan.

Julian Preece is Professor of German at Swansea University, UK. His articles have featured in The German Monitor, German Life and Letters, and Monatshefte. His previous books include Gunter Grass (2018), Baader-Meinhof and the Novel: Narratives of the Nation/Fantasies of the Revolution, 1970-2010 (2012), and Out of the Shadows of a Husband: The Rediscovered Writings of Veza Canetti (2007).

Brisk forceful. -- Adam Nayman * Sight & Sound * Exhaustively researched, and lucidly argued. -- Joel Harley * Total Film * A thoroughly researched and engaging read, The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum stands as a worthy entry in the BFI Film Classics series. Julian Preece provides an immense amount of biography, cultural history, and technical information, though sometimes one may wish the book's structure were more methodical and transparent. * Historical Journal of Film, Radio & TV * This is an excellent study of this important film. Julian Preece knowledgably and deftly accounts for the form and style of the film, the politics of the era in which it appeared, and its reception. Even if you think you know this film, you stand to learn a great deal from Preece's book." -- Brad Prager, University of Missouri, USA Julian E. Preece's The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum offers fresh perspectives on a classic for a new generation of scholars, readers, and movie-goers. Based on extensive archival research, Preece produces unexpected insights on this politically provocative West-German film and its many after-lives. -- Barbara Mennel, University of Florida, USA