The New Munich Group
Book presentation and short film program
The New Munich Group represented one of the most intriguing movements in West German cinema between 1964 and 1972—particularly because it swam against the current of what is commonly referred to in film historiography as the “Young German Cinema.” This label, associated with the so-called “Oberhausen” filmmakers and, in the 1970s, with the “New German Cinema,” emerged partly at the expense of The New Munich Group. Despite a few commercially successful films (Zur Sache Schätzchen, Nicht fummeln, Liebling) and critical acclaim—especially from critics who, in the late 1960s, positioned themselves as the “aesthetic left” in opposition to a “political left” that, in their view, reduced films to their sociological content and meaning—the charming, “light” films by Rudolf Thome, Klaus Lemke, Max Zihlmann, Roger Fritz, the duo May Spils & Werner Enke, and the youngest member of the group, Martin Müller, have largely disappeared from film historiography and broader public consciousness, aside from the occasional retrospective.
What distinguishes these “light” films and their protagonists from other works of the so-called Young German Cinema is explored by German-American film scholar Marco Abel in his recently published book Casually at the Abyss: The Cinema of The New Munich Group (1964–1972). To mark the book’s release, we will screen a selection of stylistically defining short films from the 1960s: Galaxis (1967, Rudolf Thome), Jane erschießt John weil er sie mit Ann betrügt (1968, Rudolf Thome), Duell (1966, Klaus Lemke), Frühstück in Rom (1965, Max Zihlmann), Das Portait (1966, May Spils), Manöver (1967, May Spils), Zinnsoldat (1968, Martin Müller), Die Geschäftsfreunde (1969, Martin Müller), and Sabine 18 (1967, Marran Gosov).
Films
Galaxy
We are in the year 2000: most of the terrestrial men are enslaved. Three young women order two men and ask them which of them they would prefer. Thome's third short film gets straight down to business in style: everything is empty and low, anticipating the clean lines of the Eighties. But Galaxis is supposed to depict the time shortly after the turn of the millennium, and this is where feminist amusement takes place, clever and pretty and nasty, and with no promising prospects for any of the men involved.
Jane Shoots John, Because He's Having an Affair with Ann
The title tells you, and that’s all there is – Munich Impromptu. The title doesn’t tell you about the mundane materialism of directing, the specific beauty of the models, who are always casually placed at the exact right spots, as well as one of the most brilliant black and white cinemascopes of the world.
Duell
In this action film, a young couple is invited to his boss’ house. On the way, he gets out for a cigarette and she takes the wheel and speeds off. He hails a cab and pursues her through night-time Munich. The chase takes him through back courtyards, malls, night clubs and bars. At the end of the duel, she’s the clear victor.
Frühstück in Rom
Ingrid Cavens' first appearance on screen takes place in the cinephile milieu of Munich in the mid-1960s and references the role models of the Nouvelle Vague: the game of seduction, the relaxed tone, the city as a setting with its cafés, cinemas, and the pinball machine and jukebox featured in the film. It's about a marriage proposal to Sandra (Ingrid Caven), flippant remarks about marriage, and film criticism. “Criticism is a matter of morality,” agree two young critics chatting in front of a poster for Truffaut's La peau douce in the cinema foyer.
The Portrait
On the failure of an artistic act of creation: Despite art history instructions from off-screen, a young woman fails to paint her self-portrait. Nevertheless, she joins a phalanx of female icons – from Mona Lisa to Brigitte Bardot. May Spils is a self-taught director, but her first film, Das Porträt, a clever and funny short color film about the difficulties artists face in creating a self-portrait, won an award at the 1966 International Film Week in Mannheim.
Manöver
The ringing of the alarm clock leads to a state of emergency. A married couple demonstrates how to get out of bed: presto! It’s kinda like a swinging Munich commentary on Vietnam, but much more like a rather bizarre variation on twosomes. Spils’ second short film was made following her debut Das Portrait and was also picked up by Constantin Filmverleih. Manöver ran for several weeks as a supporting short in cinemas and became one of the audience favorites at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival in 1966.
Zinnsoldat
How to collect money from father with the help of the German Federal Armed Forces.
Die Geschäftsfreunde
Two hitmen dance, drive around aimlessly, share a girl—who turns out to be their victim's girlfriend. After the murder, they turn their attention to the next woman. Cool, casual, genre-conscious: a miniature about indifference and violence, staged 20 years before Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs—when the genre hardly played a role in German cinema.
Sabine 18
Sabine hasn't yet. Her boyfriend is shocked. What else can she do but ask a good friend! Things take their course... and become complex. In 1960, the Bulgarian Gosov, aged 27, left Sofia for Munich and quickly found his place among the Schwabing bohemians. His seventh short film, shot in his own apartment, has a very French feel to it, a kind of laconic Rohmer, if such a thing is conceivable.