Casually at the Abyss: An Evening with the New Munich Group – December 8
On December 8, 2025, the Kino im Blauen Salon invites audiences to an evening dedicated to rediscovering one of the most intriguing yet overlooked strands of West German filmmaking—and to welcoming a very special guest. Dr. Marco Abel, the German-American film scholar whose work has shaped contemporary understandings of German cinema, will present his new book With Nonchalance at the Abyss: The Cinema of the New Munich Group (1964–1972). It is the first comprehensive study of the filmmakers who, in 1960s Munich, swam against the current of what came to be known as “young German cinema,” and who developed a vibrant aesthetic counter-narrative to the dominant postwar film discourse.
The New Munich Group—which included directors and collaborators such as Rudolf Thome, Klaus Lemke, Max Zihlmann, May Spils & Werner Enke, and the younger Martin Müller—crafted a cinema that deliberately distanced itself from the intellectual gravitas of the Oberhausen filmmakers and the later New German Cinema. In a cultural climate where postwar German cinema felt compelled to present itself as serious, reflective, and politically responsible, the Munich filmmakers embraced an entirely different sensibility: lightness, urban cool, playful spontaneity, and a precise yet relaxed aesthetic. Although their films initially won both box office and critical acclaim with titles like Go for It, Baby (Zur Sache, Schätzchen) and Come to the Point, Darling (Nicht fummeln, Liebling), they soon vanished from standard film histories and from broader public memory.
What made their work distinctive—its ironic distance, its pop sensibility, its DIY curiosity, its anti-bourgeois energy—also rendered it difficult to categorize. In the cafés of Munich, the filmmakers discussed how to continue making art without relying on established “manuals” of filmmaking. They were inspired by American cinema at a time when much of West Germany’s cultural left rejected it, and they frequently played in one another’s films, collectively shaping what ultimately became a shared cinematic voice. While elsewhere in Europe such aesthetically driven, experimentally free forms of filmmaking found enthusiastic audiences, in Germany they were overshadowed by the cultural expectation that art must be earnest and internationally respectable.
It is precisely these dynamics—between seriousness and play, between aesthetic invention and cultural resistance—that Dr. Marco Abel investigates in his new book. A professor of film studies at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Abel has long published influential work on German cinema, from the Berlin School to the Cologne Group and now to the New Munich Group. His visit to the Blaues Salon offers a rare opportunity to engage directly with his research, ask questions, and discuss the renewed relevance of this once-marginalized cinematic movement.
Following the book presentation, the Kino im Blauen Salon will screen a meticulously curated selection of short films from the 1960s on 35mm. The program includes Galaxis, Manöver, Duell, Breakfast in Rome, Tin Soldier, and Sabine 18, along with a few surprises. These screenings are made possible through the generous support of the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, the Murnau Foundation, the Deutsche Kinemathek, the Werkstattkino Munich, and the Ramscharchiv Cologne.
The program was developed in close collaboration with Cologne-based filmmaker and cinema activist Bernhard Marsch, who contributed invaluable support before his unexpected passing in June 2025. The evening is dedicated to his memory.
Although the event is not officially part of the HfG’s archival series, it resonates strongly with its mission. Only a few days later, the series “Das Archiv lebt!” will present Zur Sache, Schätzchen, the most iconic film associated with the New Munich Group—an ideal complement to this evening’s focus on its roots, experiments, and aesthetic freedom.
Admission is free, and donations are welcome.
Thanks once again to Mona Mayer for the excellent Poster Design (& Screen Print!)