Screening Work
The Films of Christian Petzold

Stephan Hilpert and Andrew J. Webber

Cover of Screening Work

Click cover to enlarge

Booksellers & libraries:
ipage® at Ingram

Moving Image 10

Legenda

17 September 2024  •  268pp

ISBN: 978-1-781886-59-5 (hardback)  •  RRP £95, $120, €120

ISBN: 978-1-781886-60-1 (paperback, forthcoming)

ISBN: 978-1-781886-61-8 (JSTOR ebook)

ContemporaryGermanFilm

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 Com­parative Culture at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews:

  • ‘This is an important book: it offers the first in-depth account of Petzold’s films and of his fascination with the changing world of work. The authors are always highly attentive to the work of cinematography — whether it be the function of CCTV cameras, POV shots, close-ups, intertextuality, clothing, footwear, dialogue, the representation of transitional spaces, or the handling of temporality. By interweaving the analysis of the representation of the precarity of work in late capitalism with the themes of relationality and care, the authors offer a subtle and yet always political reading of Petzold’s hauntological aesthetic.’ — Anne Fuchs, Modern Language Review 120.4, 2025, 584-86 (full text online)
  • ‘The inclusion of Petzold’s TV movies is fascinating since they are more often ignored for ‘better’ objects of study. Hilpert and Webber make a compelling case for their inclusion in the corpus since they balance an investigative form of work in Petzold’s filmography. Even as the book was published in September 2024, the authors included analyses of Petzold’s most recent film Afire, a perfect example of the importance of work in Petzold’s filmography. The authors’ commitment to analyzing Petzold’s films diversifies what one could term a ‘good object of study.’’ — John Evjen, Germanic Review 100.2, 2025, 321-23 (full text online)

Bibliography entry:

Hilpert, Stephan, and Andrew J. Webber, Screening Work: The Films of Christian Petzold, Moving Image, 10 (Legenda, 2024)

First footnote reference: 35 Stephan Hilpert and Andrew J. Webber, Screening Work: The Films of Christian Petzold, Moving Image, 10 (Legenda, 2024), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Hilpert and Webber, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Hilpert, Stephan, and Andrew J. Webber. 2024. Screening Work: The Films of Christian Petzold, Moving Image, 10 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Hilpert and Webber 2024: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Hilpert and Webber 2024: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

This title is distributed on behalf of MHRA by Ingram’s. Booksellers and libraries can order direct from Ingram by setting up an ipage Account: click here for more.

Permanent link to this title:

www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Screening-Work
www.mhra.org.uk/publications/mi-10