The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum - Paperback

by Julian Preece (Author)

"Brisk [and] forceful." Sight & Sound
"Lucidly argued." Total Film

Margarethe von Trotta and Volker Schlöndorff'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 Böll'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.

Author Biography

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 Günter 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).