Toni Erdmann
Title Details

96 Pages

19 x 13.3 cm

34 colour illus.

Series: Camden House German Film Classics

Series Vol. Number: 7

Imprint: Camden House

Toni Erdmann

by Gerd Gemünden

  • Description
  • Contents
  • Author
The first in-depth analysis of Maren Ade's acclaimed contemporary classic, a generational tug-of-war about the meaning of life, work, and death.

Maren Ade's tragicomedy Toni Erdmann, a 2016 Cannes sensation and Oscar nominee, is an internationally acclaimed classic of recent German cinema. By turns hilarious, cringeworthy, and heart-wrenching, the film revolves around Winfried, a retired music teacher and prankster trying to rebuild a relationship with his daughter Ines, a high-powered business consultant based in Bucharest. At its center, this unpredictable scenario pits one type of performance - Ines's efforts to meet the unyielding expectations of the new economy - against another - Winfried's anarchic role-play meant to disrupt the standardization of life. This book, the first in-depth analysis of the film, explores the many layers of this generational tug-of-war about the meaning of life, work, and death. Employing Ade's trademark minimalist style, the film deftly comments on the precarity of life; the gendering of labor in the new economy; the re-definition of feminism by the children of the generation of 1968; and reconfigured East-West relations in post-Wall Europe. Lastly, in light of Ade's artisanal mode of filmmaking, in which she regularly assumes the role of writer, director, and producer, Toni Erdmann becomes a highly self-reflexive comment on the neoliberal dictates of global art cinema.
A Question of Performance
A Cannes Sensation
Learning from Andy Kaufman
"I Like Countries with a Middle Class"
The End(s) of Sleep
"What do you mean by 'happy'?"
"Merkel Kino?"
Credits
Notes

Gerd Gemünden is Sherman Fairchild Professor in the Humanities at Dartmouth College; Professor of Film and Media Studies; German Studies; and Comparative Literature. He is co-series editor of German Film Classics and the larger series Screen Cultures.

Paperback

9781640141094

September 2021

Buy

£19.99 / $24.95

Shipping Options

Buy Ships within 2 business days

Buy

Purchasing options are not available in this country.

Ebook (EPDF)

9781800103122

September 2021

Buy

£19.99 / $24.95

Ebook (EPUB)

9781800103139

September 2021

Buy

£19.99 / $24.95

Title Details

96 Pages

1.9 x 1.33 cm

34 colour illus.

Series: Camden House German Film Classics

Series Vol. Number: 7

Imprint: Camden House