The German film scene is in mourning as Alexander Kluge, one of the pillars of the New German Cinema movement, passed away at the age of 94. Known for his groundbreaking cinematic collections and thought-provoking films, Kluge has twice won the highest honor at the prestigious Venice Film Festival.
Warning: The article mentions death. Reader discretion is advised.German director and author Alexander Kluge has died at the age of 94. Kluge, the face of the New German Cinema movement, elevated cinematic collage to an art form and won the grand prize at the 1968 Venice Film Festival.
News of his death in Munich on Wednesday was confirmed by his publisher, Suhrkamp Verlag.
The legacy of Alexander Kluge in German cinema
Kluge was an accomplished director of intellectually rewarding works and a consistently productive writer of short novels. He played a major role in organizing the rule-breaking New German Cinema movement that produced famous auteurs such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Werner Herzog.Kluge was one of the last torchbearers of the Frankfurt School of neo-Marxist cultural criticism.
The early life of Alexander Kluge amid World War II
Kluge was born in 1932 in Halberstadt, western Germany, and narrowly survived the Allied bombing of the city on April 8, 1945. After the war, he studied law, history, and church music at the University of Frankfurt, where he trained under the philosopher Theodor Adorno.After he began practicing law, he was increasingly drawn to literature and cinema. In 1962, he signed the Oberhausen Manifesto which called on the German film industry to break free from shallow tears and the national Heimatfilme.
Alexander Kluge’s brilliant win at the Venice Film Festival
Kluge’s “Abschied von Gestern” (released as “Yesterday Girl” in the United States) was one of the first films to emerge from the manifesto. The story of a Jewish woman struggling to settle in West Germany after escaping the East is told in a jarring style, using choppy voice-over and non-sequitur narration. The film won the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, marking the first time a German director had received this honor after World War II. Klug enhanced his reputation by winning the Golden Lion two years later, with The Artists in the Big Top: Perplexed.
