This course will introduce students to the formal and aesthetic
parameters of the comedy genre and its history while also
familiarizing them with major political, social, and aesthetic
movements and events that shaped German film history: Weimar
cinema, the Third Reich, post-war and post-wall German film,
German cinema in the new millennium. Students will learn about
directors who mark this national cinema and study the cultural,
political and historical discourses crucial to the understanding
of their work. 

Students will be evaluated on the basis of written assignments,
exams, and their active participation in class discussions based
on thorough preparation of regular reading assignments.

The following is a representative outline of topics and films.
The actual choice and sequencing of materials may vary.

Introduction: Early Comedy until Weimar
Film: Die Austernprinzessin (The Oyster Princess, 1919), Dir.
Ernst Lubitsch 
Film: Die Drei von der Tankstelle (Three Good Friends, 1930) 
Dir. Wilhelm Thiele 

Laughter and the Hangman: Comedy and Dictatorship I.
Film: Capriccio (1938), Dir. Karl Ritter

Comedy and Dictatorship II.
Film: To Be or Not To Be (1942), Dir. Ernst Lubitsch

The Globalization of Humor: Comedy in Germany and the USA
Film 1: Die Jungfrau auf dem Dach/The Virgin on the Roof (1953),
Dir. Otto Preminger
Film 2: The Moon Is Blue (1953), Dir. Otto Preminger

Cold War Politics and Comedy
Film: One Two Three (1963), Dir. Billy Wilder

Zeitgeist Comedies
Film: Manner/Men (1985), Dir. Doris Darrie

Comedy - the Lowest Common Denominator?
Film: Abgeschminkt  (Making Up, 1993), Dir. Katja von Garnier
	    	   
Comedy and the Other
Film: Der bewegte Mann (Maybe, Maybe Not, 1994), Dir. Soenke 
Wortmann
	 	   
The Psychology of Laughter
Film: Keiner liebt mich (Nobody Loves Me, 1994), Doris Darrie

Ostalgie -The GDR in Post-Wall Comedies
Film: Good Bye Lenin (2003), Dir. Wolfgang Becker
	       
New Ethnic German Cinema
Film: Im Juli (In July, 2003), Dir. Fatih Akin

Normalization? German-Jewish Life Today
Film: Alles auf Zucker (Go for Zucker, 2004), Dir. Dany Levi

New German Realism
Film: Sommer vorm Balkon (Summer in Berlin, 2005), Dir. Andreas
Dresen

UGA Student Honor Code: "I will be academically honest in all of
my academic work and will not tolerate academic dishonesty of
others." A Culture of Honesty, the University's policy and
procedures for handling cases of suspected dishonesty, can be 
found at www.uga.edu/ovpi. Every course syllabus should include
the instructor's expectations related to academic integrity.

Students are responsible to know about the UGA Student Honor 
Code. The instructor will communicate to students additional 
requirements and policies connected with written assignments.