New European Cinema

Rosalind Galt offers innovative readings of some of the most popular and influential European films of the 1990s, including Emir Kusturica's "Underground", Lars Von Trier's "Zentropa", and Giuseppe Tornatore's "Cinema Paradiso". She considers how these films, made around the time of the revolutions of 1989, grappled with contemporary anxieties relating to the reunification of Germany, the disintegration of the Balkans, and a sense of historical loss and disenchantment. Going beyond the conventional focus on national cinemas, Galt considers how films from the Balkans to Scandinavia are recasting relationships among European cinema, history, and identity.