Christian Petzold

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Christian Petzold (b. 1960) is a prominent filmmaker associated with the “Berlin School” of postunification German cinema. Identifying as an intellectual, he approaches his work for both large and small screens by weaving critical reflections on contemporary filmmaking into his narratives. By reconstructing genre filmmaking within a national context that complicates genre production, he draws on classic plots, including those from Alfred Hitchcock, to offer viewers unique cinematic pleasures while denying them the comforts of the “cinema of identification.” This collection features thirty-five interviews, marking the first comprehensive documentation of Petzold’s evolving thoughts on his work over twenty-five years—from his beginnings as a struggling student filmmaker in the early 1990s to his status in 2020 as a respected auteur in world cinema. Thirty of these interviews are published in English for the first time, emphasizing Petzold’s enduring commitment to exploring how economic factors impact individual lives. This volume serves as a valuable resource for those interested in Petzold’s oeuvre, contemporary German cinema, and the sophisticated commentary of one of global art cinema’s leading figures.