[.ca] Popular Cinema of the Third Reich (ISBN 0292734581)

For Experts Only:
This book is not an overview of popular cinema of the Nazi era. It is an examination of 9 separate topics pertaining to the popular cinema of the 1933-45 era. While these chapter/essays are arranged in chronological order, reading this book does not give anyone a cohert picture of what Nazi Popular Cinema was like. Some of the essays are good, such as the one on two comedies of 1933 and the fate of Nazi era actors after the War. However, the more abstract the topic of an essay, such as how set design reveals attitudes toward "modernity," the less interesting it is for the general reader curious about the topic of Nazi Popular Cinema. Thomas Elsaesser's "The Ministry of Illusion" or (to a lesser extent) "Entertaining the Third Reich" would be far more helpful to the American reader who is seeking to understand the controversial films of the Nazi era.