When the Celts first arrived in Ireland around 200 B.C.; the island had already been inhabited for over 7000 years. Drawing on a wealth of archaeological evidence and the authors own mastery of the subject; Ancient Ireland returns to those pre-Celtic roots in a bid to discover the secrets of the islands first inhabitants: Who were they? And how did they live? Few accounts of the period are as exhaustively researched; fewer still are as alive with historical insight and compelling detail. At once accessible and comprehensive; lsquo;Ancient Irelandrsquo; is an indispensable guide to early Irish civilisation; its culture and mythology.
#3387815 in eBooks 2012-01-17 2012-01-17File Name: B00J86V84E
Review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. The embodiment of post-war German cinemaBy annie marshallHANNA SCHYGULLA by Ulrike Sieglohr (BFI 2014)The actress Hanna Schygulla embodies post-war German cinema.Born Christmas Day 1943 in Kouml;nigshuuml;tte; Upper Silesia (now part of Poland); she and her mother were expelled to Munich by the Polish Government in 1945 where she developed that Bavarian accent so frequently commented upon by German cineastes. She worked first with Rainer Werner Fassbinder who chose to turn her lack of experience into a positive by presenting her as a somnambulist back-street Marilyn in a series of films commencing with Love is Colder Than Death (1969) through many of his signature pieces such as The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972) and Effie Briest (1974); after which the dynamic between the two changed and where her qualities as an actress were more emotively used in The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) and Lili Marleen (1981).The "somnambulist" nature of her early performances is of interest on many levels not least in its evocation of The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (particularly Conrad Veidts character Cesare) but also in its reflection on the nature of Germany between 1933 and 1945 where a kind of moral somnambulism prevailed. This moral somnambulism was the witches brew for an extraordinary revolt by post-war West German youth against their parents generation with its "Arent We Wonderful" attitudes; its authoritarian structures in society; its compromised politics and its suppressions of the historical legacy of Nazism. Many people alienated from the institutions of state were caught up in a full-blown rush to the politics of Terror and the Baader Meinhof Gang.Other social politics were coming to the fore - especially womens liberation. During the making of Effi Briest she felt strongly that the film offended her feminist sensibilities. A period of separation ensued until she was offered The Marriage of Maria Braun when Romy Schneider and Fassbinder found they couldnt work together.The Marriage of Maria Braun is a fascinating version of the immediate post-war German Truuml;mmerfilm (films examining the difficulties where the absent father returns years after the war to the family) revisited by Fassbinder in 1979. The soldiers return happened slowly over a period of years (those from Russia were trickling back in 1954) and the impact on family dynamics must have been enormous. Schygullas own father; for instance; was released after being an American prisoner of war when she was just turning five in 1948. So a generation of German children grew up not knowing or barely understanding their fathers. Their mothers meanwhile had kept the household going by one means or another; not always orthodox. The stories from this period are still being related in German film and television today. The Marriage of Maria Braun is Fassbinders Sirkean take on this well-known phenomenon. Set in the fifties rather than in the immediate aftermath of the war and made in the late seventies it might be viewed as an act of historical recreation. During filming she had the temerity to complain to Fassbinder that she was getting less money than the leading male actor.Hanna Schygullas final film with Fassbinder Lili Marleen (1981) presents a "myth" / reality - a German singer who sings for the Nazis in order to preserve her Jewish lovers life and once again is full of Sirkean moments. She sings the song in several versions (revelatory of her future part-time career as a diseuse) and in the final version of the song (singing in a style of "martial automatism" as described by the critic Nigel Andrews) is clad in a silver dress like armour which once again recalls to mind an early German classic movie - Metropolis (the Machine played by Brigitte Helm). There is layer upon layer of irony in this film; as Sieglohr reveals. Willie is a singer without much talent operating within "the vacuous emotional grammar characteristic of Ufa during the Third Reich" (p62). And again Schygulla discovered that her leading man was receiving more money than she (Fassbinder was definitely a man who liked to twist the knife).Fassbinder died in 1982 and for some years it would appear Schygulla was at pains to escape from the memories of his dominance in her career. He had been an interesting choice as a powerful male figure in her life - someone of strong sexual power which he employed across genders. He would have said of course that he chose her as his muse but clearly she had equally participated in this decision.Schygulla is not just a piece of flotsam and jetsam on the wave of German history; she has made choices; good and bad (turning down Blue Velvet for instance); asserting her female sexuality in The Story of Piera (1983) and working for a range of interesting and talented directors in many countries. She moved to France to live; reinvented herself as a diseuse when film work was slow in coming and has had a happy and eventful life.Most recently she has had a cinematic comeback with The Edge of Heaven (2007) working with Fatih Akin; Germanys most celebrated Turkish-German film maker. The film drew on Schygullas particular quiet strengths but also opened up to the world her intensity (as had Maria Braun). It rightly restored her to the gaze of the world.Ulli Sieglohr has the perfect background to write this study; being highly qualified in film; television and media studies; German-born and bred; of Schygullas generation; exposed to the same social and political influences of the period and with a strong interest in New German Cinema from its inception. Her ability to bring the voice of German critical opinion into the discussion makes a very special contribution to our understanding of how Schygulla can be perceived in her own country. Her examination of each of Schygullas films is meticulous and authoritative and her access to German culture privileges her to explain Schygullas provenance (located in time; place; and politics - artistic as well as social); specific qualities as an actor; her significance in the emerging New German Cinema of the late sixties and her even greater significance in the Truuml;mmerfilm revisited by Fassbinder in 1979.I recommend this study highly to anyone interested in cinema; Germany and the magic art of acting.
