With the release of his latest film, Undine, we’re back with a special episode on the films of Christian Petzold, master of the back-of-head portrait and poet of the Eurozone. With discussions about every feature film (and some shorts too), we trace his near three-decade career as one of the key figures of the Berlin School of filmmaking, looking at his treatment of genre, history and neoliberalism, his key collaborations and influences, the development of his style and much more.

Works discussed:

Suden (1990, student film)Ostwärts (1991, student film)Pilotinnen aka Pilots aka Drifters (1995, dffb final proj/TV film)Cuba Libre (1996, TV film)Die Beischlafdiebin aka The Sex Thief (1998, TV film)Die innere Sicherheit aka The State I Am In (2000)Toter Mann aka Something to Remind Me (2001, TV film)Wolfsburg (2003, TV film)Gespenster aka Ghosts (2005)Yella (2007)Jerichow (2008) Barbara (2012)Phoenix (2014)Transit (2018)Undine (2020)

Featuring covers of ‘Abreise’ (Transit OST) by Stefan Will, ‘Road to Nowhere’ by Talking Heads, ‘Speak Low’ by Kurt Weill and ‘Stayin’ Alive’ by the Bee Gees.

If you enjoyed our treatment of Petzold’s work, we’ve also done full filmography treatments of the work of Roy Andersson, Bong Joon-ho, Charlie Kaufman, Kleber Mendonça Filho and Kelly Reichardt.

Subscribe to Film Graze on your podcast app of choice.twitter.com/FilmGrazeletterboxd.com/Film_Graze/instagram.com/film.graze/

Co-produced by Emmett Cruddas and Sam Storey