Behind The Mask – ‘Das verlorene Gesicht’ (The Lost Face) and Popular German Cinema after World War II

Tim Bergfelder (Southampton) p.63-80

2013 Issue 3

Abstract

This essay analyses the post-war West German psychological women’s melodrama,Das verlorene Gesicht (The Lost Face, 1948), and investigates its international influences (Hollywood and British traditions of melodrama), and the film’s articulation of issues such as gender and national identity through aspects such as cinematography, mise-en-scène, and performance. The essay also places the film within the contexts of developments in film production in post-war Germany, and reassesses it in the context of the career of its director, Kurt Hoffmann.