No Place Like Home

"Alternating between panoramic prospects and close-up views, this epic study takes us on an invigorating journey through a century of film history. This exemplar of critical film history is a major breakthrough."—Eric Rentschler, Harvard University

"Taking his cue from Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Johannes von Moltke argues that only once one's home is jeopardized or lost does one realize that "There's no place like home." In brilliant readings of German films from the 1950s and early 1960s, he sees "Heimat" as a deeply ambivalent, unstable concept, forever in need of re-grounding. In these films, "Heimat" must be incorporated or adapted into various menaces, whether the threat comes from outsiders, such as politically displaced persons or city dwellers relocating to the countryside, or via the encroachment of modernity, as with increased technological communication and transportation. This book is the sum of superior research, engaging presentation, and sophisticated argumentation. It offers an original contribution to German cultural history."—Alice A. Kuzniar, author of The Queer German Cinema