Tuesday, 28 January 2020

Deutschland 83


  • Episode 1 - Quantum Jump
  • October 2015- released in USA
  • January 2016 on Channel 4 in the UK
  • Episode titles taken from actual NATO military exercises
  • Subtitled 
  • ABC1 audience- Lexus advertisement, subtitles and knowledge of the cold war
  • Split screen from the two sides of Germany- Strauss- binary opposition 
  • Genre- Romance, action
  • Similar to Stranger Things as it follows the point of view of young people fighting against an evil.
  • Cold war Spy thriller set in 1983
  • Early action sequence- Barthes proairetic code
  • Iconic 80's signifiers- Ronald Reagan, Frankie goes to Hollywood- Two Tribes song
  • Potentially sexualised narrative with romantic sub plot
  • Action sequences as USP, high production values
  • Surveillance equipment as part of the mise-en-scene encodes spy conventions
  • Spy thriller but also a hybrid coming of age drama- Steve Neale repetition and difference theory.
  • Medium/ high production value drama
  • Moritz Stamm/ Martin Rauch- 2 characters- Moritz (West) Martin (East)
  • Evil Empire- 1983 Ronald Reagan speech
  • Walter Presents- This is the distributor
  • Costs a lot to recreate the 80's- Industry
  • Culturally relevant German export
  • East German Socialist ideology- Seen as aspirational through the character of Martin Rauch but then reverts to stereotype e.g. harsh eastern block representations
  • Using Gauntlett D83 oscillates between diversity and encoding at times a singular, straightforward east/west identity
  • Premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, globally distributed
  • Critical success
  • Commercial success- highest rated subtitled drama in the UK but flopped in Germany
  • East VS West symbolism
  • Sundance TV and RTL TV German/American co-production
  • Sundance are U.S. pay TV channel owned by AMC specialising in non mainstream content
  • RTL largest free-to-air TV channel in Germany
  • Point- D83 had pedigree and backing in terms or production and distribution
  • June 2015 Sundance TV premiere, Germany November 2015, UK January 2016
  • Direct synergy with programme and 1980's soundtrack. Spotify playlist for each episode- marketing to youth audiences also nostalgia as key appeal
  • Todorovian equilibrium
  • Episodic it is open ended- micro narratives connected by narrative arcs.
  • Disruption- Aunt pushes him to join East secret service. Gets job as aide to West German General in charge of nuclear deterrence 

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