Here's how it breaks down: The British write the best dialogue, and create the best characters. Americans make the best movies - as opposed to "films" - and write the best novels. In fact, American prose style generally is the best. But the dramatic art that the Germans excel in is altogether more subtle - it is the art of the mise-en-scene - of "putting into scene," of directing, to give it its brutal Anglo-Saxon label. It is not merely "directing" - directing is arranging action so that the story transports. It is the art of creating a harmonious philosophical concept - of creating a silver ball of rhythm and volume and action. It is the art of creating metaphorical images. It's not cerebral - metaphors are as elemental as any story - but it is structured differently.