German Expressionism

1
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First
World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger
Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as architecture, painting and cinema.
German Expressionist painting produced a great number of works, and led to Neo-expressionism.
History
Mary Wigman, pioneer of Expressionist dance
(left)
1920s1930s
Still from the 1920 film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Among the first Expressionist films, The
Student of Prague (1913), The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari (1920), The Golem: How He
Came Into the World (1920), Destiny
(1922), Nosferatu (1922), Phantom (1922),
Schatten (1923), and The Last Laugh
(1924), were highly symbolic and stylized.
The German Expressionist movement was
largely confined to Germany due to the
isolation the country experienced during
World War I. In 1916, the government had
banned more foreign films in the nation. The
demand from theaters to generate films led
film production to rise from 24 films (1914)
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to 130 films (1918). With inflation on the rise, Germans were attending films more freely because they knew that
their money's worth was constantly diminishing.
[1]
Besides the films' popularity within Germany, by 1922 the international audience had begun to appreciate German
cinema, in part due to a decreasing anti-German sentiment following the end of World War I. By the time the 1916
ban on imports was lifted, Germany had become a part of the international film industry.
Various European cultures of the 1920s embraced an ethic of change, and a willingness to look to the future by
experimenting with bold, new ideas and artistic styles. The first Expressionist films made up for a lack of lavish
budgets by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd sets, along with designs painted on walls
and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with
madness, insanity, betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics (as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic
films). Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German Expressionism include Metropolis (1927)
and M (1931), both directed by Fritz Lang. This trend was a direct reaction against realism. Its practitioners used
extreme distortions in expression to show an inner emotional reality rather than what is on the surface.
[2]
The extreme anti-realism of Expressionism was short-lived, fading away after only a few years. However, the themes
of Expressionism were integrated into later films of the 1920s and 1930s, resulting in an artistic control over the
placement of scenery, light, etc. to enhance the mood of a film. This dark, moody school of film making was brought
to the United States when the Nazis gained power and a number of German filmmakers emigrated to Hollywood.
These German directors found U.S. movie studios willing to embrace them, and several German directors and
cameramen flourished there, producing a repertoire of Hollywood films that had a profound effect on film as a
whole.
[3]
Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism are horror film and film noir. Carl Laemmle and
Universal Studios had made a name for themselves by producing such famous horror films of the silent era as Lon
Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera. German filmmakers such as Karl Freund (the cinematographer for Dracula in
1931) set the style and mood of the Universal monster movies of the 1930s with their dark and artistically designed
sets, providing a model for later generations of horror films. Directors such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Otto
Preminger, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Carol Reed and Michael Curtiz introduced the Expressionist style to
crime dramas of the 1940s, expanding Expressionism's influence on modern film making.
Influence and legacy
German silent cinema was arguably far ahead of cinema in Hollywood.
[4]
As well as the direct influence of film
makers who moved from Germany to Hollywood, developments in style and technique, which were developed
through Expressionism in Germany impressed contemporary film makers from elsewhere and were incorporated into
their work and so into the body of international cinema from the 1930s onward.
A good example of this process can be found in the career of the British director Alfred Hitchcock. In 1924,
Hitchcock was sent by his film company Gainsborough Pictures to work as an assistant director and art director at
the UFA Babelsberg Studios in Berlin on the film The Blackguard.
[5]
An immediate effect of the working
environment there can be seen in his expressionistic set designs for The Blackguard.
The influence can also be seen throughout the rest of Hitchcock's career. In his third film, The Lodger, Hitchcock
introduced Expressionist set designs, lighting techniques, and trick camera work (such as the image of a man
walking across a glass floor shot from below, a concept representing someone pacing upstairs) to the British public
against the wishes of his studio. In his later films, this influence continued through his visual experimentation. For
example, in the shower scene from Psycho, Norman Bates' blurred image seen through a shower curtain is
reminiscent of Nosferatu shown through his shadow. The development of these themes and techniques are not
coincidental. Hitchcock said, "I have acquired a strong German influence by working at the UFA studios Berlin".
Hitchcock's film making has in its turn influenced many other film makers and so has been one of the vehicles which
have propelled German Expressionist techniques into the present day.
German Expressionism
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Expressionism has also had an influence on contemporary films. For example Dark City is influenced by German
Expressionism's stark contrast, rigid movements, and fantastic elements.
Werner Herzog's 1979 film Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht was a tribute to F. W. Murnau's 1922 film. The film uses
Expressionist techniques of highly symbolic acting and symbolic events to tell its story. Notably it links the vampire
myth with the black death through the use of black rats. One may even notice the link between the evil character of
the vampire portrayed by Klaus Kinski, and Nosferatu's star, Max Schreck.Wikipedia:Citation needed
Stylistic elements taken from German Expressionism are common today in films that do not need reference to real
places such as science fiction films (for example, Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner, which was itself influenced
by Metropolis).Wikipedia:Citation needed
Woody Allen's 1991 film Shadows and Fog is an homage to German Expressionist filmmakers Fritz Lang, Georg
Wilhelm Pabst and F. W. Murnau.
Ambitious adaptations of the style are depicted throughout the contemporary filmography of director Tim Burton.
His 1992 film Batman Returns is often cited as a modern attempt to capture the essence of German Expressionism.
The angular building designs and severe-looking city squares of Gotham City evoke the loom and menace present in
Lang's Metropolis.
Burton's influences are most apparent in the fairy tale suburban landscape of Edward Scissorhands. The appearance
of the titular Edward Scissorhands (not accidentally) reflects Caligari's somnambulist servant. Burton casts unease in
his candy-colored suburb, and the tension is visually unmasked through Edward and his Gothic castle. Burton
subverts the Caligari nightmare with an inspired narrative branding, casting the garish somnambulist as the hero and
the villagers as the villains.Wikipedia:Citation needed Similarly, Dr. Caligari was the inspiration for the grotesque,
bird-like appearance of The Penguin in Burton's 1992 film Batman Returns.Wikipedia:Citation needed
The familiar look of Caligari's main character can also be seen in the movie The Crow. With the tight, black outfit,
white make-up and darkened eyes, Brandon Lee's character is a close relative to both Cesare and to Burton's film
Edward Scissorhands.Wikipedia:Citation needed
Burton was also reportedly influenced by silent films and German Expressionism for his film adaptation of the
musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, describing the musical as a "silent film with
music".Wikipedia:Citation needed
Cinema and architecture
Many critics see a direct tie between cinema and architecture of the time, stating that the sets and scene artwork of
Expressionist films often reveal buildings of sharp angles, great heights, and crowded environments, such as the
frequently shown Tower of Babel in Fritz Langs Metropolis.Wikipedia:Citation needed
Strong elements of monumentalism and modernism appear throughout the canon of German Expressionism. An
excellent example on this is Metropolis, as evidenced by the enormous power plant and glimpses of the massive yet
pristine 'upper' city.
Expressionist paintings avoided the use of subtle shadings and colors. They often used large shapes of bright,
unrealistic colors with dark,and they were often cartoon-like. Buildings might sag or lean, showing the ground tilted
up steeply.
German Expressionist films produced in the Weimar Republic immediately following the First World War not only
encapsulate the sociopolitical contexts in which they were created, but also rework the intrinsically modern problems
of self-reflexivity, spectacle and identity.
Robert Wiene's silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) is universally recognized as an early classic of
Expressionist cinema.
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Following the esteemed critiques of Siegfried Kracauer and Lotte Eisner, these films are now viewed as a kind of
collective consciousness, so inherently tied are they to their social milieu. Briefly mentioned by J.P. Telotte in his
analysis of German film, German Expressionism: A Cinematic/ Cultural Problem, expressionism focuses on the
power of spectacles
[6]
and offers audiences a kind of metonymic image of their own situation.
This film movement paralleled Expressionist painting and theater in rejecting realism. The creators of the time
sought to convey inner, subjective experience through external, objective means. Their films were characterized by
highly stylized sets and acting; they used a new visual style which embodied high contrast and simple editing. The
films were shot in studios where they could employ deliberately exaggerated and dramatic lighting and camera
angles to emphasize some particular affect - fear, horror, pain. Aspects of Expressionist techniques were later
adapted by such directors as Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles and were incorporated into many American
gangster and horror films. Some of the major filmmakers of this time were F.W. Murnau, Erich Pommer, and Fritz
Lang. The movement ended after the currency stabilized, making it cheaper to buy movies abroad. The UFA
financially collapsed and German studios began to deal with Italian studios which led to their influence in style of
horror and films noir. The American influence on the film industry would also lead some film makers to continue
their career in the US.
Interpretation
Two works about the era are Lotte Eisner's The Haunted Screen and Sigfried Kracauer's From Caligari to
Hitler.{{Kracauer, Siegfried. Caligari. From Caligari to Hitler. Princeton: Princeton U P, [1947] 2004. 6176. }}
Kracauer examines German cinema from the Silent/Golden Era and eventually concludes that German films made
prior to Hitler's takeover and the rise of the Third Reich all hint at the inevitability of Nazi Germany. For Eisner,
German Expressionist cinema is a visual manifestation of Romantic ideals. She closely examines staging,
cinematography, acting, scenarios, and other cinematic elements in films by Pabst, Lubitsch, Lang (her obvious
favorite), Riefenstahl, Harbou, and Murnau. More recent German Expressionist scholars examine historical elements
of German Expressionism, such as inflation/economics, UFA, Erich Pommer, Nordisk, and
Hollywood.Wikipedia:Citation needed
References
[1] Thompson, Kristin. Bordwell, David. Film History: An Introduction, Third Edition. McGraw Hill. 2010, p.87
[2] Thompson, Kristin. Bordwell, David. Film History: An Introduction, Third Edition. McGraw Hill. 2010, p.91
[3] Dickos, Andrew (2002). Street with No Name: A History of the Classic Film Noir. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press. ISBN
0-8131-2243-0, pp. 9-34.
[4] [4] "Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock", BBC Television 2009, Broadcast- 28th Feb 2009
[5] "Paul Merton Looks at Alfred Hitchcock", BBC Television 2009, Broadcast- 28th Feb 2009 and Wikipedia Alfred Hitchcock page
[6] Telotte, J.P. German Expressionism: A Cinematic/ Cultural Problem in Traditions in World Cinema. (ed. Badley, et al.), 2006, p.21
External links
GreenCine primer on German Expressionism (http:/ / www. greencine. com/ static/ primers/ expressionism1. jsp)
German Expressionist Cinema at Indian Auteur (http:/ / www. indianauteur. com/
mar_13_world_GermanExpressionist. php)
Online Films (https:/ / archive. org/ search. php?query=mediatype:movies AND collection:feature_films AND /
metadata/ subject:"German Expressionism")
Leicester's Collection of German Expressionist Art (http:/ / www. leicester. gov. uk/ your-council--services/ lc/
leicester-city-museums/ exhibitions/ german-expressionist)
Article Sources and Contributors
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Article Sources and Contributors
German Expressionism Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=614279099 Contributors: 84user, A dullard, AVand, Abolyss, Achowat, AdamSmithee, Alex '05, Alex contributing,
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Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P047336, Berlin, Mary Wigman-Studio.jpg Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-P047336,_Berlin,_Mary_Wigman-Studio.jpg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Germany
Contributors: Rybak
Image:CABINET DES DR CALIGARI 01.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:CABINET_DES_DR_CALIGARI_01.jpg License: unknown Contributors: Robert
Wiene, director, died 1938; Rudolf Meinert, producer, died 1943; Erich Pommer, producer, died 1966; Hans Janowitz, writer, died 1954; Carl Mayer, writer, died 1944; Willy Hameister,
Cinematographer, died 1938;
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