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German Expressionism

Page history last edited by TJ Rivas 14 years, 5 months ago

 

"All human action is expressive; a gesture is an intentionally expressive action. All art is expressive - of its author and of the situation in which he works - but some art is intended to move us through visual gestures that transmit, and perhaps give release to, emotions and emotionally charged messages. Such art is expressionist."

-Norbert Lynton

 

 

 

     The year 1920 gave birth to one of the most astounding genres in film history: German Expressionism. The style itself involved the juxtaposition of light and shadow - typically in black and white, which produced eerie, dreamlike atmospheres where the characters could comfortably descend into madness. The earliest Expressionist films made up for the absence of sufficient budgets by using set designs filled with cheap scenery such as geometrically incongruous angles, as well as miscellaneous designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and other various objects. Amongst the first Experssionist films are The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Golem (1920), Destiny (1921), Nosferatu (1922), Schatten (1923), and The Last Laugh (1924).

 

     The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the first notably successful German Expressionist film, featured many prominent elements which would repeat themselves throughout the genre:

 

  • Anti-heroic (if not downright evil) characters at the center of the story...
  • the story itself often involves madness, paranoia, obsession and is told in whole or in part from a subjective point of view.
  • A primarily urban setting (there are exceptions, particularly in the case of Murnau), providing ample opportunity to explore.
  • Complex architectural and compositional possibilities offered, for example, by stairways and their railings, mirrors and reflecting windows, structures jutting every bit as vertically as they do horizontally so that...
  • the director can play with stripes, angles and geometric forms sliced from the stark contrasts between light and shadow.
  • Shadows, in fact, can take on an ominous presence of their own; think of the monster's shadow ascending the stairs in Nosferatu, the shadow preceding the murderer in M or the pursuit and capture of Maria in Metropolis. [bulleted list taken from 1]

 

The scene below, taken from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, is a very good reference to the mise en scene represented in the German Expressionist genre. Notice the clever usage of light and shadow, as well as the complex architecture and ostentatious scenery:

 

 

Austrian-born director Fritz Lang, who turned down the director's seat of Caligari, helped expand the Expressionist genre with films like Die Spinnen, M, and Metropolis. Lang spent much time devising plans to utilize "never-before-seen shots.[1]" This expansion of the genre would not only attract people because of the aesthetic or business aspect, but because of the technological marvels portrayed onscreen.

 

Sadly, the extreme fantasies portrayed in Expressionism were somewhat short-lived, at least in terms of a solidified genre. Despite that fact, many prominent themes (such as lighting and abstract set designs) were integrated into later films of the 1920's and 1930's. This could be seen as a definite response to the rise of fascism in Europe, as the genre was integrated into America when the Nazis gained power and a number of German filmmakers (Lang amongst them) emigrated to Hollywood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/expressionism1.jsp [1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Expressionism [2]

Schneider, Steven Jay. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You DieNew York: Barron's, 2008. [3]

 

Comments (1)

Sean Desilets said

at 4:22 pm on Oct 16, 2009

* Do you "comfortably" descend into madness?
* By the time you get to 1924, you're definitely past the "first" German Expressionist films. In fact, _The Last Laugh_ is often considered only marginally Expressionist.
* Clip needs specific interpretive work

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