 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "German expressionist cinema" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| German expressionist cinema | |
|---|---|
 A still of the distorted set design from the 1920 silent filmThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari | |
| Years active | late 1910s – early 1930s |
| Location | Germany |
| Major figures | |
| Influences | WWI's traumatic aftermath and the slowly dread-inducingWeimar Republic |
| Influenced | |
German expressionist cinema was a part of several related creative movements in Germany in the early 20th century that reached a peak inBerlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a largerExpressionist movement in Northwestern European culture in fields such asarchitecture,dance,painting,sculpture andcinema.
German Expressionism was an artistic movement in the early 20th century that emphasized the artist's inner emotions rather than attempting to replicate reality.[1] German Expressionist films rejected cinematic realism and used visual distortions and hyper-expressive performances to reflect inner conflicts.[2]
The German Expressionist movement was initially confined to Germany due to the country's isolation during World War I. In 1916, the government banned foreign films, creating a sharp increase in the demand for domestic film production, from 24 films in 1914 to 130 films in 1918. With inflation also on the rise, Germans were attending films more freely because they knew that their money's value was constantly diminishing.[3]
International audiences and appreciation for German cinema began to grow as anti-German sentiment decreased following the end of World War I. By the time its 1916 ban on imports on foreign film was lifted, Germany had become a part of the international film industry.[3]
Among the first Expressionist films,The Student of Prague[4] (1913),The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920),From Morn to Midnight (1920),The Golem: How He Came into the World[4] (1920),Genuine (1920),Destiny (1921),Nosferatu[4] (1922),Phantom (1922), andSchatten (1923) were highly symbolic and stylized.
European societies 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, which lacked a generous budget, used set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd angles, 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 triggered by the experiences of World War I (as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic films). Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German Expressionism includeMetropolis (1927) andM (1931), both directed byFritz Lang. This trend was a reaction against realism. Its practitioners used extreme distortions in expression to show an inneremotional reality rather than what was on the surface.[5]
The extreme anti-realism of Expressionism was short-lived, fading away after only a few years. 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 filmmaking was brought to the United States when theNazis gained power and many German film makers emigrated toHollywood. Several German directors and cameramen flourished in Hollywood, producing a repertoire of films that had a profound effect.[6]
Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism arehorror film andfilm noir.Carl Laemmle andUniversal Studios had producedhorror films of the silent era, such asLon Chaney'sThe Phantom of the Opera. German film makers such asKarl Freund (the cinematographer forDracula in 1931) set the style and mood of the Universalmonster movies of the 1930s with their dark and artistically designed sets, providing a model for later generations of horror films. Directors such asFritz Lang,Billy Wilder,Otto Preminger,Alfred Hitchcock,Orson Welles,Carol Reed andMichael Curtiz introduced the Expressionist style to crime dramas of the 1930s and 1940s, expanding Expressionism's influence on modern film making.
German silent cinema was arguably far ahead of Hollywood during the same period.[7] Cinema outside Germany benefited both from the emigration of German film makers and from German expressionist developments in style and technique that were apparent on the screen. The new look and techniques impressed other contemporary film makers, artists and cinematographers, and they began to incorporate the new style into their work.
In 1924,Alfred Hitchcock was sent byGainsborough Pictures to work as an assistant director and art director at theUFA ownedBabelsberg Studios inPotsdam near Berlin on the filmThe Blackguard.[7] The immediate effect of the working environment in Germany can be seen in his expressionistic set designs for that film. Hitchcock later said he "acquired a strong German influence by working at the UFA studios".[7]
German Expressionism would continue to influence Hitchcock throughout his career. In his third film,The Lodger, Hitchcock introduced expressionist set designs, lighting techniques, and trick camera work to the British public against the wishes of his studio. His visual experimentation included the use of an image of a man walking across a glass floor shot from below, a concept representing someone pacing upstairs.[7]
Werner Herzog's 1979 filmNosferatu: Phantom der Nacht was a tribute toF. W. Murnau's1922 film. The film uses expressionist techniques of highly symbolic acting and symbolic events to tell its story.[8] The 1998 filmDark City used stark contrast, rigid movements, and fantastic elements.[9][10]
Stylistic elements taken from German Expressionism are common today in films that need not reference contemporary realism, such asscience fiction films (for example,Ridley Scott's 1982 filmBlade Runner, which was itself influenced byMetropolis).[11]Woody Allen's 1991 filmShadows and Fog is an homage to German and Austrian Expressionist filmmakersFritz Lang,Georg Wilhelm Pabst andF. W. Murnau.[12] The extreme angles of set decor and associated lighting were parodied byKen Hughes in his Berlin spy school segment for the 1967 spoof version ofCasino Royale.
_chimneys.jpg)
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 Lang'sMetropolis.[13]
Strong elements ofmonumentalism andModernism appear throughout the canon of German Expressionism. An excellent example of this isMetropolis, as evidenced by the enormous power plant and glimpses of the massive yet pristine "upper" city.
German Expressionist painters rejected thenaturalistic depiction of objective reality, often portraying distorted figures, buildings, and landscapes in a disorienting manner that disregarded the conventions of perspective and proportion. This approach, combined with jagged, stylized shapes and harsh, unnatural colors, were used to convey subjective emotions.
A number of artists and craftsmen working in the Berlin theater brought the Expressionist visual style to the design of stage sets. This, in turn, had an eventual influence on films dealing with fantasy and horror.
The prime example isRobert Wiene's dream-like filmThe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) which is universally recognized as an early classic of Expressionist cinema.Hermann Warm, the film's art director, worked with painters and stage designersWalter Reimann andWalter Röhrig to create fantastic, nightmarish sets with twisted structures and landscapes with sharp-pointed forms and oblique, curving lines. Some of these designs were constructions, others were painted directly onto canvases.
German Expressionist films produced in theWeimar Republic immediately following theFirst 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.
According toSiegfried Kracauer andLotte Eisner, German Expressionist cinema operates as a kind of collective consciousness and a symptomatic manifestation of what they polemically claim to be inherent cultural tendencies of the German nation. Expressionism has also been described as focusing on the "power of spectacles"[14] and offering audiences "a kind ofmetonymic image of their own situation".[14]
_-_American_Ad_1921.jpg)
This film movement paralleled Expressionist painting and theater in rejecting realism. The creators in the Weimar Period 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 asAlfred Hitchcock andOrson Welles and were incorporated into many American gangster and horror films.Some of the major filmmakers of this time wereF. W. Murnau,Erich Pommer, andFritz 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 noirs. The American influence on the film industry would also lead some film makers to continue their career in the US. The UFA's last film wasDer blaue Engel (1930), considered a masterpiece of German Expressionism.
The two most comprehensive studies of German Expressionist film areLotte Eisner'sThe Haunted Screen and Siegfried Kracauer'sFrom Caligari to Hitler.[15] Kracauer examines German cinema from the Silent/Golden Era to support the (controversial) conclusion that German films made prior toHitler's takeover and the rise of theThird Reich all hint at the inevitability of Nazi Germany. For Eisner, similarly, German Expressionist cinema is a visual manifestation ofRomantic ideals turned to dark and proto-totalitarian ends. More recent German Expressionist scholars examine historical elements influencing German Expressionism, such as the Weimar economy,UFA,Erich Pommer,Nordisk, andHollywood.[16]
Stark, symbolic cinematography and intensely stylized performances
| Subgenres | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Territories | |||||
| Film lists |
| ||||
| Topics | |||||
| Related | |||||
