Everything about German Expressionism totally explained
For a discussion of German Expressionism in painting, see Expressionism.
German Expressionism (also referred to as
Expressionism in filmmaking) developed in
Germany, especially
Berlin, during the
1920s. The Expressionism movement started earlier, in about 1905 with the
Die Brücke (The Bridge) group, but arose in the filming industry afterward. During the period of recovery following
World War I, the German film industry was booming, but because of the hard economic times filmmakers found it difficult to create movies that could compare with the lush, extravagant features coming from
Hollywood. The filmmakers of the German
UFA studio developed their own style by using
symbolism and
mise en scène to add
mood and deeper meaning to a movie.
1920s-1930s
The first Expressionist films, (
1920),
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (
1920),
Destiny (
1921),
Nosferatu (
1922),
Phantom (1922),
Schatten (
1923), and
The Last Laugh (
1924), were highly symbolic and deliberately surrealistic portrayals of filmed stories.
One of the best expressionist actors was Fritz Kortner, who played also in
Viennese films and Berlin films. The
dada movement was sweeping across the artistic world in the early
1920s, and the various
European cultures of the time had 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); the German name for this type of storytelling was called
Kammerspielfilm ("chamber film" in English). Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German Expressionism include
Metropolis (
1927) and
M (
1931), both directed by
Fritz Lang.
The extreme non-realism of Expressionism was short-lived, and it faded away (along with
Dadaism) 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, and shadow to enhance the mood of a film. This dark, moody school of filmmaking was brought to America when the
Nazis gained power and a number of German filmmakers emigrated to
Hollywood. They found a number of American 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 the medium of film as a whole.
Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism were the
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 emigrees 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, and
Michael Curtiz introduced the Expressionist style to crime dramas of the
1940s, influencing a further line of film makers and taking Expressionism through the years.
More Recent Films Influenced by German Expressionism
Werner Herzog's 1979 film "
Nosferatu the Vampyre" was a tribute
F.W. Murnau's "
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens". The film uses Expressionist techniques of highly symbolic acting and symbolic events to tell it's story. Notably it links the
vampire myth with the
black death through the use of
black rats.
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. One may even notice the link between the evil character of Max Shreck portrayed by
Christopher Walken, and
Nosferatu's star,
Max Schreck.
Burton's influences are most obvious through his fairy tale suburban landscape in
Edward Scissorhands . The appearance of the titular Edward Scissorhands none too accidentally reflects the look of
Caligari's somnambulist servant. Burton casts a kind of unease in his candy-colored suburb, where the tension is visually unmasked through Edward and his gothic castle perched above the houses. Burton subverts the Caligari nightmare with his own narrative branding, casting the garish “somnambulist” as the hero, and the villagers as the villains.
The familiar look of Caligari's main character can also be seen in the movie
The Crow. With the tight, black outfit, white makeup, and darkened eyes, Brandon Lee's character is obviously a close relative to Burton's film
Edward Scissorhands.
Burton was also reportedly influenced by silent films and German Expressionism for his film adaptation of the musical, he himself described the musical on stage as a "silent film with music".
Other examples
There is also the use of German expressionism in the work of David Lynch, most notably Eraserhead and Lost Highway, both films seemingly bent on insanity created by a lack of being able to cope with adult themes such as fatherhood and infidelity.
Ties to other media
Expressionism as a movement spanned across media to include theater, architecture, music, painting, and sculpture, as well. Architecture, in particular, serves as an iconic way to bring the inner emotions of the individual into the public sphere, and therefore is most closely tied to the concepts of German Expressionism, but film extends the visual strengths of architecture into a more compelling, natural format. Many critics see a direct tie between cinema and architecture of the time, in the sense 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’s
Metropolis.
Further Information
Get more info on 'German Expressionism'.
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