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 asarchitecture, painting and cinema.
Among the first Expressionist films, The Student of Prague[1] (1913), The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari (1920), From Morn to Midnight (1920), The Golem: How He Came into the
World[1] (1920), Destiny (1922), Nosferatu[1] (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 foreign films
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 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 WWI
(as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic films).
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.
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.
Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism are horror film and film noir.
Expressionism emphasizes on design or mise-en-scène, uncanny atmosphere, and composition
(less on story and editing, unlike Hollywood). ―The film image must become graphic art‖
(Hermann Warm). Expressionism = Stylization that abstracts and transforms reality as we know
it (from the conventions of realistic art) through - photography (unexpected camera angles, little
camera movement) - lighting (stark contrasts of light and shadow for various effects) - totally
artificial, stylized sets (―paintings come to life‖), stripped of all realistic details and
psychology—sets that become symbolic diagrams of emotional states - overtly theatrical (antinaturalist)
acting style (actors move in jerky, slow, sinuous patterns) and heavy make-up -
integration of all elements of mise-en-scène to create an overall composition Such Expressionist
techniques aim to - abstract from realistic details and contingencies - bring out the ―essence‖ of
an object, situation, or state of being - express a subjective viewpoint - evoke mystery,
alienation, disharmony, hallucination, dreams, extreme emotional states, destabilization
Expressionist film in the 1920s is based on the premise that film becomes art only to the extent
that the film image differs from empirical reality: ―The world is there: Why repeat it?‖ The
―formative‖ power of film was seen in its ability to - resignify and rework reality (not merely
record it) - construct a self-contained aesthetic and symbolic world of the imagination radically
detached from the everyday Legacy .
Murnau‘s Faust and Fritz Lang‘s Metropolis (both 1926) were the last major Expressionist
films, both excessive in their production values.
Expressionism has been interpreted as - a challenge to our habitual perception of reality
(liberating in the sense that we see the world not as given or fixed but as constantly changing); -
a protest against the ―duplication‖ of empirical reality (liberation at least in the aesthetic realm); -
an exploration of film‘s materiality, i.e. its difference as a medium (experiments with expressive
lighting effects, subjective camera, design that externalizes the character‘s inner thoughts); - a
foregrounding of the signifier (showing film to be a constructed object designed to make things,
sets, and actors signify/express something); - a way to imbue inanimate objects and sets with
―life‖ (colored by the subjective vision of characters in distress or gripped by insanity, paranoia,
insecurity, disorientation), to let objects ―speak‖ Expressionist techniques—unrealistic sets,
theatrical composition, lighting, self-conscious or obtrusive camera—live on in Surrealist film,
avant-garde cinema, horror films, and in American film noir of the 1940 and 1950s