A2 Film German Expressionism

German Expressionist Cinema emerged in Weimar Germany; a period between the two World Wars, when a fledging democracy was struggling to take hold.

What is Expressionism?

• Painters, sculptors, architects, theatre practitioners were drawn to cinema – bridging gap between elitist art, and popular entertainment.

Universum Film-Aktiengesellschaft

Focus Films

• Aesthetically and thematically, the influence of German Expressionism can be seen in the rise of the Horror genre (particularly films made by Universal) and in the creation of Film Noir.

• German expertise did not only influence and shape Hollywood post 1930, German Cinema also was a training ground for directors such as Hitchcock.

• The legacy of German Expressionism is still very much with us; the generic visual conventions of the horror film, the work of Tim Burton and films like Blade Runner (1982).

• The first feature length Sci-Fi film, and the last Expressionist film.
• Metropolis produced in more economically stable times. Hollywood recognised the power of UFA and tried to make deals with them.
• Metropolis was inspired by Lang’s trip to NY and the scale was conceived as a way of rivalling the US output.
• Was the most expensive film made at that time. The production forced UFA to sell out to Alfred Hugenberg; a Nazi sympathiser.
• As a result, UFA’s main output from 1933 was propaganda films.
• Lang’s original cut premiered in Berlin in 1927, and ran for 153 minutes.

• Examines conflict between workers and owners – a theme that reflected the zeitgeist.
• Set in 2000, the narrative is set in a dystopian future.
• Uses modernism and Art Deco as inspiration for the art direction.
• The film is dominated by technology, some invented visualisations of the future, some from the 1920s.
• The ultimate and most iconic expression of the technology in the film is the female robot, or Machinenmensch Hel – ultimately a comment on how mechanisation can replace the need for humans in industry; a concern of the Western society experiencing the Industrial Revolution in late 18th, early 19th century.

Overview

The intention of this module is to prepare you for the first FM4 exam question on International Film Styles.

Module Schedule

Assessment Objectives

• Week 1 - Introduction to the module and movement.

Introduction to and begin guided textual analysis of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari.

AO1 Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of film as an audio-visual form of creative expression together with its contexts of production and reception and of the diversity in filmmaking across different historical periods and locations.

AO2 Apply knowledge and understanding, including some of the common critical approaches that characterise the subject, when exploring and analysing films and when evaluating your own creative projects to show how meanings and responses are generated.

• Week 2 - Conclude analysis of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari

• Week 3 - Introduction to and begin section analysis of Nosferatu

• Week 4 - Conclude analysis of Nosferatu & Introduction to Metropolis. Start key scene analysis of Metropolis.

• Week 5 - Conclude key scene analysis of Metropolis.

• Week 6 - Reflections on the movement - relevant contextual reading and viewing. Introduction to the exam section followed by a timed essay assessment.

In this session...

German Expressionism

1920 - 1927

• Identify the social and political context of German Expressionist Cinema;

• Recognise and discuss the importance of the visual style and thematic concerns of the movement;

• Know the key filmmakers and films of this movement;

• Understand the legacy of German Expressionism;

Caligari - Summary

Horror Europa

Geometry & Response

Historical Context

German Productivity

Isolated Audiences

• UFA remained the largest European film production studio until World War II.

An Artistic Movement

• In 1914, the Great War began in Europe, cutting Germany off from its usual supply of international cinema.

• After the German defeat in 1918, UFA went on to become a sizable competitor with Hollywood.

• The only films imported into Germany during the war years were from Denmark and Sweden.

• Expressionism, with the help of nation-wide abolition of censorship in 1919 and the intellectuals’ adoption of cinema, was hailed as a new way of expressing a new world.

• An artistic movement; Expressionism, was well established before WWI, but German Cinema was not.

• However, Sweden and Denmark simply didn’t produce enough films.

• In response, the German film studio Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA) was founded in 1917.

• Inflation Driven Cinema - Devaluation of deutschmark meant that German films could be sold cheaply, and the German market was unattractive for foreign imports. 500-600 films were being produced yearly in this period.

• Art Historian Norbert Lynton outlined this existing movement’s focus:

• “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.”

Summary Quiz

1. What were the names of the two writers of the film?

2. What term best describes the narrative construction of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari?

3. Franzis ultimately proves himself to be what type of narrator?

4. Even though there is a narrator, the narrative is unrestricted. What is the term which describes the result of revealing information and events to the spectator that the protagonist is ignorant of?

5. What is notable about most of the shadows in this film?

6. What is one of the principle functions of the use of different colour tints?

7. What elements of the mise-en-scene convey information about Jane?

8. The visual presentation of Cesare is iconic, but what more contemporary cinema character did Cesare's look inspire?

9. How do the themes of distrust of authority and fear of invasion present in the film?

10. Caligari is best described as a psychological thriller; what are two generic conventions employed by the film that are consistent with this genre?

Metropolis (F. Lang, 1927)

The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari

(R. Wiener, 1920)

Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)

The Aesthetics of German Expressionism

The films of this movement were united by:

• highly stylized visuals;

• strange asymmetrical camera angles and set design;

Metropolis and theme

Metropolis and the zeitgeist

The Making of Metropolis

Caligari & the movement

• Lang and writer Thea von Harbou drew from very disparate sources to create the diegetic world and the narrative; bible stories, Norse mythology, Marxist ideas, Buddhist stories and Mary Shelley’s gothic novel, Frankenstein.
• He creates a dichotomous world, similar to those created in German operas.
• There is conflict between the high and the low, the above and the below, the powerful and the powerless, the mechanised and the organic.
• Dualism is a central theme, evident in the larger narrative and within characters themselves

• 310 shooting days and 60 nights.
• Original budget 1.5 Million marks, actually cost 6 million.
• Used a variety of camera types and techniques
• Three special effect processes:
• Stop motion animation
• Mirror tricks
• Multiple exposure (in camera)
• Metropolis score is original, and was composed during filming. This was very unusual at the time.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is considered the first true Expressionist film.

It featured elements that have become synonymous with German Expressionism:

• Anti-heroic (if not downright evil) characters at the centre of a story...
• which 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...
• the criminal underworld...
• and the 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.

• This is the earliest version of Dracula, and certainly the first vampire film.
• Established one of the two vampire archetypes.
• Unlike most other films in the movement, Murnau moved production out of the studio and on to location.
• The oblique, expressionist angles aren’t as prevalent in Nosferatu as they are in other German Expressionist films, but it’s use of chiaroscuro has earned it a place as a classic of this period.
• Often cited as being the most influential of the early horror films.
• Creates a strong oneiric effect on the audience.

• atmospheric lighting and harsh contrasts between dark and light, known as chiaroscuro;

Groups:

Max, Cameron, Steve, Rachel, Hugo & Jasmin

Amelia, Frankie, Paddy, Connor, Jake & Kyla

Molly, Guy, Broudie, Oli & Jade

http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/expressionism1.jsp

Section Analysis

3 Topic Groups:

Film Language,

Narrative & Genre

Groups:

Tia, Dan, Craig, Will, Shona & Ryan

Becky C, Becky R, Charlie, Bethany & Jake

• Watch 20 minutes
• 15 minute group analysis
• 15 minute peer teach
• 10 whole class reflection

Jack, Ed, Bertie, Jamie, Ella & Alisha

& Peer Teach

• Shadows and silhouettes - an important feature of Expressionism.

The Themes of German Expressionism

• A high rate of violence, rape and murder, depression (PTSD), veterans ghoulishly mangled in the war, the loss of innocence and complete rejection of the past were the things the German people dealt in Weimar Germany.

• The films produced in Germany during those years reflected a broken nation and a people horrified by the everyday.

• Why did this specific period in Germany give rise to films that were visually and thematically dark?

• The films were often classified as Oneiric; meaning dreamlike.

The themes that run through these films are primarily:

• paranoia,

• metamorphosis,

• a distrust of authority,

• manipulation,

• invasion,

• fear of violence and disease.

• More than any other national movement in the history of film, German Expressionism was an answer to the grim reality of daily life.

The Legacy

• It was also a way to represent a reality few could imagine -

• Although Lang was favoured by Hitler, he and many of his fellow filmmakers fled to Hollywood once WWII started.

• These artistic refugees significantly shaped the US output, becoming involved with all levels of film production.

Hitchcock

Film Noir

Universal Horror

Blade Runner

Tim Burton