Lecture Four:
German Expressionism
9/13/2005

Definition

German Expressionism: an artistic movement (encompassing film, theatre, painting, and other arts) that sought to give shape to psychological states through highly stylized visuals. Expressionist artists also strove to realize the inherent possibilities and potential of their respective media.

Formal Elements

The formal elements of German Expressionist film include, but are not limited to, the following (more characteristics will be discussed in lecture #5):

1. chiarascuro lighting: lighting that employs extreme contrasts of light and dark, thus creating dramatic shadows.
2. a preoccupation with mirrors, glass, and other reflective surfaces.
3. the use of anthropomorphism, which is the attribution of a human form, human characteristics, or human behavior to nonhuman things. 
4. the use of negative photography and other optical tricks
5. an interest in abstractionism, which is a style of art that privileges internal form over pictorial representation.

Historical Background

A major catalyst for German Expressionist cinema was World War I; casualties on the battlefields resulted in an artistic preoccupation with death and the supernatural.

But if German Expressionism allowed for a kind of national mourning and a revolutionary critique of war, it also provided Germany with a means of economic recovery.

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 a method of compensating for the lack of high budget by using symbolism and mise-en-scene to insert mood and deeper meanings into a movie. Lighting could camouflage the mediocrity of the sets.

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.

Because of its high-culture associations, German Expressionism became a means of promoting a “better” Germany, regarded initially as a pariah nation after WWI.

At mid-decade, with the growing success of UFA productions in Europe and its ambitions about breaking into the US market, Expressionism as a label was abandoned in favor of other, more Americanised marketing strategies.

The film widely regarded as the first important example of German Expressionism in film is The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, produced in 1919.

By the mid 1920s, Expressionism had lost much of its popularity and appeal. Coming at the end of this era is Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang.

German Expressionism and Horror Films

The dark, moody school of horror 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 of the German directors and cameramen flourished, 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. Universal Studios made a name for itself by producing such famous horrors films as 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 the benchmark for later generations of horror films. Meanwhile, such directors as Lang and Michael Curtiz introduced the Expressionist style to the crime dramas of the 1940s, influencing a further line of filmmakers and taking Expressionism through the years.

Films viewed in lecture clips

• Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922)
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1919)
• Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927)
• Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)
• Dracula (Tod Browning, 1931)