Lecture Five:
German Expressionism & The Hollywood Émigré
9/20/2005

Part I: German Expressionism Cont.

In additions to the characteristics described last week, German Expressionism has these six formal characteristics. Not all of these apply, however, to Fritz Lang’s M:

• cinema of mise en scene (less emphasis on editing and camera movement)
• studio shooting, not location shooting
• sets as characters, as extensions of character psychology
• expressive camera angles
• exaggerated, anti-realist acting and characterization
• low-key lighting, stark contrasts of shadows and light

Six thematic characteristics of Expressionism include

• depictions of dark, dystopian worlds: nightmarish worlds
• fatalistic, pessimistic, gloomy, Existential tone
• often depict tormented protagonists, usually psychologically, but sometimes physically as well
• concerned with subjectivity and inner reality, psychology
• representations of a reality beneath the surface; underworld
• often, especially with Lang, infused with social and political commentary, as is Metropolis which deals with issues of class, Modernity, and oppressive government.  With film noir this sort of social and political commentary is much more latent, but will still be an important aspect of our study of the genre.

Part II: The Hollywood Émigré

In 1933, after being summoned to the office of Dr. Joseph Goebbels and asked to direct and supervise Nazi production, Lang left Germany for good. After directing one film in France, Lang made his way to Hollywood (by way of a contract with David O. Selznick) and received his American citizenship papers in 1935.

In Hollywood, Lang made a variety of films but specialized in one particular genre: film noir, a genre of crime films that emphasizes a fatalistic, despairing universe where there is no escape from mean city streets, loneliness, and death. Lang is therefore not only one of the pioneers of German Expressionism; he is also one of the fathers of Film Noir.

M is a curious hybrid of German Expressionism and film noir; it possesses much of Expressionism’s visual style while at the same time anticipating noir’s interest in police investigations, its psychological fascination with criminals, and its bleak portrait of the urban landscape.

Fritz Lang and the Auteur Theory

The auteur theory studies films from the perspective that the director is the film’s “author.” It emphasizes the director as the major creator of film art, stamping the material with his or her own personal vision, style, and thematic obsessions.

The auteur theory developed in France in the 1950s, articulated by filmmakers and critics like Francois Truffaut. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it came into prominence in the United States.The theory  operates on three premises:

1st premise: the technical competence of a director as a criterion of value

2nd premise: the distinguishable personality of the director as a criterion of value. Over a group of films, a director must exhibit certain characteristics of style, which serve as his signature.

3rd premise: interior meaning—that is, the director’s vision of the world

Among those most commonly considered auteurs are Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin, John Ford, Orson Welles, F.W. Murnau, Sergei Eisenstein, Erich von Stroheim, Luis Bunuel, Howard Hawks, and Fritz Lang.

Auteur theory emphasizes the body of a director’s work rather than isolated masterpieces.

What characterizes a Lang film?

• a mix of artist and pulp storyteller, a pessimist and entertainer.
• trademark images: media, dangerous city streets, staircases, shop windows and mirrors, direct look at the camera, abstract views of the city.
• an interest in mob violence and hysteria
• a fascination with tortured psyches---with characters who commit crimes that continue to haunt them.
• an interest in how the media (newspapers, radio, and television) shapes public perceptions of crime.
• an interest in what constitutes evidence, a fascination with courtroom dramas.
• shattering of ideals about marriage, love, childhood.