3. The start of German expressionism films
After the First World War, the image of Germany had been completely shattered into pieces.
Many lives were lost and many suffered from the outcomes of the dreadful endless fighting in important cities leading to a question of the barbarism of humanity. To express the barbaric incite of humans, films were widely used, becoming the route for people to understand the appalling atmosphere around them.
German Expressionism first started due to the discontent against the First World War and many artists started to find a way to clearly express their opinions to the audience. When considering these circumstances, film, especially silent film was the most powerful tool usable.
The sub-genres that sprouted
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Such as the deterioration of the First World War’s economy in Germany, since the lack of money and support from the government made it hard for filmmakers to create films which could compete with the new eye-catching Hollywood movies.
However, German expressionism films did influence a great amount of Hollywood movies. For example, Karl Freund, a German filmmaker, designed dark sets used in American classic films such as a 1931 made movie, “Dracula” by Universal Studios that provided a sample for how to form a character in a movie. Moreover, some directors such as Fritz Lang and Otto Preminger, expanded Expressionist themes into American crime dramas which further spread the influence of Expressionism.
But the most prominent film movement to adapt German Expressionism would be “Film Noir”. Film Noir, during the 1940s was a series of stylish, cynical films that served to illustrate the subservience of human beings to their individual fates such as “The Maltese Falcon (1941)”, “Murder, My Sweet (1944)”, “Double Indemnity (1944)”, “The Woman in the Window (1944), and “Laura (1944).” Noir directors purposely exaggerated emotions and shot dark depressing scenes in order to express their discontent towards the wake of another World War. This explains why characters in these films were either criminals or victims and the choice was to kill or be killed-partially seen as another metaphor about
The film illustrates the common social and sexual anxieties that the Germans were undergoing at that period of time. It also employs cinematic aesthetics alongside with new technology to create what would be considered as one of Germany’s first sound-supported films. Furthermore, it was the film that popularized its star Marlene Dietrich. The film is also known for combining elements of earlier expressionist works into its setting without becoming an expressionist film itself. It is important also to point out that the visual element has helped to balance the film easily against the backdrop the nightclub lifestyle that Lola leads the professor to fall into.
Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton University Press: Princeton and Oxford, 2004.
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
The German Expressionist movement was a number of movements that began in Germany during the start of the 20th century. It mainly dealt with poetry, painting, art and cinema. The success of expressionist films helped Germany seen as the most technically advanced in the world. The expressionist style can be...
It’s a dark and rainy night. Our hero is hiding behind a wall with a revolver in hand. A crack of light, illuminates half of his face. He’s shaking nervously because he only has one bullet left. He turns the corner, and a sudden gunshot hits our hero. Who shot him? None other than his partner, who’s secretly in love with the very same dame that our hero fell for. You can consider this an example of a classic film noir ending. Film noir is a term used in cinema to describe a visually styled crime drama. Where did it come from? What are the key elements in a film noir? Why did this kind of cinema emerge when it did? What affect did it have in the film world? And finally, where is film noir now?
Largely influenced by the French New Wave and other international film movements, many American filmmakers in the late 1960s to 1970s sought to revolutionize Hollywood cinema in a similar way. The New Hollywood movement, also referred to as the “American New Wave” and the “Hollywood Renaissance,” defied traditional Hollywood standards and practices in countless ways, creating a more innovative and artistic style of filmmaking. Due to the advent and popularity of television, significant decrease in movie theater attendance, rising production costs, and changing tastes of American audiences, particularly in the younger generation, Hollywood studios were in a state of financial disaster. Many studios thus hired a host of young filmmakers to revitalize the business, and let them experiment and have almost complete creative control over their films. In addition, the abandonment of the restrictive Motion Picture Production Code in 1967 and the subsequent adoption of the MPAA’s rating system in 1968 opened the door to an era of increased artistic freedom and expression.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the first film by Germany to be an Expressionist film. Authorities of an avant-garde movement believed that by using Expressionism in films (as they did in paintings, theater, literature, and architecture) this might be a selling point in the international market. The film proved that to be true and because of its success other films in the Expressionist style soon followed.
The Impact of German Expressionist Films Upon the Modern Film Industry. N. p. n.p ., n.d., n.d., n.d., German Expressionism and Its Influence on Alfred Hitchcock. Filmhistoryf13.wordpress.com - "Filmhistoryf13.wordpress.com N.p., 8 Dec. 2013. Web.
Specific techniques of German expressionism, such as dark vs. light, religious themes and spirituality, and the use
The link between expressionism and horror quickly became a dominant feature in many films and continues to be prominent in contemporary films mainly due to the German expressionist masterpiece Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari. Wiene’s 1920 Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari utilized a distinctive creepiness and the uncanny throughout the film that became one the most distinctive features of externalising inner mental and emotional states of protagonists through various expressionist methods. Its revolutionary and innovative new art was heavily influenced by the German state and its populace in conjunction with their experience of war; Caligari took a clear cue from what was happening in Germany at the time. It was this film that set cinematic conventions that still apply today, heavily influencing the later Hollywood film noir genre as well as the psychological thrillers that has led several film audiences to engage with a film, its character, its plot and anticipate its outcome, only to question whether the entire movie was a dream, a story of a crazy man, or an elaborate role play. This concept of the familiar and the strange, the reality, the illusion and the dream developed in Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari, is once again present in Scorsese’s 2010 film Shutter Island.
New German Cinema Introduction The Second World War brought forth not only physical destruction to Germany, but also cultural destruction, particularly in its film industry. The film industry of West Germany, in particular, went under the inevitable control of the United States (US). American films became popular among the West German public, while prominent West German directors and actors chose to leave West Germany to pursue their careers in Hollywood, with many of them becoming highly successful. Yet, it did not take long for West Germany to become self-reliant in terms of reinvigorating its domestic film talents amidst the continued dominance of American films.
The German expressionism was an avant-garde movement that was more than just a style of creating art or film but it was more of a socio-cultural mindset of people. Expressionism can be seen as a way of approaching or tackling life changes.
The German Expressionism movement started in the early twentieth century art world, pre-WWI, presumably from Vincent Van Gogh’s “pioneering expressionist paintings like… Starry, Starry Night”(Encyclopaedia of Art History). It was a purely aesthetic movement at this time that sought to oppose the Impressionist movement, which imitated nature, by imposing unnatural, distorted images. Aspects of those distortions served to convey the emotions an artist held towards their subject. War brought terror. War brought mental meltdowns. War changed the Expressionistic style into a “bitter protest movement”(Encyclopaedia of Art History) as artists “suffered from war-induced disillusionment and were dissatisfied with post-war German
During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.
Fritz Lang’s M is very much a product of its time, receiving huge influences from German Expressionism during the 1930s. After World War I, this form of presenting film became very prominent in Germany reflecting the cynicism and disillusionment that encapsulated the country. As a result of Lang’s expressionist approach to the film along with his own unique take on the genre, M is also a very early example of film noir.