German%20Expressionism%20in%20Cinema

1
German Expressionism in Cinema

• Presentation by Chris Schloemp

Source http//icg.harvard.edu/fc76/handouts/3__E
xpressionist_Cinema.html
2
Artistic Background

• Any work of art in which the representation of
  reality is distorted in order to convey an inner
  vision
• An avant-garde strain of modernism
• In painting, expressionism opposes impressionism
• In literature, it opposes naturalism

3
What is Expressionism?

• Seeks the essence of things, rather than the way
  things appear
• Seeks an objects most expressive aspect
• Reality is entirely the creation of minds and
  wills
• Characters are bearers of ideas
• Messianic call for a new man

4
Key Features of German Expressionistic Film

• Chiaroscuro (dark/light)
• Predilection for the studio
• Emphasis on shapes, forms, and patterns
• Tendency towards abstraction
• Distortion, angularity, extreme verticals
• Hypnotic and nightmarish worlds

5
Obsession With Doubles

• Harmless semblance and more sinister counterpart
• Constant play with artifice and illusion
• World of fakes, frauds, simulations, and
  shape-shifters

6
Stylized Acting

• Highly gesticulatory
• Characters sometimes become functions of set
  design and architecture
• Fervent, often histrionic

7
Meta-filmic aspects

• Films about films and film-making
• Narratives involve framing devices(eg mattes)
• Themes of seeing and creation
• Characters who arrange scenes (mise-en-scene)

8
Key Films (1919-1924)

• From Morning to Midnight(1920)
• Genuine(1920)
• The House of the Moon(1920)
• Torgus(1920)
• Raskolnikov(1923)
• Waxworks(1924)

9
Nosferatu
10
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
11
Metropolis
12
(No Transcript)