Tales of cinema: German expressionism
The story of how Nazis created the Gotham city
Foto: Cabinet Dr. Caligari/Robert Wiene
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Expressionism is an art movement, seen not only in the cinema but in other art forms as well. Remember, “The Scream” of Munch? Yeah, that’s expressionism. Funnily enough, expressionism in cinema developed at the same time as in other arts, unprecedented in cinema history. The country of origin is Germany of the 1920s, and the main genre is horror. “Metropolis”, “Nosferatu”, “M” and a legendary milestone - “Cabinet Dr. Caligari” of Robert Wiene.
Two things uniting these movies are low budget and expressionism. Expressionism manifests in dramatic shooting angles, distorted reality, and the powerful character, often a monster. The low budget comes from the economic situation that Germany found itself in during that time. In his book “From Caligari to Hitler”, Krakauer develops a theory, that Germany of the 20s was a breeding ground for creating this dark, dramatic, anxious atmosphere in the movies with the powerful demonic characters, like in “Cabinet Dr. Caligari” or “Metropolis”. Economic problems. failure in the First World War, loss of identity and leadership - all these symptoms ended up giving birth to German Expressionism in the cinema, and Hitler himself.
Due to the rise of Fascism, many talented German filmmakers had to flee to the USA due to their Jewish origin. This migration of creative brains worked out well for Hollywood, as these German-Jewish masterminds have created history there. Their works inspired, for example, the city of Gotham in the “Batman” franchise, and all the filmmakers that have brought Gotham to life later. Say hello, Christopher Nolan, you owe a big one to Robert Wiene as well as the Nazis.
Expressionism is the modernist movement occupying different fields of art: from music and architecture to fine arts and cinema. In this essay we are going to talk about cinema as a form of art and nearly completely ignore theoretics like Theodor Adorno (sorry not sorry). So, expressionism. Even those who live in a cage and haven’t ever heard of expressionism, probably are introduced to The Scream (Edvard Munch). This painting is a perfect example of what expressionism is: a dramatically enhanced depiction of reality, focusing on the emotional experience. Often this movement is opposed to the impressionism. Long story short: impressionism is an aesthetic perception of what is outside, expressionism is an ecstatic scream from the inside.
Bild: Edvard Munch/Wikimedia Commons
Talking about cinema it’s important to state that this form of art is one of the youngest, and in the short period of time it had to develop what, for example, fine arts have been developing for hundreds of years. This makes cinema so ambitious, so experimental and alive.
Expressionism is the first ‘movement’ that cinema was developing parallel to other arts. We are talking here about the German expressionism, as it’s country of origin was (post-war) Germany in 1915-20-s. Exhausted by war, disillusioned in government and, later, struggling with hyperinflation and depression, Germany (and Weimar Republic) was a fertile ground for breeding the surreal reality of the new movies. Nearly every movie, made by German filmmakers in the period between two wars was oriented on the German society (due to export ban) and thus, was projecting the ugly truth of life, so comprehensible to the Weimar folks.
The movie that manifested german expressionism as a movement and raised the discourse was Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920). It is a milestone of the history of Cinema, a brilliant work of the crew and the cast.
These guys built the city of angst and horror, the durable scream of madness – on a low budget (the movie was shot entirely in the studio). Not bad, huh?
The visual style of this film can be described as distorted. Dramatic angles, contrasted shadows, and highlights painted directly on the sets; surreal shapes and heavy makeup. All this showed the tension of the characters: Somnambule, Doctor, and the city itself. The cinematographer Willy Hameister uses the intensive Dutch Angle shots and Close-ups to enhance the feeling of angst. Pure expressionism. By the way, don’t be confused with a word “Dutch”, it comes from “Deutsch” and got its name exactly from the german expressionism. This camera angle is widely used nowadays, we are going to talk about it a bit later
Another exemplary work of this movement is Nosferatu: eine Symphonie des Grauens (Friedrich Murnau, 1922). The horror we deserved. Same seen here: distorted perspective, inhumane proportions, contrast of light and shadow. This movie is especially interesting in terms of the influence cinema has on human psyche. Are you afraid of flicking light switch when you enter your room in the evening? Well, say thank you to Nospheratu, as being an inspiration to generations of filmmakers, it developed an irrational fear of turning the light on in the dark room. This is how powerful cinema can be.
German expressionism got its peak in the 20s, yet was present in works of Paul Wegener (Der Student von Prag, 1913; Der Golem, 1915), or my personal favourites – Fritz Langs Metropolis (1927) and M (1931). All these movies have powerful characters: madmen, murderers, monsters and their creators, an éminence grise – the authority figure, dictator and manipulator. The feeling of a rising threat, an almost prophetic vision of film is discussed in Kracauer’s book From Caligari to Hitler. This powerful authority was criticized and demonised by filmmakers, but it’s terrifying influence on common citizens of surreal towns was a fact.
In his film M, Fritz Lang goes further, and creates what Michel Chion in his book The voice of cinema would later call Akusmêtre. The faceless voice, with god-like features. In M, the serial killer terrorising children is not seen until the end of the movie, but we hear his whistling and voice. This develops a feeling of panic and anxiety, spooky and inevitable.
The question is, why did the audience dedicate its time to something so terrifying, if cinema was just a form of entertainment grown from fair shows?
Cinema is art, a mimesis of life. People went to the cinema to see their own lives, but exaggerated, deformed. Paraphrasing Kracauer, cinema was a form of an escapism: to see something even worse than the ugly reality of life.
And as life itself, art goes further – people were no longer lost and afraid, the rage came. And with rage inevitably comes the brutal realism. In this case the age of Neue Sachlichkeit – hyperrealism that came after expressionism in the cinema and, for example, fine arts. You have probably been to Albertina, and maybe noticed the painting Lied in der Dämmerung (Franz Sedlacek, 1931). No more distortion, yet the feeling of darkness and horror is still contrasting the idyllic setting. Same thing with cinema, the expressionism time was considerably short, but the traits of it are still found.
Bild: Franz Sedlacek/Wikimedia Commons
With the establishment of Nazi Party in Germany in the 30s, the flee of filmmakers to the USA was inevitable since a lot of them were of Jewish origins. And Germans brought their ideas to Hollywood. There, the camera movements, highly contrasted shadows and dark narratives created a well-known genre, the film-noir. Sadly, the 30s in America were not the happiest years of the country’s history (due to the Great Depression), and americans had to adapt the german tricks on how to film on a budget. Noir movies, as we well know, were rife with detail-shots of curtains in the wind, cigarette smoke etc. – good trick to economise the expensive shooting. Actors sometimes need more takes then a cigar.
Not only film noir was inspired by the German Expressionism. The famous Gotham City in the Batman comics, and therefore the Dark Knight, couldn’t exist without Metropolis; weird and scandalous Tim Burton with his Edward Scissorhands (1990) and other movies is the ultimate child of german expressionism. And even shocking Lars von Trier took his Dogville (2003) painted schematic set from Caligari.
That is the story of how Nazis indirectly introduced talented filmmakers to the world, and changed the course of the film history (in a good direction or not – you decide).
