Brief Overlook of German Expressionism

To discuss German Expressionism, we can break it down to 3 components which is its theme, narrative, characteristic and also its style. We will begin the discussion with the German Expressionism theme.

History

German Expressionist film movement started after World War I. Germany undergoes severe social, political and economic dislocation after being defeated in the war. This has created a great chaos in Germany. The people were not satisfied with the changes and went against the authority. Therefore, film produced at that time had the theme of revolt.

When Germany entered World War I many of the expressionists had voluntarily enlisted into the armed forces anxious to experience the affects of war first hand believing that it would greatly influence their artistic ambitions (McLaughlin, n.d.). Paintings after the service showed self-analysis of the expressionists. When it transforms into film, the theme of self-analysis is still in practice.

The horror of World War I left the people of Germany in a state of desperate poverty and psychologically scarred. Because of this, filmmakers make films that dealt with madness and other dark theme in a highly stylized and symbolic way (Mensing, 2009).

After World War I, social classes started to divide the people in Germany. It seems like a modernist movement, yet it looks at the psychological effects of the new age of technology on individuals. People in the country at that time faced sexual and emotional uncertainty (Hayward, 2006). Hence, film produced that time reflects the theme of primitive sexual savagery.


Narrative

Moving on to narratives, a narratives meaning is created by establishing something that is a part of a whole story and usually it is the cause of something else. It is usually combined with human actions or events that affect human beings. The meaning of each event is produced by the part it plays in the whole episode (Steve, n.d.).

As for German Expressionist film, it often has stories within a larger narrative. Expressionist often set the films in the past or in exotic environment and its film, too, involved the elements of fantasy or horror genre. Furthermore, Expressionist used the narrative to convey characters subjectivity such as the narrative convention of self-contained stories and emphasize on fantasy. For instance, the Tartuffe (1926) presented the narrative of self-contained stories in the film, whereas, the film of Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924) have had the element of fantasy in the movie.

Furthermore, German Expressionism is considered as an early horror as it encompassed certain plot conventions of horror genre. For the movies nowadays, the conventions of horror genre are used and re-used in the film. For example, evil doctor / scientist who commits murder by manipulating a ‘monster’ whom he controls, Metropolis (1927), mysterious freakish creatures that come to town bringing terror monster falls in love with beautiful girl, Nosferatu (1922) and angry townspeople chase monster from their community (Scribd, n.d.).

Characteristics

The characteristics of German Expressionist film are quite distinctive. German-Expressionist films in general deals with a lot of chaos and sometimes anger due to the loss of Germany in the WWI. One can also notice that it deals with the sense of depression resulted from the destruction they had suffered after the war.


The story of German-Expressionist films often deals with the ongoing of the underworld. The message of the film is often brought out by symbolic elements and depends highly on the atmosphere in the film. German-Expressionism goes on to influence a lot of other genres such as horror and noir films.

Stylized Distortion and Bizarre Shot Composition

The most noticeable characteristic in German-Expressionist film is that they always have fantastic narrative, stylized distortion and also bizarre shot composition. “The angular performances, heavy makeup and distorted settings characteristic of German Expressionist cinema conveyed an ominous, supernatural atmosphere” (Bordwell, 2008). German-Expressionist film has the Oneiric quality which shows a dreamlike mood in the film but the dream is in the form of a nightmare. This form of influence is later seen in a lot of American films especially in film noir detective drama and horror films.

Character's Perspective

The perspective of the story in German-Expressionist film normally focuses only on one of the characters in the film. This means that the audience will experience the perspective of only one character. It is common for this kind of film to have a scene when you can tell that there is danger approaching, an influence often seen in horror films. The film often has disturbing and unsettling depiction of injury or even death.

The main character of the film is normally evil and not heroic. Certain characters in the film have unnatural qualities due to makeup or editing. This causes the characters to appear unapproachable to the audience and makes it hard for the audience to feel sympathy for the character. The settings for its stories are often in the city. The sets are often bizarre. The architectural structure is often visually skewed.

Chiaroscuro lighting

When studying German Expressionism, one can notice the style through some of the special film techniques shown in films influenced by German Expressionism. Chiaroscuro lighting style is often used in German Expressionist film. Chiaroscuro is the arrangement of lights in dim condition that creates a lot of hard shadows. This form of lighting is able to portray the idea of violence, horror and suspend which enhance the narrative of the film.

Madness

In German Expressionism films, character movements and incidents happened are presented in madness form. Character(s) are often portrayed as an insane person. From the beginning to the ending of the film, mise-en-scene of the film is stylized as if it was the point of view of a madman.

Slanting lines and curves

Settings in German Expressionism film uses lots of slanting lines and curves. This is named as Expressionism Und Film (Lindsey, n.d.). Those slanting lines and curves are metaphysical, meaning there are no special meanings to them. Stylizations of the characters that refer to characters’ physical body movement and facial expressions are designed to blend with the curving lines in the scene.  This helps in creating a depth of setting in emotion of character and space where the “Background comes to the Foreground” and vice versa.

Anthropomorphism (animating object) 

Other special film technique of German Expressionism films is anthropomorphism (animating object) (Lindsey, n.d.). In German language, objects are given life. The objects share the same adjectives and verbs with human beings. In film, non-living things are attributed to human characteristics. For example, Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton give lives to Poker cards, talking cat (Caterpillar) and talking frog (Frog-Footman).

Visual Distortion

There could be a selective distortion in a creative way in the surroundings of characters that shows the complexity of the character. The audiences are able to feel the characters’ depth through the manipulation of the surroundings. For example, in Dr. Calligari; the vision of the prison-cell with its verticals narrowing as they rise like arrow-heads towards the high heavens, while the oppressive effect is heightened by these vertical being extended along the floor where the chained prisoner sits in his own Hell. The rhomboid window is a mockery of his freedom, in its most expressive expression (Lindsey, n.d.).

Doppelganger
Characters in German Expressionism films will create a doppelganger (Lindsey, n.d.), which later become independent and act against the creator. The mirror image can be shadow or personality traits. For example, in the film “Dark City” by Alex Proyas, the Strangers wanted to extract memories from John Murdoch but failed. At the same time, John adapted their super power and fought against them. They unintentionally create the same image of them whom had defeated them in the end of the film.


The journey of German Expressionism from art cinema to the Hollywood mainstream began with the exile and expulsion of many film producers, directors, writers, actors, and music composers from Germany in January 1933. In the year of 1940s, film noir (new film genre) gave tangible expression to the psychic confusion. Film noir received it’s named from French film critics and was heavily influenced by German expressionist film making techniques (Digital Film Archive, n.d.). 


Influence of German Expressionism
A direct connection between the crime films of the German Expressionist cinema and the American private eye movie is made in the work of Fritz Lang, a German director. He brought the dark vision of criminality of his Expressionistic classics to Hollywood and later became one of the most prolific directors of the noir genre. His impressive films include The Woman in the Window, Scarlet Street, The Big Heat, The Blue Gardenia, The Secret beyond the Door, While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (Digital Film Archive, n.d.). 


In film noir, Expressionism found a worthy subject in the archetypal American antihero, the visual style of film noir conveys the dominant mood through expressive use of darkness. Character in exterior and interior settings overwhelms the shadows and claustrophobic compositions in predominantly underlit and night time scenes. Characters are given little opportunity to orientate themselves to the threatening and shifting shadowy environment. Silhouettes, shadows, mirrors and reflections indicate lack of both unity and control (Digital Film Archive, n.d.).


The story lines of German expressionist films matched the visuals in terms of darkness and disillusionment. The films' dramatic effects produced motifs of claustrophobia and paranoia. It is often somber in mood and featuring characters from a corrupt underworld of crime.


Many modern films demonstrate the influence of German expressionism, especially horror films. The style of German expressionism is ideal for portraying macabre subject matters. Devices such as low key lighting are used to convey mystery, and monsters lurking in shadows. Distortion is also commonly used in German expressionism. Through make-up, camera angles, costumes and strange backdrops, distortion comes into the later horror films too (Strozykowski, 2008).


Beside this, according Starfield (2006), said that the influence of the German Expression can be clearly seen in some of the Disney movies. We noticed that they tried applying German Expressionism influence into their movies. One of the influences that we have noted is that Disney animators consult the expressionist sketches for the 1992 animated film, Aladdin.  The influences are shown as there are some characters with pointed beards, exaggerated heavy eyebrows and moustaches. These influences can be clearly seen in the villainous character. We know that Disney films owe a direct or indirect debt to German expressionist cinema as Disney favours the German illustrator of Grimm’s Fairy tales, Ludwig Richter, and Heinrich Kley whose elephant drawings influenced Dumbo (1941).


Influence of German Expressionism in Tim Burton
When the filmmakers are discussing about German Expressionism nowadays, first director that comes to their mind will be Tim Burton. Timothy William Burton or better known as Tim Burton is a very famous American film director, producer, animator and scriptwriter who produced a lot of dark and quirky-themed movies. His films are strongly influenced by the German Expressionist. Since 1984, he had directed and produced over 14 films which containing similar aspects and styles which includes Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare before Christmas, Batman, Batman Returns, Alice in Wonderland, Beetlejuice and others. He has advanced the tradition of Dark Gothic Art by applying it into mainstream film production and gain a lot of attention from the public (Chambers, 2007).


Gothic Art was originally found in a lot of religious building, castles and city buildings. During 20^th century, it gains another attribute through the lighting of the sets. Harsh contrasts, long drawn elements, shadows and cold forms are necessary for the set. The effect of the shadows in the set give the dark element of the Gothic form and it had also evoked the feelings of terror without actually showing something which is horrific. Dark Gothic Art applied to film, is an important part of the Expressionist form. In modern day films, the true idea of Gothic art no longer exists as a whole. Films of today that took the place of Gothic works are of those of horror, gore, and violence (Chambers, 2007).


Although each of Burton’s films has a totally different storyline but there is a consistency in all his work which is harsh lighting, muted colour, period-design costumes, mono-chromatic set designs and a surrealistic overtone to each film. Many of his sets are artesian and have the appearance of a human touch. Below are some of the films which are influenced by the elements of German Expressionism and dark gothic art by Tim Burton.


In later post, we are going to analyse two films by Tim Burton which have influence of German Expressionism. The films are Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Sweeny Todd (2008).


Film List
Old film
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Genuine: A Tale of the Vampire 
The Golem: How He Came Into the World
The Head of Janus
Hypnose
Nosferatu
Phantom
Metropolis
The Haunted Castle
Pandora’s Box 


Contemporary films
Dark City
Careful
Max
Psycho, The Lodger
Robocop
The Last Laugh
Aladdin

Pirates of The Carribbean

The Haunted Mansion

Alice in the Wonderland

Peter Pan & Wendy

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of the Fleet Street

Edward Scissorhands

The Crow

Blade Runner

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