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The art form known as German Expressionism has directly influenced the developing film industry of Germany in the 1920s.
German Expressionism as an art form was an answer to the grim reality of daily life. It was a way to represent a reality few could imagine. Sex murders, depression, maimed veterans returning from the war, innocence lost and a rejection of the past were the things the German people dealt with during the post-war years from 1919 to 1929. Germany's Expressionists declared that facts and objects alone are meaningless. The artist had to get to their essence. In painting or sculpture, it meant a straight line was not necessarily a straight line. Buildings and the human figure conformed to the perception of artists, not the other way around. In theater productions it meant isolating an object or figure in light and having everything else fall back into deep darkness. Film IndustryFollowing World War I German Expressionism was recreated within the German film industry. German films were developing a particular style. The emphasis was not placed on the everyday life, but instead focused on presenting an expresive, imaginative point of view. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness, clinical insanity, betrayal and other intellectual topics. The combination of the realistic in depicting social conditions, human suffering, the outward signs of bodily disorder and the expressionistic in the use of symbolism in shape and color, the blurring of boundaries between reality and dreams, the distortion of the material world to give expression to inner mood and sensation can be seen in German films of the 1920s. These films used symbolism and mood to create films with deeper meanings. Lighting, surrealistic settings and mobile framing characterized German Expressionism in the film industry. Light and dark contrasts, exaggeration and tilted angles created a dread -like atmosphere. The Expressionistic influences extended further, into the make-up and some of the acting. CinemaGerman cinema of this time is defined to be fantastic as opposed to realistic. The dark, demonic, haunted and somehow profoundly irrational character was linked to a particular social and political meaning. Fantastic films were the expressions of the middle class seeking escape in the cinema because their real prospects were so limited. Growing urbanization, the industrial revolution and new forms of political or social control drove patrons into the movie theater. In-Studio ProductionEmphasis on in-studio production was an important aesthetic quality of the German cinema between 1919 and 1924. German directors found that they could exercise complete authority over every aspect of the film-making process when they worked in the controlled environment of the studio, as they could not when they worked on location. The only way to make sure that the lighting, the decor, the architectural shapes, the relationship of blacks and whites and grays were perfect was to film in a completely controlled environment. Even “outdoor” scenes were contrived and shot inside the four walls of a studio. The result was not only a perfect control of style and decor but also a feeling of claustrophobia that enhanced the mood of many of the best films, which were also claustrophobic in their content. Vocabulary and StyleThe vocabulary and style of German Expressionistic silent movies led the world in films of horror and the supernatural, from 1913 to 1928. Lighting techniques and special effects photography developed by these film makers enhanced the visual productions of horror films for decades to follow. Today’s theater goers looking for a “good old-fashioned” horror movie probably have no idea that what they are looking for began in Germany almost a century ago. Unfortunately, modern horror films cannot compare to the classics. Poorly conceived and ineptly directed, “horror” in today’s cinematic market translates to little more than blood and gore.
The copyright of the article German Expressionism in Foreign Films is owned by Sage Meehan. Permission to republish German Expressionism in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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