Outtakes: German Expressionism

incorporating elements of painting in cinema Stills from Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Metropolis

What it is…

An artistic movement that began in Germany around the time of the First World War and lasted till about the end of the subsequent decade. In cinema, this resulted in a series of successful films with a distinct visual style. Some scholars cite Germany's unstable sociopolitical climate during this time as one of the motivations for the rise of this movement.

Who were its pioneers...

German Expressionist filmmaking took its cue from other art forms during that time that were working on a unique mode of expression that was opposed to realism – the then-favorite way of representation. Two of the major figures that adapted it to cinema are Fritz Lang and F. W. Murnau, both of whom would later move to Hollywood to make films.

Why it is important...

German Expressionism was one of the first attempts to incorporate elements of painting in cinema. It is one of the most influential of film movements and its impact can be seen in a plethora of crime films and virtually every horror film made ever since. Crucially, its best practitioners pushed the limits of cinematography and opened up new ways of utilising the medium.

Where to find it...

Perhaps the most popular German Expressionist film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) uses a delirious set design that disorients the perspective, an accentuated acting style that bears the excessiveness of theatre and a morbid subject that is the stuff of nightmares. The film is unreal to the extent of rejecting even a stable reality as basis for its narrative.

How it is defined…

Objectives

German Expressionism was not content with realism, believing that it does not accurately capture the inner lives of characters. It based itself on an idea that a character’s gestures are naturally expressive of her emotional state and, taking it further, that expressionist art must make this inner state manifest itself on the surface – face, body language, décor, and atmosphere – even if the result does not bear a resemblance to everyday reality.

Style

The films associated with this movement deal with characters that are emotionally unstable, paranoid or downright mad. The filmmaking style is typified by high-contrast imagery, a highly geometric set design that comments upon the nightmarish urban setting of the narratives, a predominance of daunting shadows, disproportionate sizes of objects in frame, an unnatural and exaggerated acting style and a general atmosphere of all-pervasive doom.