GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
History and Development
Expressionism first started as an artistic movement in 1905 as a form of fine arts that stresses on the portrayal of inner emotions and experiences rather than the conventional presentation of reality. “Expressionism” refers to the word “expression” and “emotions” in terms of art and literature form to celebrate nature and spirituality. Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before World War I. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including painting, sculpture, dance, cinema, literature, drama, poetry, prose, music, architecture. (Ghosh, 2013)
The movement developed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a reaction against the academic standards that had prevailed in Europe since the Renaissance (1300-1600), particularly in French and German art academies. In expressionism the artist tries to present an emotional experience in its most compelling form. The artist is not concerned with reality as it appears but with its inner nature and with the emotions aroused by the subject. To achieve these ends, the subject is frequently caricatured, exaggerated, distorted, or otherwise altered in order to stress the emotional experience in its most intense and concentrated form. (Ghosh, 2013)
During World War I, the German government began to support German film industry in order to product its own propaganda films. And the film firms in German like the mushrooms after the rain which grows rapidly from a dozen of small firms during 1911 to 131 film firms on 1918 with the policy encouraged these companies to band together into cartels. (Ghosh, 2013)
In 1917, the rebellious tendencies increase after the success of the Russian Revolution and the war were unpopular with many in Germany. Thus the German government, Deutsche Bank and large industrial concern to combine several small firms to create a large company which called Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA) during late 1917 with purpose of promoting the pro-war films. UFA was able to gather superb technicians and build the best-equipped studios in Europe with the huge financial backing. That was the golden age of German film industry back in the days; as Germany coproduced many films in other countries, thus helping to spread German stylistic influence abroad.
In 1920, a film called “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligali” was done in an Expressionist style, scripted by Carl Mayer and Hans Jannowitz. This film was extremely successful, it created a sensation in Berlin and then in United States, France and other countries. Because of its success, other films in Expressionist style soon followed. The stylistic movement in cinema was lasted for several years and by the mid-1920s, these films were regarded as among the best in the world. (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010)
However, a combination of circumstances led to the disappearance of the movement. The rampant inflation of the early 1920s in Germany made the German exporters to sell their films cheaply abroad. But, inflation discouraged imports. In 1924, the U.S. Dawes Plan helped to stabilize the German economy, causing the foreign films came in more frequently and led to the competition in between German films and those foreign films. Not only that, the Expressionist films budget were climbing especially F.W. Murnau’s Faust (1926) and Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927) were costly epics that drove UFA deeper into financial difficulty. Due to that, most of the actors and cinematographers left German and went to Hollywood. (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010)
After that, the Germans began to imitate the American films in order to compete with the Hollywood films. As a result, Expressionism as a movement lasted in 1927. But fortunately, many German filmmakers came to the Hollywood and produced Hollywood horror films with film noir’s expressionist tendencies in their setting and lighting which caused the expressionism in film style has never entirely died out. (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010)
Characteristics Found in “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”
Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), designed in an Expressionist style, and became a critical and commercial success particularly in the U.S. and in France, where the elements of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari became synonymous with Expressionist cinema. Expressionism was an avant-garde movement which had begun in painting; it was then taken up in theater, literature, architecture, and finally in film. The three designers – Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Rohrig – were responsible for the Expressionist style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In this film, stylization functions to “express” the distorted viewpoint of a madman: We see the world as the mad narrator does; the film becomes a projection of his vision. (Bordwell & Thompson, 2010)
German expressionism concerned in the themes such as revolt, self-analysis, madness, primitive and sexual savagery. The notable style that compasses in German Expressionism film is the oblique camera angles. Followed by the distorted bodies and shape which is the lines and the buildings that counter the sense balance. And also suggest a warped perspective of the world, to reflect the emotion and mind state. Besides, chiaroscuro lighting also known as high contrast or low key lighting played the important role in German Expressionism film. It is use to create the dramatic contrast between the light and the shadow to present the dark aspect among the human, things and nature.
Somehow, dramatic shadow considers the common element for the horror story to give off the ominous feelings and the creepy mood to the audiences. Therefore, shadow became an important role in narrative by reflecting the action of the characters. On the other hand, the content of German Expressionism film are usually in surreal and gothic, it is about unnatural act or realities, bizarre and incongruous setting that is usually gothic in look and framing. The gothic makeup and clothing along with the exaggerated movements of the actors will also create the anxiety feels and psychological states.
Through the entire film, the director, Robert Wiene tended to put all visual elements to persuade the audience, into the world of insanity to emphasize into the theme which he wanted them to understand. Regarding to the subconscious power, Weine wanted the audience to see the uncertainty of human’s mind which is far deeper than what they can understood clearly. Therefore, there were some aspects in this film which significantly involved with the idea of mind control, and psychological terror. For example, when Cesare told Alan that he could only live until dawn, Alan was in total terror. In fact, that was a trick that Dr. Caligari using Cesare to spread the feeling of fear among the people in order to make them believe in him for personal gain. Dr. Caligari hypnotized Cesare to commit crimes for him and that was a form of mind control.
Next, the most outstanding element of this film was its visualization which can be divided into two parts which were the artistic element and narrative element. These impressive visual elements were used as important parts of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and at the same time also driving audience’s eye sight while watching this film. The director chose to use painted setting and added some distorted angles on the scene. In reality, the buildings are supposed to be upright on earth instead of being slanting like the background settings in the film. In the film, the background settings were actually reflecting the unstable psychological status of the characters. For example, the whole Dr. Caligari’s incident was actually made up in Francis’s mind; he was one of the inmate in the asylum. He was mentally unstable that was why in his story; the settings are slanting and dark.
Besides, the German Expressionist films often using low-key lightings to show the heavy contrast between light and dark which known as chiaroscuro lighting. In this film, it is obvious that the shadows shrouded most of the scenes and it represented the dark forces were more formidable. Not only that, to enlighten the presence of the dark forces, the characters were in heavy makeup, their eye sockets and lips were painted in black colour which the director intended to let the audience felt mentally uncomfortable.
Last but not least, there were other elements of German Expressionism presented in this film, which were the primitive and sexual savagery in certain character such as Cesare. Cesare was designed as a character that has no motive in doing anything because he was hypnotized by Dr. Caligari. When he was summoned by Dr. Caligari to kill Jane, when he meets Jane, his inner evil-primitive self was somehow driven out and causing him to abduct Jane. He was supposed to kill her, but he carried her to the hill, because he might have sexual desire on Jane.
Video Tribute:
Synopsis
The synopsis is about a prosess of a student going crazy. At first, she is just being like a normal student, studying on her desk. However, due to the huge amount of assignments and deadlines to rush as a student, she eventually went crazy. The “depressed” side follows her everywhere no matter in study room or bathroom, thus, takes hold of her life at last.
Conclusion
Throughout this assignment, we get to produce a video tribute of one of the greatest film in the world, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. We understand that the German artists used the idiom “Expressionism’’ as a meaning to convey their artistic philosophy and practice after we had done a research about German Expressionism. However, the phrase would eventually be applied to represent any approach to art that would demonstrate a distorted reality as well as a depiction of the artist’s mental state of being like what did The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari showed the audience.
In conclusion, Expressionism is not primarily driven by technique, but it is a desire to express emotion. Real form in the Expressionist films is shown little consideration; but the aim is to show expression.
Crews & credits
Director: Vivian Aik Huea Mun
Scriptwriter: Lee Man Zheng
DOP: Chow Yan Yee, Jennie
Editor: Lee Shui Yhee
Cast
Student: Lee Man Zheng
“Depressed”: Moo Hsiao Ying
