Film Analysis: Dark City (1998)

   To further understand the influence of German Expressionism on contemporary media, we will look at the thematic and stylistic elements adapted from the film movement in modern sci-fi film Dark City (1998) by Alex Proyas.

   Dark City unfolds its story in a world where aliens known as the Strangers have taken control over the humans with the latter functioning as lab mice in the former’s grand experiment. A man, who wakes up and finds himself amnesic, flees from the pursuit by a group of strange men after receiving advice from a mysterious caller, Dr. Schreber. As he journeys to gain knowledge of his true identity as “John”, he discovers his ability to “tune”, similar to that of the Strangers that allows him to make changes in things by his will. In the midst of all conflicts surrounding his interactions with the Strangers, Emma (his wife), Dr. Schreber (a scientist working for the strangers) and Inspector Bumstead (a curious member of the authority), he uncovers the truth to the reality of the world in which memories are artificial and there is no day and places outside of the city. He combats the Strangers with his newfound ability in tuning with the help of Dr. Schreber and upon his triumph, he creates daylight and a place that exists in his vague memory, Shell Beach and meets Emma who has become Anna in a memory alteration.

   The central theme of madness in German Expressionist films can be observed in the nature of the story world and the characters living through their vexation. Madness is prevalent in the experimentation of the Strangers on human memory as means to overcome their crisis in extinction. They are eager to become like humans although they think of them as inferior and are consumed by so immense an obsession that they are willing to risk imprinting human memory into themselves despite their logical character. Eddie Walenski becomes insane from realizing the truth, spending his days in recluse and drawing spirals in his room. He commits suicide in a jolly state, calling it “a way out”. In fact, the whole world is crazy for not noticing the obvious in which there is no daytime at all in the city. People could not explain the oxymoron in how they could not remember important details in life and the way to Shell Beach but are still comfortable living in the realm. The landscape of the city changes every so often and no one is able to tell any difference after their sleep. John too turns to the madness within himself when he knowingly accepts the desirable part of his artificial memory and changes the world into a place he acknowledges, becoming the new “Stranger” of the story world himself.  

   Revolt is represented by John Murdoch, from the triggering event of his resistance to the memory injection to later on his fight against the Strangers who have long exercised control over humans. John has been pursued throughout the entire film, either by the police or the Strangers which are both symbols of the authority. He revolts against the police by refusing to be arrested for crimes he did not commit while against the Strangers, he rejects to live the live forced into him for the likes of the Strangers. Dr. Schreber who has aided the Strangers in their experiment, reacted to John’s awakening by betraying the all-powerful Strangers. He assisted John in his escape and injects into him a tutorial to combat the Strangers. On the other hand, Inspector Bumstead acts upon realization of the irregularities in the world and embarks on a journey with John to seek the truth, putting his life on the line. 

   Self-analysis is another German Expressionist theme present in the film, whereby the characters would constantly be looking for themselves, their identities. John Murdoch is a solid example of self-analysis being portrayed explicitly as he has been searching for his identity all along. Also, the Strangers with a collective mind, are also pursuing the individuality that lies in human souls to acquire a perfect genetic construct that will ensure both their survivability and superiority. Mr Hand showed his desire for an identity explicitly in two particular scenes; one when he requests for John Murdoch’s memory to be imprinted on him and at the end of the film where he tells John Murdoch about his desire to understand the human soul.

   Primitive sexual savagery is seen from the depiction of primal and beastly instincts of the child Stranger. He represents a raw, uncultured soul that seeks violence. He is most fond of the idea of killing John, openly declaring his intention to kill him. He finds pleasure in killing women and carving spirals onto their dead bodies (Figure 4.01). In the scene where John falls clinging to the building, the child Stranger bites his hand in attempt to throw him off the building instead of using a knife or other weapons (Figure 4.02). This acts as a depiction of the dark primal instincts found in the nature of beings.

Figure 4.01 Woman murdered and carved with spirals

Figure 4.02 Child Stranger biting John’s hand

   Dark City by Alex Proyas is reminiscent of Metropolis by Fritz Lang as it questions what makes human human and why it cannot be changed by decree. “Both films are about false worlds created to fabricate ideal societies, and in both the machinery of the rulers is destroyed by the hearts of the ruled. Both are parables in which a dangerous weapon attacks the order of thing: a free human who can see what really is, and question it.”  (Ebert, 2005)

   Dark City is set in a surrealistic or dream-like (nightmarish) world, typical of a German Expressionist setting. There is a world underneath the world where the Strangers established machinery for their experiments unknown to the humans (Figure 4.03). The city comes with no daytime and changes its landscape in the flick of an eye. In fact, no other places exist outside of the city and the city itself is connected to the outer space (Figure 4.03b).

Figure 4.03 The machine that allows Strangers to focus their psychokinetic ability in a Gothic design of a mask

Figure 4.03b John and Inspector Bumstead uncovers the truth to the world

   Distortion of reality can be observed in the shape-shifting of the buildings and interiors when the tuning commences. Buidings twist and turn, elongate, stretch and expand while patterns form and grow on furniture (Figure 4.04 and Figure 4.05). The doorway to Shell Beach is narrow and slanted (Figure 4.06), casting a striking resemblance to the slanted doors in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The irregularity of the world in Dark City enhances the feelings of unpredictability and insecurity in the film.

Figure 4.04 Furniture stretches and patterns grow

Figure 4.05 Distorted staircase

Figure 4.06 Doorway to Shell Beach through the narrow corridor

   The distortion and wicked psychological state are further suggested by the gothic and dark appearance of the Strangers. The Strangers are pale, bald, wear only black colour clothing and have stiff, rigid and constricted movements (Figure 4.07). They have little movements in putting humans to sleep or even when attempting murder. It reinforces the fact that the Strangers are alien beings and their dark appearances symbolize evil.

Figure 4.07 The Stranger

   Heavy and dramatic shadows play a significant part in the film to create an intense mood of murkiness (as shown in Figure 4.08). As most events take place at night time, the entire film is dark and dimly lit with low-key lighting to suggest malice and insecurity. The film plays with lighting especially at the scene where upon the entrance to a bedroom with hard light, the light bulb swings from one end to another (Figure 4.09). This instils a sense of instability and puts the audience off their psychological balance to evoke fear. When the Strangers arrive at the police station, their shadows are casted on the floor as they make their entrance (Figure 4.10). Shadows that used to tell the story through the casted shadows (Figure 4.11) to show the actions of the character are evident of German Expressionism influence where the technique originated from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu.

Figure 4.08 Prevalence of area of darkness in scene

Figure 4.09 Lightbulb swinging in the bathroom



Figure 4.10 The Strangers enter the police station

Figure 4.11 The Stranger approaches

    Oblique angle is seen in the scene where John escapes from the inspector, running down the stairs. The camera follows his movement down the stairs from the top view, revealing a zig-zag shape of the staircase (figure 4.12). It depicts feelings of anxiety and confusion in John when he finds out about the danger surrounding his situation.

 Figure 4.12 The staircase

   “This is essentially an old film noir amnesiac yarn, set in a hostile urban environment defined by late '40s noir ("Dark City" could easily have served as the title for just about any noir ever made). But tale is shot through with a futuristic element that vastly increases the visual opportunities beyond dark shadows on slick city streets.”  (McCarthy, 1998).

Updated: 6 April 2012

References

Ebert, R. (2005, November 6). Dark City. Retrieved March 3, 2012, from RobertEbert:

   http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article

   AID=%2F20051106%2FREVIEWS08%2F511060302

McCarthy, T. (1998, February 19). Dark City (Futuristic Thriller--Color). 

   Retrieved March 1, 2012, from Variety: 

   http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117467192/

Influence & Impact on Contemporary Film

   When the Nazis came to power in 1930s, the German film industry became concentrated on producing propaganda documentaries for Hitler. Expressionist film-makers (Ernst Lubitsch, Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau), actors (Veidt, Jannings) and technicians fled to Hollywood to relive their career (Fisher, 2010). Their experience in German Expressionism took an effect on the stylistic elements of American films with their participation in the production. Film Noir then became a genre heavily influenced by the film movement.

   Film Noir refers to a film genre that features hard-boiled protagonists, crime, detectives and gangster stories in a dark-toned urban setting, with most of the films dating back from 1940 - 1960 (Marling, 2009). Shadows and chiaroscuro lighting from German Expressionism was adapted to refine the dark and sombre mood of the crime stories, and was deemed especially ideal for B-grade films that had to be shot with inadequate lighting due to limited resources (Thompson, 2012). Expressionist lighting style communicates the sense of entrapment the hero faces in his ordeal. The supernatural and fantastical settings that were iconic of German Expressionism however were replaced by realism and city life to accommodate the American and Hollywood trend (Hudson, 2005).

Figure 3.01 Scene from The Big Combo

Figure 3.02 Scene from The Big Heat

   Similar to that of German Expressionism, Film Noir is known for its imbalance and disturbing frame compositions, strong contrasts of light and dark (as shown in Figure 3.01 and Figure 3.02) and the dominance of shadows and areas of darkness within the frame. The noir world depicts corruption, threat and violence and Expressionism found its place in the American anti-hero who is suggested through the silhouettes, reflections and dark streets in the film of his insecurity, fears, alter ego and sexual repression that will haunt and destroy him.

   Fritz Lang emerged as one of the most prominent directors of the noir genre by bringing his dark vision of criminality from German Expressionism into Hollywood. He produced The Woman in the Window, The Blue Gardenia, Scarlet Street, The Big Heat, The Secret Beyond the Door, While the City Sleeps and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt with paranoid mentality as his central subject. Other noir films, of which many are crime novel adaptations are The Maltese Falcon, Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Mildred Pierce, The Big Sleep and Murder, My Sweet, The Killers, Out of the Past, The Big Heat, Kiss Me Deadly and The Big Combo (From German Expressionism to Film Noir, n.d.).

   German Expressionism had also made a significant influence on Alfred Hitchcock’s works. Hitchcock who was sent to work at the UFA in 1924 as assistant director and art director for The Blackguard had absorbed the Expressionist artistry and this effected immediately on the set designs of the film (Figure 3.03).

Figure 3.03 Scene from The Blackguard

Figure 3.04 Scene from Psycho

   Hitchcock was quoted as saying it himself “I have acquired a strong German influence by working at the UFA studios Berlin”. The shower scene in Psycho (Figure 3.04) where the blurry image of the killer seen through the shower curtain is a reminiscent of Nosferatu and his shadow. Expressionism had influenced Hitchcock’s use of set design, lighting and even camera tricks which were disagreeable in his studio.

   The expressionist techniques of unrealistic sets, theatrical composition, lighting, and self-conscious or obtrusive camera were found ideal for the portrayal of paranoia, mystery and crime. These techniques were then adapted in surrealist film, avant-garde cinema, horror films and comic-book aesthetics.

Figure 3.05 Gotham city in Batman Returns

Figure 3.06 Scene from Blade Runner

   Modern cinema borrows elements of German Expressionism for sci-fi, horror and thriller films which rely greatly on the mood of suspense and fantastical setting created by the film techniques. Tim Burton is a director whose works reflect German Expressionist influences. The design of Gotham city in Batman Returns gives a dream-like vibe with emphasis to lines and curves (Figure 3.05) while the film explores psychology in its characters. Batman, Penguin and Catwoman all came with backgrounds that drove them into having duality in personality and in the fit of madness, they characters come to interact. Blade Runner (1982) by Ridley Scott (Figure 3.06) and Dark City (1998) by Alex Proyas are two films notable for their Expressionist architecture and themes.

   Today, stylistic elements from German Expressionism are commonly used in contemporary films especially in stories that have no need for reference to real settings such as sci-fi and fantasy films (Kolar, n.d.).

References 

Fisher, G. (2010, December 3). Roulette Revolver's Blog. Retrieved February 27, 2012, from Introduction to Film Studies 2: European Cinema: http://rouletterevolver.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/nosferatu-and-german-impressionist-cinema/

From German Expressionism to Film Noir. (n.d.). Retrieved March 5, 2012, from Digital Film Archive: http://www.digitalfilmarchive.net/clda/docs/FromGermanExpressionismtoFilmNoir.pdf

Hudson, D. (2005). German Expressionism. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from GreenCine:

   http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/expressionism2.jsp

Kolar. (n.d.). German Expressionism, The World of Light and Shadow. Retrieved March 3, 2012, from

   MUBI: http://mubi.com/lists/german-expressionism-the-world-of-light-and-shadow

Marling, W. (2009, April 12). Hard-Boiled Fiction and Film Noir. Retrieved March 5, 2012, from

   Detnovel: http://www.detnovel.com/FilmNoir.html

Thompson, C. (2012, February 17). German Expressionism and it's Influence on Noir. Retrieved March 3, 2010, from Noir Movie: http://noirmovie.com/news/german-expressionism

Unique Characteristics of German Expressionism

   German Expressionism is a film movement that emphasizes on the expression of inner thoughts or emotions through the control of stylistic elements. The film movement, having born directly under the influenced of German’s defeat during World War I, was an expressive form used to describe the mentality of a defeated nation stricken with poverty and anger.

   German Expressionist films are therefore notable for their dark themes of insanity, horror, death and fatality that translate prevalently into the film’s mise-en-scene and narrative. It counters the principle of realism and practises extreme distortion as means to communicate inner emotional reality (Johnson, 2010). Old ideals and conventional photographic representation of reality is discarded to convey messages in heavy stylization that becomes symbolic of the real world. The story takes place in a constructed reality in which the characters live in a world of deformity. This is done to express a subjective viewpoint by abstracting realistic details and contingencies, bringing out the essence of an object, situation or state of mind.

   Few Expressionist films set their stories in the present or non-fictional framework. Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler tells a story of the present but is set in a fantastical reality.

   In this post we shall examine the unique characteristics of the film movement based on two iconic German Expressionist films, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) by Robert Wiene and Nosferatu (1922) by F.W. Murnau.

   Distorted shapes and lines in set design that counter the sense of balance, heavy shadowing along with theatrical actor movements are practiced in German Expresionism to suggest a warped or perverted perspective of the world. The story world is twisted as a reflection of the storyteller’s emotional state.

Figure 2.01 Town of Houstenwall in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Figure 2.02 Slanted house in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Figure 2.03 Mansion of Count Orlok in Nosferatu.

Figure 2.04 Letter from Count Orlok in Nosferatu

   As shown in Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was set in a strange and nightmarish town of Hostenwall where buildings have pointed roofs, windows and doors out of kilter. Nosferatu (refer to Figure 2.3), despite being shot on-location, features buildings that come with varying height and odd designs such as the extensive use of disproportionate windows. The lack of consistency in architecture stimulates feelings of insecurity. Sharp, irregular and angular shapes in the set upset the sense of equilibrium and bring out the thrusting worlds of fears. The letter from Count Orlok (Figure 2.4) comes with cryptic writing that represents evil by perplexing the audience with distortion in the form of words into an incomprehensible text.

Figure 2.05 Clock in Count Orlok’s castle in Nosferatu

Figure 2.06 Stairways in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Figure 2.07 Hutter travelling pass the woods in Nosferatu

   Chiaroscuro lighting is applied to create dramatic contrast between light and shadow to suggest the presence of dark aspects in human and nature. Low-key lighting is practiced to construct a dark story world (Figure 2.05). The elongated shadows appearing as the darkness enveloping and haunting the characters instill fear in the audiences (Figure 2.06 and 2.07).

Figure 2.08 Cesare murdering a person in bed in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Figure 2.09 Count Orlok creeping close to Ellen in Nosferatu

Figure 2.10 Count Orlok’s assault in Nosferatu

   Dramatic shadows are seen as an element of the horror story to give off the shady and ominous feel. Shadow plays an important role in the narrative in which the shadow becomes the storyteller by reflecting the actions of the characters (refer to Figure 2.08 and Figure 2.09). The use of shadow to reveal the character’s action plays with suspense and the audience’s psychology. This in turn elevates the creepy mood and hints on the dark intent of the antagonists. In Nosferatu, Count Orlok’s ability to subdue humans is shown rather implicitly with the gesture of him grasping his hand and the shadow of it casting right onto the position of Ellen’s heart (Figure 2.10).

“Murnau makes excellent use of shadows and silhouettes in Nosferatu to create the aura of a creature belonging to another world and convey a paranoid sense of evil omnipresence”  (Blakeney, 2010).

   On the other hand, gothic makeup and clothing along with exaggerated movements of the actors are also expressions to the distortion of reality that further suggest ill psychological states.

Figure 2.11 Cesare from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Figure 2.12 Count Orlok from Nosferatu

   Cesare (Figure 2.11), the sleepwalker is tall, thin, and angular with horrifyingly enlarged eyes and moves in a jerky way. Count Orlok (Figure 2.12) possesses an unnaturally long figure with skeletal and claw-like fingers, long ears, hunched back and short neck. His movements are slow and robotic. Every seemingly unnatural movement is in fact carefully choreographed and planned to create a specific shape within the frame or to throw a particular shadow (Blakeney, 2010). The goal of the construct is to evoke mystery, disharmony, hallucination, dreams, alienation, extreme emotional states and destabilization.  

   The integration of these elements in mise-en-scene creates an overall graphic composition that gives a painting-like impression to the scenes. German Expressionist films put more emphasis on the story and rely less on editing as compared to Hollywood films. Hermann Warm, the set designer of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was quoted as saying “the film image must become graphic art”. In German expressionist films, the expression and movements of the characters blend harmoniously with the background to become a visual art (Benyahia, Gaffney, & White, 2009).

Figure 2.13 Cesare and trees in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Figure 2.14 Ellen at the dune in Nosferatu

   Cesare’s dance-like posture (Figure 2.13) blends in with graphic element of the trees. His body echoes like the tilted tree trunk, and his arms and hands are same positioned in relation to the tree branches. In Nosferatu, at the dune where Ellen waits for news of Hutter, there are slanted crosses buried on the ground. The setting furnishes the scene with visual characteristics of a painting.

Figure 2.15 Cesare gliding along the wall in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Figure 2.16 Count Orlok on the deck of ship in Nosferatu

   From the scenes in the films, it is observable that the characters move in a rhythmic flow to become living elements of the sets (Figure 2.15 and Figure 2.16). Pauses and jerky movements of the actors allow the lines and shapes in the mise-en-scene to align with them, granting the scene with eye-catching compositions and uncanny atmosphere. All of this is to make them part of the strange world.

   Expressionist films also applied symmetry shots, distortion, exaggeration and juxtaposition of similar shapes in the mise en scene.

Figure 2.17 Jane at the parade

Figure 2.18 Hutter and Count Orlok at the castle in Transylvania

   In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Jane’s costume comes with the same jagged lines as the set design (Figure 2.17). In Nosferatu, Count Orlok and Hutter are placed within a nested set of four archways. Arches in the Nosferatu film serve as the motif that symbolizes the vampire and his coffin (Figure 2.18).

   Expressionist films often employ flat lighting to stress the connection between the character’s and the décor. As the contrast and imbalance in the visual elements suggest, the characters are trapped and ruled by their madness, revolt, self-analysis and primitive, sexual savagery. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes an anti-heroic approach in which the initial protagonist is revealed at the end, to be a madman. The story of Francis becomes a madman’s story, constructed in the realm of his insanity. A sense of revolt is observed in Francis’s attempts to combat the evil Dr. Caligari and the murderous somnambulist Cesare.

   In Nosferatu, the center of all insanity stands Count Orlok, the invincible vampire or Nosferatu with his unstoppable menace and thirst for blood. His uncontrollable desire for Ellen’s blood and beauty drives him to travel in his coffin filled with earth from Transylvania to Wisborg, victimizing the townspeople in an outbreak to his comfort. The madness that consumes him eventually leads to his own downfall when he becomes too occupied with Ellen’s blood to notice the break of dawn. It is imprinted in the count, the beastly, primitive and sexual savagery that directs him to seek pleasure in taking the blood and lives of beautiful women. The lead of the story (Hutter) however, is weak and helpless against the evil for revolt. It was ultimately Ellen, who despite her fears and gender inferiority musters her courage to invite the Nosferatu into her room in order to destroy him.

   The themes and visual style of German Expressionism are later widely used in horror and fantasy stories, crime thrillers, melodramas, social dramas and historical epics to create the sombre mood. American Film Noir which centers on the corrupt underworld of crime was put under the direct influence of German Expressionism.

 References

(2009). The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In S. C. Benyahia, F. Gaffney, & J. White, Film Studies: The

   Essential Introduction (pp. 175-182). Oxon: Routledge.

Blakeney, K. (2010). F.W. Murnau, His Films and their Influence on German Expressionism.

   Retrieved March 2, 2012, from Student Pulse Online Academic Student Journal:

   http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/371/2/fw-murnau-his-films-and-their-influence-on-german

   expressionism

Johnson, M. (2010, September 3). Factoidz. Retrieved March 3, 2012, from German Expressionist

   Cinema: http://popular-culture.factoidz.com/german-expressionist-cinema/

Historical Background of German Expressionism

   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. At that stage, “Expressionism” was still a style guided only by key words like “expression” and “emotions” viewed purely as an art and literature form to celebrate nature and spirituality. It was until after the World War I that it evolved into a movement with defined notions and eventually became a political statement that puts to center stage the negative energies surrounding the German society at that time.

   Expressionism dealt with the psychology of the defeated nation, with feelings of humiliation, betrayal and anger. The economy, political and social chaos drove the old values of art in social classes, cold logic and unattainable beauty into the revolutionary raw, dark and violent aesthetics, reflecting the nation’s then state of mind (Hudson, 2005).

Figure 1.01 Synagogue, Max Beckmann, 1919.

Figure 1.02 The City, George Grosz, 1916/1917

   Their arts (Figure 1.01 and Figure 1.02) were anti-bourgeois and modernist as an expression of revolt.

Soon, the movement was translated into motion pictures for expression. According to Thompson & Bordwell in ‘Film History: An Introduction (Third Edition)’, 2010, page 87-102, German Expressionism became a most notable film movement from 1919 – 1926.

   Post-war situation in Germany contributed to the movement as the development of German film industry began with the isolation of the nation from foreign film industries as a result of the government’s ban on foreign films in 1916. German government supported the local film industry as they wanted to create propagandizing films and to compete with foreign films.

   The government, the Deutsche Bank, and large industries combined several small film companies under the big company Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA) to promote pro-war films in the late 1917. UFA with its huge financial backing was able to gather a good number of technicians and build the best-equipped studios in Europe to control the German and post-war international market.

   All of these well-equipped studios had attracted foreign filmmakers and made Germany a main co-producer of films with companies from other countries. In 1914, there were 47 foreign film companies dominating the German market with 25 local firms struggling to survive. But by 1918, the number of foreign firms shrunk to 10 while the German companies numbered up to 130.
Unfortunately, despite the success in Germany’s film-making industry, the nation did not recover from the difficulties caused by the war.

   In the late 1918 to 1921, the citizens wanted to put an end to the monarchy and war, the radical and liberal parties struggled to control and the nation continued with its internal strife and the situation intensified when Great Britain and France blamed Germany for being the sole cause of the conflict. Germany was then expected to pay for all wartime damage to civilian properties in the form of money and goods.

Hyperinflation came about all over the country. The consumer goods and food became extremely expensive and people had to carry a basket of paper money to purchase a loaf of bread. The citizens then wanted to spend their money while they were still of worth and they began to frequent theatres and cinemas for arts and films.  

   The national dilemma brought about encouragement to export and suppression to import. Germany was desperately in need of more films to be broadcasted at their own cinema or theatre because if films from America and France were not imported, they would have too few for their own market. Hence, filmmakers benefited from producing many films for international export and local airing.

   German Expressionism was then, also a movement initiated to differentiate their films from America and France as these countries were the two that had banned German films from their cinema after World War I. The German filmmakers had found a distinctive way to make their films different to other countries but relevant to art and society by employing Expressionism.

   The German film industry concentrated on 3 genres. The first was the popular adventure serial, featuring spy rings, clever detectives, and exotic settings. The second was of the brief sex exploitation cycle which included homosexuality and prostitution while the third was a copy of Italian historical epics of pre-war period.

   German Expressionism was considered an avant-garde movement as they proved to express modern art by stylizing it and bringing the new form of art to the mass and also elite. Germany’s ambition to compete with foreign films ensured a completely different approach as compared to the Hollywood films. Their studios came with special sets and the Germans excelled in artistic stylization to counter Hollywood’s realistic setting of film. The German film-makers extensively experimented in artistic films that serve to promote awkwardness and disunity over unity.

   German Expressionist films were positively received abroad, with Lubitsch’s Madame Dubarry being shown in major European cities in 1920 despite the prejudices and anti-German sentiments due to the war. In 1922, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was opened in a regular Parisian cinema and Expressionist works were played in France over the next 5 years.

   The German film industry however, experienced major changes towards late 1920s as prominent Expressionist film-makers fled Nazi Germany to a more promising environment in Hollywood. The foreign technologies, market and stylistic conventions made considerable influence on their works. At the same time, a new trend known as the “New Objectivity” emerged to replace Expressionism in the German film industry.

German Expressionism as a film movement however, was a great influence to the American Film Noir, following the shift of German directors to Hollywood as film techniques and lighting styles were borrowed and incorporated with the realistic ideals of American film industry to create the moody crime thrillers (Thompson, 2012). Production of German Expressionist films ceased by 1929.

    

Timeline of German Expressionist Cinema

1920	February: Decla company release The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene. It starts the Expressionist movement. Algol, directed by Hans Werckmeister The Golem, directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese Genuine, directed by Robert Wiene From Morn to Midnight, directed by Karl Heinz Martin Torgus, directed by Hans Kobe
1921	November: UFA absorbs Decla-Bioscop, which remains a separate production unit under Pommer’s supervision. “The Weary Death” aka Destiny, directed by Fritz Lang “The House on the Moon”, directed by Karl Heinz Martin
1922	Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler, directed by Fritz Lang Nosferatu, directed by F. W. Murnau
1923	Schatten (Warning Shadows), directed by Artur Robison “The Treasure”, directed by G. W. Pabst Raskolnikow, directed by Robert Wiene Earth Spirit, directed by Leopold Jessner The Stone Rider, directed by Fritz Wendhausen
1924	Autumn: Hyperinflation ends. Waxworks, directed by Paul Leni Die Nibelungen, in 2 parts: Siegfried and Kriemhild’s Revenge, directed by Fritz Lang The Hands of Orlac, directed by Robert Wiene
1925	December: UFA is rescued from bankruptcy by loans from Paramount and MGM. Tartuffe, directed by F. W. Murnau The Chronicle of the Grey House, directed by Arthur von Gerlach
1926	February: Erich Pommer is forced to resign as head of UFA. September: Faust, directed by F. W. Murnau
1927	January: Metropolis, directed by Fritz Lang

 Source: Thompson & Bordwell, 2010, p90

References

Hudson, D. (2005). GreenCine. Retrieved March 3, 2012, from

   German Expressionism:

   http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/expressionism1.jsp

Thompson, C. (2012, February 17). Noir Movie. Retrieved March 1, 2012, from

   German Expressionism and It's Influence on Noir:

   http://noirmovie.com/news/german-expressionism

(2010). German Expressionism. In K. Thompson, & D. Bordwell, Film History: An

   Introduction, Third Edition (pp. 87-102). New York: McGraw Hill.