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/