German Expressionism Essay
We all have those times when we are in the mood to watch either a comedy, drama, horror, or mystery film. These genres are all created from the inspiration of different film movements since the development of motion picture. In particular, there is one film movement that has influenced other film styles such as film noir and horror. Hidden in the shadows of the film industry, German Expressionism began from darkness, created specific film traits, and challenged perspectives of society.
Engulfed with chaos in Europe, Germany had suffered a humiliating defeat. Author George Huaco, in his book, The Sociology of Film Art, explains after World War I Germany faced various social, political, and economic problems due to the outcomes of the war. In …show more content…
As stated before, the war caused people to move away from their personal problems and focus more on the outcomes of universal catastrophe which caused the rise of expressionism (Huaco 34). In films, reality was emotionally expressed through horror, fear, degradation, sadness, and oppression. Everything feels gloomy, depressing, and sympathetic towards the movie characters. The movement was a calling for help in their current society. The major themes are crime, tyranny, torture, and death. The settings are created from diagonal and jagged lines. The objects were oddly shaped and placed in weird angles that were resized from their normal dimensions (Klinge 106). Characters are in an ill psychological state they have gothic makeup and costume as well as their use of exaggerated movements. Hard edged, dark shadows, and color tinting are the lighting for the film style. For example, in Caligari, the coloring was blue, sepia, rose, and green which differentiated night and day and represents the different moods. (Barsam 444). According to the article, German Expressionism, the shadow becomes the storyteller by reflecting the character's actions as shown in Nosferatu and a technique used by Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho (1960) in which Norman Bates shadow is seen through the shower curtain. Nature was completely ignored and they avoided realism for it could ruin the
Engulfed with chaos in Europe, Germany had suffered a humiliating defeat. Author George Huaco, in his book, The Sociology of Film Art, explains after World War I Germany faced various social, political, and economic problems due to the outcomes of the war. In …show more content…
As stated before, the war caused people to move away from their personal problems and focus more on the outcomes of universal catastrophe which caused the rise of expressionism (Huaco 34). In films, reality was emotionally expressed through horror, fear, degradation, sadness, and oppression. Everything feels gloomy, depressing, and sympathetic towards the movie characters. The movement was a calling for help in their current society. The major themes are crime, tyranny, torture, and death. The settings are created from diagonal and jagged lines. The objects were oddly shaped and placed in weird angles that were resized from their normal dimensions (Klinge 106). Characters are in an ill psychological state they have gothic makeup and costume as well as their use of exaggerated movements. Hard edged, dark shadows, and color tinting are the lighting for the film style. For example, in Caligari, the coloring was blue, sepia, rose, and green which differentiated night and day and represents the different moods. (Barsam 444). According to the article, German Expressionism, the shadow becomes the storyteller by reflecting the character's actions as shown in Nosferatu and a technique used by Alfred Hitchcock in Psycho (1960) in which Norman Bates shadow is seen through the shower curtain. Nature was completely ignored and they avoided realism for it could ruin the