German Expressionism Film

1. Exercise: Think–Pair–Share
• David Cook points out that the “nightmarishly distorted decor of German
Expressionist films and their creation of Stimmung (mood) […] were expressive
of the disturbed mental and emotional states they sought to portray.”
• Write about one specific element (visual composition, angle/shape, set design, lighting,
character, costume) that you feel contributes most to Stimmung.
German Expressionism

2. German Expressionism
• Expressionism: attempt to represent the artist’s
interior reality through the means of exterior
reality
– subjective evocation and not an objective view
• Deep and fearful concern with the foundations of
the self
– Postwar obsession with doom
• Distortion in visual composition
– distortion, angularity, extreme verticals and
diagonals; cluttered and claustrophobic
compositions
– accord to states of anxiety, uncertainty, and terror;
they create a hypnotic and nightmarish world;
– mise-en-scene, lighting, focus, angles
• Chiaroscuro (i.e. dark/light), a stark visual
contrast between shadow and light. An abstract
clash of forces, shapes, and tonalities;
– Acting is stylized and highly gesticulatory; on the
other hand, characters sometimes fade into the
scenery and becomes functions of set design and
architecture;

3. German Expressionism
• Kracauer
– Visual Excellence
• impressive settings; action and
lighting; mobile camera
• Moreover, integration
– Zeitgeist
• criticism in which films are seen
to reflect the moods, thoughts
and feelings of their time
• expressions of contemporary
German life

4. German Industry
• By the mid-1920s, the technical
proficiency of the German film
surpassed any other in the world.
– freed the camera
• 1924-26 - Ufa sought to challenge
Hollywood with monumental films
– Metropolis cost more than 5
million marks ($1.2 million)

5. German Industry
• Financial miscalculation - German market was
too small to earn back the production costs,
foreign sales were uncertain, and little success in
the United States
• Hollywood's moguls raced each other to Berlin in
December 1925 to stake a claim on Ufa.
– Paramount, MGM, and Ufa entered into a
joint distribution organization, Parufamet
• IF the films “suit the tastes of American
moviegoers.“
• Drastic re-edits of Metropolis for US
release
• Immigration to America
– Murnau, Lang, Jannings, Lorre
• German expressionist films declined quickly after
1925

6. Metropolis
• What vision is reflected in Lang’s
film?
– Modernism
• New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit)
– Future organization of society
• technologically dependent
• Industrialization: Machine
– Schüfftan process shots/stop motion
• Class: stark differences in have and
have-nots
– Workers’ monotonous marching
– Time
• Clock motif

7. Metropolis
• Expressionism
– Plot
• Rotwang and
robot
– Expressionist
imagery, set
design
• Cathedral
• Rotwang’s
house
• catacombs
• dystopian and
gothic
– lighting and
contrast

8. Metropolis
• Acting - exaggerated
movements of both Rotwang
and Freder
– Freder the moderating heart
- exaggerated, whimsical
movements
• Freder's hyper-emotional,
impassioned reactions and
gestures display a "feminine"
aspect of his character.
– Rotwang mad scientist -
jerky and overstated,
reflecting manic state of
mind.
• Hypermasculinity

9. Metropolis
• Socialist or Fascist?
– Ufa Board of Directors
distributors were to show
Metropolis "in the American
version [.. .] after deleting as
many intertitles as possible with
communist overtones“
• “The new tower of Babel
(became) an architecture of
ruins.”
– Kracauer argued the German
Expressionism predicted the
rise of fascism in the 1930s
• narratives about malevolent
methods of control
• mad scientists or industrialists
without empathy
– Hitler’s Film: Mediation of the
Fuhrer, who, like Freder in
Metropolis, combines
• the will of the father (the "skull
of steel")
• the eternal-feminine spirit and
emotions of the mother (the
"soft-heart").