German Expressionism was a film movement of the 1920s characterized by distorted sets and lighting that conveyed psychological states. Key elements included chiaroscuro lighting, reflective surfaces, and themes of madness and betrayal. Fritz Lang was an important German Expressionist director who fled Nazi Germany for America. His films reflected the style and themes of German Expressionism. Film noir emerged in the 1940s-50s and was influenced by German Expressionism. It featured dark themes of paranoia and amnesia reflecting post-war society. Elements like canted angles and lighting techniques carried over from earlier styles and still influence modern horror films.

2. What is German Expressionism?
They were films which used asymmetrical camera angles,
atmospheric lighting and high contrast between dark and light.
After World War I, the German film industry was mostly
dominated by imported film from countries such as Sweden.
Some formal elements of German Expressionism mise-en-scene
were: chiaroscuro lighting (extreme contrast of light and dark
which creates shadows), preoccupation with mirror, glass and
other reflective surfaces and finally the way that humans react
to non-human things. The thematic ideas of German
Expressionism would be the madness, insanity and betrayal.

3. Fritz Lang
An important director that I have studied is, Fritz Lang. Fritz
Lang had a very interesting life. He was born in a Jewish family,
however when Lang was ten his mother Catholicism. That is
one of the reasons to why he was an Anti-Nazi. In 1915 he has
joined the army to fight in the World War I. However a year
later he got severely injured and that is when he started writing
different film scenarios. Due to him being an Anti-Nazi, he
moved to America. Due to him being German, he received class
B movies, which tend to be low budget crime dramas. The
German Expressionism started in Germany and when German
people were trying to move away from Germany due to Hitler,
they have brought it to America. German Expressionism
reflected Film Noir. Cinema has evolved as the following:
German Expressionism Film B class Film Noir Modern Horror

5. What is Film Noir?
Film noir is a movie genre which sets out the mood, style, point
of view or tone of a movie. All movies have a femme fatale
character, an eager detective willing to solve the case, however
he doesn’t have enough clues to help him. This type of movie
has canted camera angles, deep-focus shots and high contrast
lighting. Film noir was applied by a group of French critics to
American thrillers and detective films which were made during
the period of 1944-1945 during the World War II. When
Hollywood went noir, this was a way to reflect the weary and
wised-up current of mid-century America. During this period
women would often find themselves doing jobs that men
would normally do. This is why in Film Noir the women would
turn out to be the villains. This also reflected the change in the
society, as men would have to be in war and women were left
behind. As this happened women wanted their independence
and become equal to men as their can do their jobs.

6. What does Film Noire represent?
Some of the themes that Noir used were: fear, lack of trust,
blackness, loss, despair and paranoia. All of these reflect the
sadness that the war left behind. This links to why there were
very few noir films which has happy endings. The storyline of a
film noir would tend to be non-linear and twisting. One
common narrative would be that the hero would be suffering
from amnesia. The thematic sense of the film noir was to show
the dark and inhumane side of human nature which was
showed through the doomed love, the emphasis of the
unhealthy, seamy and shadowy sadistic sides of what a human
could experience. German Expressionism has influenced film
noir, because both types of film were trying to show the
sadness and loss that occurred after the war but also the
change in society as women had rights and were seen
differently in the society then were before the war.

8. What are the influences?
German Expressionism and Film Noir have played an important part in
the development of the horror that we know today. There are movies
that use the effects that film noir used. There are horror films today
which use a canted camera angle in order to add more effect to a
chasing scene. As mentioned in the previous slides, film noir is showing
the change in society but also the loss that occurred during the World
War II. In the movie Edward Scissorhands (1990), there are hints of
German Expressionism. The movie is about a young man who has been
living in a ‘scary’ looking house where no one has dared to enter and
has been taken into care by a woman who has taken care of him and
introduced him into the society. There were two sides of people. Some
that liked him and some that didn’t. Furthermore this movie is trying to
show the way that society sees un-human things, which they thought
Edward was. The setting that Edward is found in dark and cold. Hints of
the film noir genre can be seen in the movie Abraham Lincoln: Vampire
Hunter (2012). The scenes are mostly set in the dark and there are
always silhouettes coming out of the bushes or wherever they were
hiding. Deep focus shots are used within this movie in order to
emphasise a conversation or for the viewer to see the facial expressions
of the characters while a conversation is taking place.

9. What are the influences?
There are movies which use low-key lighting in order to show
the darker side of people but it could also show that they are
upset. This type of lighting also comes from the German
expressionism. There are horror themed movies which have
paranoia, madness as well as psychosis which is from the
German Expressionism era when people were under Hitler’s
control,, they were helpless and ended up feeling powerless
and unable to do anything to stop the madness that was taking
place. This is used in slasher movies because madness can take
control of people and have them end up being unpredictable
characters and could end up being the killers. Even in the
movies today, we could spot the Film Noire influences. There
are movies which use the femme fatale character.