Expressionist Film

1. LECTURE TWO: The early ExpressionistCinema : fairy tales, magic and the mysterious shadow world of early Weimar HF2025N Europe meets Hollywood

2. Weimar Cinema: 1919 - 1933 First aim of module is to explore Weimar cinema as a national cinema Later we will look at the transnational connections What does Weimar refer to? The German cinema (in its broadest sense) from 1919 to 1933 (corresponds to the ‘Weimar Republic’, which was the first democratically elected national government that Germany had encountered)

3. Map of the Weimar Republic

4. ‘Weimar cinema’ vs ‘Expressionist film’ WEIMAR CINEMA Stresses political and ideological aspects of the period and acknowledges aspects of the film’s reception. Term which embraces all forms of filmmaking during the period. ‘Expressionism’ just one of these.

5. Why study Weimar cinema? ‘Golden age’ Key era for development of film as artistic and avant-garde medium Strong influence on subsequent film production Important and exciting era for all the arts, including those closely related to cinema, such as visual arts, architecture, photography, dance MODERNISM

6. Weimar culture: period of intense and brilliant creativity in the arts Kurt Schwitters

7. Georg Grosz

8. Key directors and films of the era Robert Wiene ( The Cabinet of Dr Caligari )

9. Fritz Lang ( Metropolis , M , Destiny , Dr Mabuse )

10. Metropolis 2

11. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau ( The Last Laugh , Nosferatu , Faust )

12. Nosferatu programme

13. Georg Wilhelm Pabst ( Pandora’s Box , Diary of a Lost Girl , The Joyless Street )

14. Paul Wegener ( The Golem )

15. ‘Weimar cinema’ vs ‘Expressionist film’ EXPRESSIONIST FILM Specific type of film which came to the fore in the early Weimar period Modernist Art movement (early 20th century) Term stresses the formal or aesthetic aspects of film production with emphasis on the author or director Strongly evident in the first few years of the Republic, 1918 – 1923) Film as an art form

16. Art movement Abstraction, fragmentation, distortion Focus is on the expression of psychological rather than physical realism Expressionism

17. From Impressionism to Expressionism Impressionism (late 1800s) Claude Monet Expressionism (early 1900s) Wassily Kandinsky

18. Romanticism (early 1800s) Closer connection to Expressionism Caspar David Friedrich 1818

19. Prestige art films aimed at raising profile and reputation of the German film at home and abroad Artistically ambitious Pushing the boundaries of what film could achieve aesthetically and thematically Prefigured avant-garde film as well as Hollywood genre films (horror, film noir, family melodrama for example) Expressionist films

20. The outsider/insider Doppelgänger (doubles) Narrative structure: Oedipal scenarios (rebellion followed by submission to the law of the father) lack of continuity of narrative (interiority) Sources from other media (literature; theatre: Max Reinhardt) Intertexuality Scratching beneath the surface of reality and fantasy, appearances and disguise Anxiety; Insanity; Uncanny; Ghostly Features of the Expressionist film: thematics

21. Set designs: Artificiality Painterly Angular Shapes Fragmentary Distorted perspectives Features of the Expressionist film: aesthetics/style

22. Action: Emotional Unnatural Jerky movement Exaggerated gestures Fragmentary Features of the Expressionist film: aesthetics/style

23. Lighting: Soft light Hard keylight Chiaroscuro (single key light from the side ) Extract from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari : What aspects of Expressionism can you recognise? Features of the Expressionist film: aesthetics/style