German Expressionist Cinema

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP3WDQXkJq4

German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements

beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin,
during the 1920s. These developments in Germany were part of a larger
Expressionist movement in north and central European culture in fields such as
architecture, painting and cinema. German Expressionist painting produced a
great number of works, and led to Neo-expressionism.

The German Expressionist movement was largely confined to Germany due to

the isolation the country experienced during World War I. In 1916, the
government had banned more foreign films in the nation. The demand from
theaters to generate films led film production to rise from 24 films (1914) to
130 films (1918). With inflation on the rise, Germans were attending films more
freely because they knew that their money's worth was constantly diminishing.
[2]

By 1922 the international audience had begun to appreciate German cinema,

in part due to a decreasing anti-German sentiment following the end of World
War I. By the time the 1916 ban on imports was lifted, Germany had become a
part of the international film industry.[2]

Various European cultures of the 1920s embraced an ethic of change, and a

willingness to look to the future by experimenting with bold, new ideas and
artistic styles. The first Expressionist films made up for a lack of lavish budgets
by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd sets, along
with designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and
objects. The Schfftan process used in Blade Runner and many other films has
provided directors a great way of putting actors into a miniature set.

As well as characters and sets The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari is also well known
for being a classic example of chiaroscuro. Chiaroscuro is derived from the
Italian words bright (chiaro) and dark (oscuro) and this term is often linked
with German Expressionism due to its strong contrasts between light and dark.

The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness,
insanity, betrayal, and other "intellectual" topics (as opposed to standard
action-adventure and romantic films).

Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German

Expressionism include Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), both directed by Fritz
Lang. This trend was a direct reaction against realism. Its practitioners used
extreme distortions in expression to show an inner emotional reality rather
than what is on the surface.[

During the 1920's, Hollywood cinematographers and designers visited German

studios in order to pick up tips on the use of models.

Directors such as Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, Woody

Allen, Ridley Scott, Tim Burton and many more have been affected and inspired
by the movement.

Roman Polanski re-made Nosferatu with The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967),
Francis Ford Coppola made and worked with the same themes in Dracula
(1992), Aleksandre Sokurov has remade F. W Maurnaus Faust (1926) with a
movie of the same name in 2011 and in 1991 Woody Allen made Shadows and
Fog a homage to Fritz Lang, Georg Wilhelm Pabst and F. W Marnau.

http://mubi.com/lists/german-expressionism-the-world-of-light-and-shadow

Here are some links to very good articles;

Hudson, David. Where the Horror Came From. GreenCine, 2002.

http://www.greencine.com/article?action=view&articleID=55

Hudson, David. German Expressionism. GreenCine,

http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/expressionism1.jsp

http://mubi.com/topics/is-the-french-new-wave-still-relevant-today

http://suite101.com/a/info-on-german-expressionist-films-a55137
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/expressionism1.jsp

http://whartonesherickmuseum.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/the-influence-of-
german-expressionism-on-filmmakers-and-an-outhouse/