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Early film movements

Verantwortlicher Autor: Sharon Oppenheimer Tel Aviv, 12.07.2021, 20:13 Uhr
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Tel Aviv [ENA] One of the earliest of film movements was German Expressionism. German expressionism began in the early days of film, at the beginning of the twentieth century. During the First World War expressionism found its stride, and by the early twenties it had peaked. Two of the most recognizable expressionist films are Nosferatu in1922, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in1920.

Nosferatu and Dr. Caligari, like most other expressionist films of the period, were horror films. This led the way for some of the classic Hollywood monsters of the thirties and forties. This wasn’t the only way that expressionist films helped to inspire Hollywood. There have been many other Hollywood productions that take example from German Expressionism. One of the most famous modern directors, Tim Burton, has made several movies that have many striking similarities to classic expressionist cinema. Burton’s film Sleepy Hollow (1999) is one of the most recognizable examples of modern expressionism that takes inspiration from German films of the twenties.

When watching one of these classics the first thing that the eye catches is the extensive set design and use of lighting. There is heavy use of shadow that can often be compared to film noir of the forties. Like film noir, one can see the shadows as their own character, which plays an important part in the film. The creators of Dr. Caligari realized this and even went so far as to paint shadows onto the set in order to obtain the desired look. The shadowed lighting also emphasizes the obscure sets. These sets are very unique and were rarely seen before the creation of expressionist cinemas. In Nosferatu the shadow of Orlok is shown almost as much as the character himself is shown, which is a technique still seen in horror films today.

Many contemporary film sets of towns and rural areas maintained realism, attempting to recreate how the area may have actually looked. Expressionist sets ignore this and go for complete creativity. This can be seen in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which had an extensive use of unique sets and backdrops. There are several scenes from Caligari where abstract and uneven sets play an important role in the structure of the film. For instance, several scenes set on city streets highlight the unusual buildings and help to intensify the unease that the film conveys.

When Expressionism died is still up for debate. Some critiques say it started to lose steam in the mid-1920s because its abstractedness both of language and concept was difficult to understand to a majority of the public. It is sure, however, that the rise of the Third Reich, which dabbed all modernistic art as degenerated, whipped it away. And so Expressionism, which was the defining visual form of the Weimar Republic, died together with it.

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