German Expressionism: Part 1

Everyone knows there are hundreds of thousands of different movies out there. All screenwriters different, and while narratives and themes may be recycled, the vision behind it remains unique every time. Film has always been about entertainment and art, as its roots spawn from theatre. In early film this is obvious, with proscenium-style cinematography and over the top acting. If you are new to silent films and want to see what I’m talking about, watch early mainstream films like A Trip To The Moon (1902) The Great Train Robbery (1903) or Frankenstein (1910) to understand it. These are classic examples of the industry in its baby steps.

In the early 20th century the motion picture industry was renowned across the world, as there were no languages to speak on film, and most pictures could be understood in different countries. No spoken dialogue meant that visuals had to be very appealing and obvious, and with the previously mentioned roots in theatre, early films really cheesed in the set design, makeup, and performances. Even though the cinema giants were primarily France and the United States, countries like Russia, England, Japan, Italy, and Germany made films respectively. And let me tell you, film wasn’t the only thing these boys had in common during the early 1900s.

Ah yes.

The Great War saw the birth of propaganda through film, namely American anti-German creations. The rest of the world was damaged by World War 1, as most European countries saw their battles on home soil (which is why the US managed to keep it going), and out of all of them, Germany got hit below the belt pretty hard. The film companies in Germany were absorbed into patriotic propaganda just like most of the world, but a few independent studios managed to live. These studios had no idea what was about to happen for them.

German cinema during and after the war took a pretty odd left turn right before parallel parking backwards and upside down. Films became darker in tone and story, characters became grim and twisted, and scenery followed right behind. These films focused on character-heavy narratives and plots, rather than relying on visuals to keep audiences in. This was known as autorenfilm which can be translated literally to “author film,” but is an umbrella term that incorporates characters, experiences, feelings, and sensations.

Cool.

Anyways combine this storytelling with the developed “unchained camera” technique, filmmakers had a new method to grab the attention of moviegoers. No longer did we have a filmed theatre experience with a stagnant wide shot, but now the camera could be placed within the scene, putting us right there with the characters. Film was nearly emancipated from theatre. One movie you should check out that used these methods was Der Student von Prag (1913) which incorporated the early technique of the unchained technique.

Der Student von Prag (1913)

So then Germany lost the war.

The control over German cinema (Universum-Film Aktiengesellschaft but hey let’s call it UFA) became intense, as it was surprisingly the only European country that had a motion picture industry that could compete with America. While the rest of Germany plummeted head first into the dark, German film survived. Much like any form of art, German cinema provided the citizens of the newly formed republic with an escape from post-war sad hours (the Weimar period). The government saw this, and made a push for UFA to release films that were vibrant in visuals, and combined with the unchained technique. With UFA having absorbed all the major studios, independent filmmakers were kind of given the middle finger, and the production of a film separate from UFA seemed impossible.

But it happened anyways.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, or if you know a thing or two about silent film, you’ll know it as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). This film is one of two that I would hail as the perfect German expressionism film, because this one damn near started the movement.

Big spoiler ahead. The piece is a character study as a whole, with a personal political commentary about post-war authoritarianism in Germany. The main character Francis believes a somnambulist, controlled by the insane Dr. Caligari, is being used to murder and is going to attempt to murder his fiancée. The film travels the murderer thriller path up until the twist at the end, when it is revealed that Francis is an inmate in an insane asylum, and the characters in the story are fellow inmates, with the villainous Dr. Caligari being the asylum director. So who do we believe?

The writers Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz were clear that the film was based on aspects of their entire lives, but took some elements of their experiences in World War 1. The story paired with eccentric visuals made a film that changed German cinema: all from a small independent studio that had to rely on power rations and sub par equipment.

eat, baby bird

The aesthetic of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was just as important to the success of this film as the themes were. If you’ve seen the film, you wouldn’t forget it, as the mise-en-scène shifted from the realistic norm, to the new expressionistic experiment. As Germany was still recovering from war, the production was done 100% in a studio, locked away from the outside. The buildings were twisted and pointed, the painted-on lighting was moody, the makeup was sickly and made the characters look dead-it was new. Upon first viewing, one would think that this film is just visually pleasing, and a reflection of the director Robert Wiene’s artistic integrity. But at the end of the film, it becomes more than just that.

This set was the stuff of nightmares.

The visuals were so distorted because the plot is conveyed through Francis entirely. In certain points of the film, the set may seem completely normal, and in other points, it’s outrageous and nightmarish. Look at Francis’ state of mind during those different scenes: one set may represent his current tranquility, while another set is shown when his life may feel like it’s one big bad dream. And maybe it is; Francis is an asylum inmate after all. The sets are not only the reflection of the director’s view, but they are how resembling how Francis, who is potentially mentally ill, genuinely sees the world. This added a new layer on filmmaking techniques: to make the story resemble the inner pits of a character’s mind, and confuse the hell out of the audience.

And that's what expressionism is: an artist creating a work to "express" (wink wink) the turmoil and distress of their inner mind, rather than reflect the realistic surface of the world around them.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was hailed critically upon release, and it has been widely considered as the birth of mainstream German expressionism in film. Now narratives could focus more on current political issues, without being a propaganda film entirely. Luckily for us, the film was not destroyed, and is available on DVD, but the entire film can actually be found on YouTube, as the film falls under public domain. I would recommend watching the film as it shows the obvious reasons as to why the picture was so innovative. You can find a plethora of films inspired by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, including that of Dracula (1931), The Babadook (2014), and literally anything Tim Burton made before 2010.

This film is important to where the industry went after its release, and I think that without it, cinema as a respected art might have been stuck in its developmental stages for a lot longer. But it isn’t the only one. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari birthed mainstream German expressionism, but in Zweiter Teil of this article, I’m going to talk about the film that made the genre unforgettable, and where expressionism moved afterwards.

Part 2

Thank you very much for checking out this article if you have. I understand it's a longer one, and not a lot of people may be keen on the history lesson, but anyone who loves film as an art, and not a corporation, should understand one of the most intricate and personal genres there ever was.

This is Nathan D. Gonder. See you next time.