NationMaster - Encyclopedia: German Expressionist

German Expressionism, also referred to as expressionism in filmmaking, developed in Germany (especially Berlin) during the 1920s. During the period of recovery following World War I, the German film industry was booming, but because of the hard economic times filmmakers found it difficult to create movies that could compare with the lush, extravagant features coming from Hollywood. The filmmakers of the German UFA studio developed a method of compensating for the lack of high budgets, by using symbolism and mise-en-scène to insert mood and deeper meaning into a movie. Nosferatu (picture from movie which is in the public domain) This image has been released into the public domain by the copyright holder, its copyright has expired, or it is ineligible for copyright. ... F W Murnau Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (December 28, 1888 – March 11, 1931) was one of the most influential directors of the silent film era. ... Max Schreck as Count Orlok Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (A Symphony of Horrors in German) is a German Expressionist film originally shot in 1922 by F.W. Murnau. ... The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) which inspired 20th century Expressionists Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele Rehe im Walde by Franz Marc On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ... Marlene Dietrich in the 1920s The Golden Twenties, in Berlin, Germany, were an exciting and extremely vibrant time in the history of Berlin, German history, and European history in general. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machine guns, and poison gas. ... ... Ufas coat of arms Ufa city(view from Yakutov park) Monument of Friendship between Bashkiria and Russia Salawat Yulayev - a Bashkir national hero A mosque in Ufa. ... In film theory, mise-en-scène [mizA~sEn] refers to everything that is to appear before the camera and its arrangement -- sets, props, actors, costumes, camera movements and performances. ... Mood may refer to: chese Grammatical mood Emotional mood This is a disambiguation page, a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...

The first Expressionist films, notably The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Golem (1920), and Nosferatu (1922) were highly symbolic and deliberately surrealistic portrayals of filmed stories. The dada movement was sweeping across the artistic world in the early 1920s, and the various European cultures of the time had 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 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); the German name for this type of storytelling was called kammerspielfilm. Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German Expressionism include Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), both directed by Fritz Lang. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Kabinett des Dr. caligari in German) is a groundbreaking 1919 silent film directed by Robert Wiene. ... 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Golem is a novel written by Gustav Meyrink in 1914. ... 1920 (MCMXX) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar) // Events January January 7 - Forces of Russian White admiral Kolchak surrender in Krasnoyarsk. ... Max Schreck as Count Orlok Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (A Symphony of Horrors in German) is a German Expressionist film originally shot in 1922 by F.W. Murnau. ... 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Dadaism or Dada is a post-World War I cultural movement in visual art as well as literature (mainly poetry), theatre and graphic design. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 kmÂ² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... Insanity, or madness, is a semi-permanent, severe mental disorder typically stemming from a form of mental illness. ... An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, or speculate on a variety of different ideas. ... Metropolis Metropolis is a science fiction film produced in Germany set in a futuristic urban dystopia. ... 1927 (MCMXXVII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Peter Lorre in M M (original title: M- Eine Stadt sucht einen MÃ¶rder (translation: M- a city in search of a murderer)) is a 1931 German film noir directed by Fritz Lang and written by Thea von Harbou in which a serial killer, played by Peter Lorre, preys on... 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Fritz Lang Friedrich Anton Christian Lang (December 5, 1890 - August 2, 1976) was an Austrian film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known emigrÃ©s from Germanys school of expressionism to work in Hollywood. ...

The extreme non-realism of Expressionism was a brief-lived fad, however, and it faded away (along with Dadaism) after only a few years. However, the themes of Expressionism were integrated into later films of the 1920s and 1930s, resulting in an artistic control over the placement of scenery, light, and shadow to enhance the mood of a film. This dark, moody school of filmmaking was brought to America when the Nazis gained power and a number of German filmmakers emigrated to Hollywood. They found a number of American movie studios willing to embrace them, and several of the German directors and cameramen flourished, producing a repertoire of Hollywood films that had a profound effect on the medium of film as a whole. Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America and in Australia as the Roaring Twenties . In Europe it is sometimes refered to as the Golden Twenties. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nazism. ... ...

Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism were the horror film and film noir. Carl Laemmle and Universal Studios had made a name for themselves by producing such famous horror films of the silent era as Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera. German emigrees such as Karl Freund (the cinematographer for Dracula in 1931) set the style and mood of the Universal monster movies of the 1930s with their dark and artistically designed sets, providing the benchmark for later generations of horror films. Meanwhile, such directors as Fritz Lang and Michael Curtiz introduced the Expressionist style to the crime dramas of the 1940s, influencing a further line of filmmakers and taking Expressionism through the years. DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... This still from The Big Combo (1955) demonstrates the visual style of film noir at its most extreme. ... Carl Laemmle ( January 17, 1867, Laupheim, Württemberg, Germany – September 24, 1939, Beverly Hills, California) was a pioneer in American film making and a founder of one of the original major Hollywood movie studios. ... Universal Studios is a Hollywood film production and distribution company, controlled by General Electric Corporation. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera Lon Chaney, Sr. ... Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera The 1925 film version of The Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney, Sr. ... Karl W. Freund (January 16, 1890-May 3, 1969) was a German cinematographer who worked on over 100 films, including Metropolis (1927), Dracula (1931), and Key Largo (1948). ... Bela Lugosi as Dracula; U.S. postage stamp Count Dracula is a fictional character, unarguably the most famous vampire in literature. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Fritz Lang Friedrich Anton Christian Lang (December 5, 1890 - August 2, 1976) was an Austrian film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known emigrÃ©s from Germanys school of expressionism to work in Hollywood. ... Michael Curtiz (December 24, 1886 - April 10, 1962) was a film director, whose films include The Adventures of Robin Hood, Casablanca, and White Christmas. ... // Events and trends The 1940s were seen as a transition period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s, which also leads the period to be divided in two halves: The first half of the decade was dominated by World War II, the widest and most destructive armed conflict in...

Tim Burton's 1992 film Batman Returns is often cited as a modern attempt at this style. The film version of Sin City (2005) is also cited as a return to the style although its look owes more to emulating the original comic book. Timothy William Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an eccentric film director known for his off-beat and quirky style. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Batman Returns is both the second Tim Burton Batman movie and the second Batman film starring Michael Keaton as the title character. ... Sin City is a 2005 neo-noir film based on the graphic novels of the same name, directed by Robert Rodriguez. ... 2005 (MMV) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

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