Art in Cinema: Expressionism

As an art form, Expressionism existed before moving pictures had even been developed, most notably in painting and poetry. It distorted reality, sometimes hideously, to evoke moods and emotions not dramatically portrayable in a conservative or classical fashion. These aesthetics and ideas had a huge impact on cinema as it burgeoned, most notably in the 1920s in Germany, with a legacy that remains to this day.

In the 1920s, German Expressionism was a dominant international genre of cinema, and one which became very influential. Phantom, M., Metropolis, Nosferatu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari are perhaps the most famous. As its name would suggest, it drew directly from Expressionism. Stylistically, the warped shapes translated on-screen to promote a feeling of fevered excess. Buildings are slanted, walls jagged. The lighting is haunting chiaroscuro: dark and light juxtaposed in extremity. Even the characters are fevered in personality and appearance, because they are victims of hypnosis and mental illness. These aesthetics were all expressionist: visuals representing the internal.

Madness expressed on Peter Lorre's tortured face in M., a perfect example of the internal forced outward

The twisted scenery is like an unsettling Expressionist painting: life is not supposed to appear realistic, rather one facet of it is exaggerated to allow the audience to really feel it 

The silent epic Metropolis is a notable example, about a dystopian industrial city. It taps into ideas of Modernism, a type of Expressionism which took a dynamic vision of a powerful new age. It should be noted that this modernity was usually negative in Expressionist cinema, foreshadowing the rise of Fascism. Fritz Lang’s powerful tale M., about a child killer, was said to represent national fears about the uncontrollable rise of the far-right.

Notice the similarities between this futurist sculpture by Italian artist Umberto Boccioni...

...and the robot in Metropolis.

This genre was linked with the formation of horror of the 1920s, which benefited from and exaggerated the fevered nightmare of twisted aesthetics and appalling evil of its characters. Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari are the two most famous examples.

Terrifying chiaroscuro to demonstrate evil: the ill-intent of the character is projected out onto the shadows

This twisted cityscape from Dr. Caligari similarly represents the character's internal nightmare.

This in turn led into the horror of early 1930s Hollywood- the first era of sound horror. It also drew on the Gothic, taking its elements which matched the terrifying visuals of Expressionism. Films like Dracula and Frankenstein are so famous that they are clichés, stripped of any real terror. They influenced the horror genre thereon as it evolved, so any movie that you see now like Saw can be traced back to early Expressionism.

A new horror: This castle scene from Dracula is an aesthetic cocktail of German Expressionism as above...

...and this Gothic painting by Romantic artist Caspar Friedrich

German Expressionism span in another direction: Film Noir. An immensely popular genre (some would say more of a style), this was around in the 1940s and 1950s in Hollywood, appropriating the sombre visuals of Expressionism to reflect contemporary fears of Nazism, Communism, domestic transformation and global upheaval. Many of the directors of the early Expressionism, like Fritz Lang and Robert Siodmak, went to Hollywood and pioneered Noir.

A grotesque Orson Welles in the final Noir, Touch of Evil. Visually, it is not hard to see the inspiration

The Third Man

The Big Combo's Finale
Ending: Pinnacle of  Noir Expressionism.
Film: Nothing special.

The greatest ever director, Alfred Hitchcock, borrowed heavily from German Expressionism (or ‘was inspired by’, whatever you’d rather say). He was learning his trade as Expressionism ripped through European cinema, and if it made an impression (expression?) on him, then its surely worth its suspense salt.

M.? Actually, it's The Man Who Knew Too Much (the original, not the more famous remake- James Stewart had a different look)

A real gothic image in The Lodger

Incredibly famous still from Hitchcock's crowning glory, Psycho

Which is very similar to Edvard Much's equally recognisable Expressionist painting The Scream. Both of these images express the total horror of emotional trauma, but were created almost 70 years apart.

In recent decades, examples of Expressionism’s legacy are numerous. Horror, of course, is one: the gothic genre is still around, like last year's The Woman in Black. Neo-Noir films, like Drive, L.A. Confidential and Chinatown, all consciously mimic Noir, and so unconsciously do the same with the previous decades of Expressionism.

A far cry from Nosferatu...

...but a descendant nonetheless

Science fiction extended ideas of futurism, although usually with a dystopian slant, just as it did in Metropolis.

Blade Runner's city

An update of Metropolis'?

Tim Burton is a modern filmmaker who draws directly on the unsettling visuals of early Expressionism, his often leading man Johnny Depp providing the bizarre characters that Peter Lorre could once have played

Perhaps cinema hasn't changed quite so much. The right hand image is much like the above still of Dr. Caligari, while the left could be any monster of early horror.

So Expressionism, with its warped reality, its haunted insides forced out, and its terrified look forward, found a haven in cinema. Although it peaked decades ago, the legacy of Expressionist cinema should not be underestimated, infiltrating in ways which we do not realise.