Weekly Theme

Weekly Theme for May 4: Express Yourself!!

Yet another theme that I've been wanting to do for a while now. I'd like to talk this week about expressionistic film. I think maybe we should try to define it first. I'm probably not the best person for this, I think you could pretty accurately call expressionism an art movement, started in Germany in the early 20th century in which reality (the world) is distorted in order to reflect emotion..... Still with me? Its pretty easy to understand once examples are used so let's start that.

As I said earlier, this art form was started in Germany so naturally, early German films are great examples. Think of the buildings and backdrops of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Metropolis. In the former, the buildings were all standing twisted and sideways to display a chaotic and unnerving feel. While in the ladder, the city was very much larger than life and completely oppressive.

Later, many German directors like Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang moved to the states and continued their expressionistic style in the film noir vein with films like Double Indemnity and The Big Heat respectively. Film noir is really defined as an expressionistic film movement as a whole. Filmmakers used smoke and fog in the shots to lend more of an unsettling and suspicious feel to the films.

** from Double Indemnity - notice venetian blind shadow give the "behind bars" look **

Director Tim Burton has somewhat rehashed and revamped expressionism in modern films. His sets for Gotham in Batman and Batman Returns are throwbacks to the earlier looks of the German films. Edward Scissorhands' costume and set are both very exaggerated in their look to add a stark contrast to the character backdrop relationship.

There is one more film I'd like to mention that fits this catagory to a T. But, I will wait until later in the hopes that someone else mentions it first. I will only say that its a film that came out within the past 15 years and its an obvious homage to one of the early German films. I really would like to see someone else mention it before I do.

So there you have it. I absolutely love this theme and I hope I've given y'all something at least to think about.

Re:Weekly Theme for May 4: Express Yourself!!

Great post leeroy. I never gave much thought to the relationship of artistic style between some of the films you mentioned. I haven't seen the Big Heat yet, but that one is definitely on my list of things to watch, eventually. =)

I wonder if any of Christopher Nolan's work, such as the Prestige would fit into this expressionistic category of films.

Oh and I was also thinking of V for Vendetta. To me V is a great film, but I definitely think it could be part of the expressionism style of films. Or maybe I just don't understand what that means. =)

Re:Weekly Theme for May 4: Express Yourself!!

M is probably the film that stands out as one of the great Expressionist films made. It's such a creative, thrilling film; something which surprised me when I first saw it years ago as I hadn't seen too many films pre-1950 and those that I had I couldn't really get a feeling for.

Some of the noir films that I have loved and which embrace a certain amount of Expressionistic ideas are The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon, Gilda and Sunset Boulevard.

Hitchcock utilized Expressionist techniques in pretty much all of his films: Psycho and Vertigo being my favorite.

Aside from Batman and Batman Returns, which I LOVE, Dark City is another recent film that tried to recapture the overall feeling of an authentic German Expressionist film.

Saving the best for last: Nosferatu. I just can't get enough of this movie and it gives me the willies every time I watch it. As I'm sure everyone who watches it describes it, it is hauntingly beautiful. Like M, the filmmaker combined such startling techniques with an interesting story and their power has not diminished in the decades since their initial release.

Re:Weekly Theme for May 4: Express Yourself!!

mercurial:

M is probably the film that stands out as one of the great Expressionist films made. It's such a creative, thrilling film; something which surprised me when I first saw it years ago as I hadn't seen too many films pre-1950 and those that I had I couldn't really get a feeling for.

 

Hitchcock utilized Expressionist techniques in pretty much all of his films: Psycho and Vertigo being my favorite.

Aside from Batman and Batman Returns, which I LOVE, Dark City is another recent film that tried to recapture the overall feeling of an authentic German Expressionist film.

 

Yes yes! M is probably in my top 5 all time favorite films. I had never really thought about Hitchcock as an expressionist but now that you mention it, the house on the top of the hill in Psycho is absolutely a great example...

Scary huh?!

Dark City is the one I was hoping someone would mention. This is another one of my favorite films and its kind of a throwback to Metropolis. I haven't gotten a chance to see the director's cut yet but I'm looking forward to it. I don't listen to a lot of audio commentaries but on the disc that I had, Roger Ebert provides a commentary that is incredible. He goes into the artwork of the set and costume a lot in relationship to German Expressionism and specifically its similarities to Metropolis.

Also, Alex Proyas' earlier film The Crow was heavily steeped in this week's theme.

Re:Weekly Theme for May 4: Express Yourself!!

You guys have mentioned Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis, but no one has yet mentioned Der letzte Mann, presented in the United States as "The Last Laugh" but the actual translation is "The Last Man".  I think this film may be even more expressionistic than the other two, and possibly even better from my standpoint.  Also largely because I find Emil Jannings to be one of the greatest silent film actors.  The film actually presents several distored point of view shots explicitly stating that this is how the character is seeing the world emotionally.  Although sometimes he is drunk, so we know that can have some effect on your perceptions as well.

Coincidentally I actually have Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler right at the top of my Netflix queue.  I assume this will have some expressionistic tendancies in it as well, so maybe I'll pop back in once I've viewed that.

Re:Weekly Theme for May 4: Express Yourself!!

A film-maker that I've really got into that utilizes expressionist techniques in almost all aspects of his work is Guy Maddin. And to make his movies even more awesome, he throws in themes of metaphysical significance and subdued incest and other fun things of that nature. The film that pops instantly to mind is Careful, which is more or less a modern entry into early expressionist cinema, complete with hokey coloring techniques, a northern European mountain setting, elaborately bizarre set-pieces, and, of course, melodrama. Cowards Bend the Knee is also pretty expressionist influenced--it's a black and white silent film, complete with poor film quality, filmed about 6 years ago. The Saddest Music in the World is also a trippy addition to his modern-expressionist-throwback repertoire.

Re:Weekly Theme for May 4: Express Yourself!!

Risselada:

You guys have mentioned Fritz Lang's M and Metropolis, but no one has yet mentioned Der letzte Mann, presented in the United States as "The Last Laugh" but the actual translation is "The Last Man".  I think this film may be even more expressionistic than the other two, and possibly even better from my standpoint.  Also largely because I find Emil Jannings to be one of the greatest silent film actors.  The film actually presents several distored point of view shots explicitly stating that this is how the character is seeing the world emotionally.  Although sometimes he is drunk, so we know that can have some effect on your perceptions as well.

Coincidentally I actually have Lang's Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler right at the top of my Netflix queue.  I assume this will have some expressionistic tendancies in it as well, so maybe I'll pop back in once I've viewed that.

Guys, I fucked up here!  The Last Laugh was definitely by Murnau, not Lang!  The two luminaries of German cinema at the time.  I'm sorry I got their works confused!

Anyways I finished watching Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler this weekend, and it's largely a realistic movie with certain great expressionistic effects when people are under hypnosis.  This movie is actually more appropriate for the 3+ Hours discussion I discovered.  I'll go post something over there right now!