Expressionism, a powerful component in Germany's cultural life in the early 20th century, is an art form which emerged from a confluence of factors. One is historical: At the end of World War I, Germans, humiliated at their defeat, wanted to look ahead not backward. Thus German artists turned their backs on the artistic traditions of naturalism and realism, with their aim of verisimilitude in their representation, and instead pursued the progressive, the experimental and the avant garde. This was achieved through the art movement known as expressionism, which showcased a given artist’s subjective state of mind  through the use of bold visuals.  Usually the artist’s feelings were negative and thus evoked anxiety, terror and madness, or what one aficionado of expressionism referred to as "the landscapes of the soul, the tortured human psyche." This means expressionism delves into the human spirit, and usuallly proffers a despondent, despairing depiction.* (Consider Edvard Munch’s famous painting "The Scream," which features a central figure -- not  clearly male or female -- obviously in anguish. While the picture predates the expressionistic period, its morbid tone is nevertheless emblematic of the movement.)                              

     Why such negative views of life? During this post-war era, Germany was undergoing social upheaval. Inflation was rampant; money continued to lose its value very quickly, leading people to suffer feelings of helplessness, instability and despair. Decadence began to surface. (Think of the stage and screen versions of Cabaret.)

    In addition to a historical perspective, an understanding of expressionism must also take into account the Germanic penchant for Gothic narratives, à la Goethe’s Faust legend (in which a man sells his soul to the Devil), Wagner’s operas featuring mythic figures, and the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, populated with vengeful witches and blood-thirsty ogres (definitely not the sanitized Disney versions). Throw into the mix the fact that Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, which looks at personality development, was gaining notoriety, and it’s evident that the time was ripe for the flowering of expressionism.

    Expressionism first materialized in painting, then in live theatre, architecture and the graphic arts. It surfaced rather belatedly in the cinema, perhaps because at the time, German intelligentsia didn’t consider film to be a legitimate art form. But thanks to the intervention of cultural icons such as theatre impresario Max Reinhardt, expressionism was eventually proffered on the screen, as well.

    Early purveyors of cinematic expressionism used a bevy of techniques to create the movement’s signature intense, atmospheric mood. Most of these were visual:     

          harsh doses of light and shadow                

          exaggerated shapes, including twisting, spirals and diagonal lines, which promote a sense of instability (as opposed to verticals and horizontals)

          extreme, distorted angles

          theatrical costumes and garish make-up

          artificial-looking sets that whether representing interiors or the outdoors, are obviously filmed indoors

          relating the narrative through the subjective viewpoint of one or more of the characters

          a sense of entrapment or claustrophobia, exacerbated by outsized props, meant to reflect a hostile universe, with constraints on personal freedoms      

          exterior qualities echoing a character's psyche, e.g., someone who is crippled is generally spiritually broken, as well

          names of characters and places may be symbolic

          if color is used, it is employed in a symbolic rather than a realistic manner

    While expressionism is most evident in visuals, it also surfaced thematically, such as dwelling on a character’s paranoia, madness or murderous intentions, or alternating scenes of reality with dream sequences. It appeared, too, in characterizations:

          allegorical figures, as the way Death is embodied by a dour, black-clad, white-faced man in the German production Destiny (1922)

          authoritarian, psychotic and/or murderous characters, or even supernatural beings such as vampires, which construe that external forces can shape our lives and destinies in unpredictable ways.  These may include employment of a doppelgänger, which is the manifestation of a person's dark side, a kind of evil twin, as in the classic tales Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, or young Charlie's Uncle Charlie in Alfred Hitchcock's 1941 thriller, Shadow of a Doubt.  (Hitchcock was a self-avowed Expressionist.) This use of doubles is often shown expressionistically through the use of mirrors.  

    All of the above expressionistic trademarks show up in the most expressionistic film ever made, the 1919 work The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This film is about a young man named Francis who believes a madman is ordering his sleepwalking assistant to murder innocent townspeople. Is Francis telling the truth, or is his story merely the paranoid delusion of a madman incarcerated in an insane asylum?

    Even by the end of Caligari, we cannot be sure. Certainly the film dwells on expressionistic themes of madness, murder and mayhem. It also presents a visually skewed view of the world, with strong angles, outré costumes and make-up and, thanks to the involvement of three Expressionist artists, the film's sets and some of the costumes are decorated with an abundance of spirals, diags, graffiti-like images.  In addition, extremes of light and shadow are painted directly onto walls and floors.

    Eventually, with the advent of cinematic technological advances, filmmakers could also employ sound, artful editing, special effects and color expressionistically.  While classical Hollywood cinema, such as the work of Frank Capra, typically falls within the middle ground between the extremes of expressionism and realism, many filmmakers have worked in the expressionist tradition, including Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock (who got his start in movies as an assistant to expressionistic filmmakers in Germany), Orson Welles, Tim Burton and Terry Gilliam. And while some directors aren’t especially associated with expressionism, they have experimented with it. (Two good examples are Woody Allen’s Shadows and Fog, and Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard.)

    It is also important to note that film noir is dominated by expressionistic tendencies.  This is due to the fact that many of the classic noir filmmakers were ex-pat Germans and Austrians who fled to the U.S. when the Nazis took over. But, of course, expressionism is well suited to the aura of malaise that permeates most noir works. 

*There are exceptions to the tendency of expressionistic works to be depressing.  One is in the 1989 film The Big Picture, which opens at an award ceremony for fledgling filmmakers. Kevin Bacon is one of the student filmmakers, and his piece is overtly expressionistic: in black and white; strong angles; close-ups; theatrical sets; closed forms; lots of diags; manipulated sound; and characters who persecute the protagonist. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays another film student whose work is expressionistic but in an upbeat way.  Yes, there are the requisite closed forms, weird sets, strong angles and theatrical make-up.  However, she photographs herself dancing and frolicking with her dog, with toe-tapping jazz playing in the background.  Part of it is shot indoors, where bright colors prevail, and part is outside, with the sun shining brightly; both settings underscore the work's optimistic tone.  

INTERNET LINKS:

"Six Degrees of Nosferatu" - a look at the weird connections between the director of the Expressionist classic Nosferatu and his untimely death

Another take on Expressionism