The Roots of German Expressionism and Beyond

[gubbelsj]

HerrSchreck, kinjitsu and davidhare, among others, offered so many insightful comments about German Expressionism following my query on Citizen Kane that I thought I'd take kinjitsu's hint and open a new thread on the subject. We seem to have several members posting with a strong love and appreciation for the movement, as well as a talent for explaining its history and aesthetics.

It's a period I've only begun to explore over the past year or so, and it's quickly become a favorite, a real high point of cinema history for me, bar category. I'm curious about the origins. Caligari seems to be the genre's first acknowledged masterpiece, but I've also heard arguments that the film should more properly be viewed as the major influence upon German Expressionism rather than a GE film per se (narrative conservatism and the general stage-like presentation are the most commonly given weaknesses). With Scandinavian cinema the only non-German market allowed inside the country during the war, lots of Swedish names get bandied about as important precursors - Sjostrom, Stiller. But the one name and film I've heard most often mentioned is Stellan Rye and Der Student von Prag, 1913. Rye was, I believe, Danish, but much has been made of the lighting, effects, and general gloom in this picture, all later hallmarks of the GE style. I know it was important enough to have been remade in 1926, but I admit to knowing nothing else of either film. Is Der Student von Prag as good a place as any to identify the initial stirrings of German Expressionism?

[tryavna]

...and the last of his great masterpieces...

David, in general, I agree with your very intelligent observations about Marnie, possibly Hitch's most overlooked American picture, but this phrase really leaped out at me, since I've always considered Frenzy to be his last true masterpiece. I think it's his cruelest film and the one that affects me the most viscerally -- in large part because he forces us to take part in the cruelty. God, if only the current crop of horror films could do the same thing with as much intelligence...!

Gubbelsj, in order to think about the roots of German Expressionism in film, I think it's also necessary to think about Expressionism in other media. What's always surprised me in some of our discussions of Expressionism here is how little we talk about art and literature. Expressionism certainly existed in those other media before Caligari. (The term itself originated around 1910-11, I believe.) And I'm sure that the German directors were drawing upon these other media as much, if not more, than other films. I'm thinking particularly of designers like Gropius, artists like Kandinsky and Klee, and writers like Strindberg and (to a certain degree) Kafka.

[tryavna]

I see your point about the loss of Hitch's regular collaborators, David. I also agree that Goodwin's score is lame. But I've always thought that Hitch (and/or Anthony Shaffer) intended us to have mixed feelings about Finch's character. So I'm not sure if you dislike Finch for Finch or if you dislike him because of the character he plays. He's certainly supposed to be a rather unlikable hero; in fact, it seems pretty clear that the audience is supposed to find Barry Foster's character far more charming and appealing -- which is one of the brilliant perversities of the movie. Nevertheless, I'm willing to concede several major weaknesses in Frenzy: the score, Finch's all-too-easy escape, etc. But I just don't think any of them are fatal.

Back on-topic:

Re. Kafka: I placed my parenthetical qualification there because I've never been entirely sure to what extent his work was actually known outside of certain German-speaking circles in Prague until after his death in 1924. So I'm just not sure how much the earliest Expressionist directors would have drawn upon his work. Of course, "The Metamorphosis" was published and drew quite a lot of attention as early as 1915, so maybe the filmmaking cognescenti did consciously borrow from him.

By the way, out of curiosity, I looked up "expressionism" in the Oxford English Dictionary, and that word's use in English dates back to 1908. But the application of the term "expressionist" to a particular group of artists really picks up in 1914-15 (again in English). Not sure what this proves, except that a recognizable artistic movement widely known as "Expressionist" predates Caligari by a good 4 or 5 years -- probably by a little more if you're talking about German-speaking communities, which we are.

[Michael Kerpan]

roots of expressionism -- in literature and drama -- the "sturm and drang" movement -- most typified by Schiller (and early Goethe like "Sorrows of Young Werther") . In painting, the work of Caspar David Friedrich -- his "Monk on the Beach" (or whatever it's actually named) is as expressionist as it gets. ;~}

[gubbelsj]

By the way, out of curiosity, I looked up "expressionism" in the Oxford English Dictionary, and that word's use in English dates back to 1908. But the application of the term "expressionist" to a particular group of artists really picks up in 1914-15 (again in English). Not sure what this proves, except that a recognizable artistic movement widely known as "Expressionist" predates Caligari by a good 4 or 5 years -- probably by a little more if you're talking about German-speaking communities, which we are.

Expressionism as a theory originally largely applied to drama and poetry. Several sources list Strindberg as an inspiration to the movement, but focus on a playwright named Reinhard Johnannes Sorge and the play Der Bettler / The Beggar, written in 1912, first performed in 1917, as the first accepted example of expressionist drama. German playwrights definitely dominated the movement - Georg Kaiser, Ernst Toller, Paul Kornfeld, Fritz von Unruh, Walter Hasenclever. Eugene O'Neill's one of a few Americans lumped in with the Expressionist movement.

If we're looking at the origins of Expressionism as a non-cinematic theory, there was a definite step away from late-nineteenth-century naturalism in the years preceding the war. Music, painting, even architecture reflected a real dissatisfaction with emerging European trends - the rise of urbanism and the machine, rampant materialism - along with a rejection of older values, the family and tradition. But these were largely underground protests that failed to make much of an impression among mainstream culture or society. The war changed all that. After the humiliating 1918 defeat, everybody seemed ready to reject these trends, or at least question them, and German intellectuals and the young deserted en masse the "old school", diving deep into the new, the experimental, the avant-garde - a whole rejection of the past that became known as the Aufbruch.

To me, what's really fascinating about this turn of events is how the cinema in Germany finally became accepted by intellectuals as a possible form of artistic expression. It was only in this kind of avant-garde atmosphere that young artists might seize upon the medium's possibilities. Prior to this, most German films were pretty undistinguished, crudely made and sensational (with some exceptions, like the aforementioned Stellan Rye's Der Student von Prag). Within a few years, and following the founding of UFA, they'd be producing the finest in the world.

Kerpan, your mentioning Schiller is perceptive, although he seemed to focus more on intuition and instinct moving the protagonist beyond earthly limitations, not so much capturing these abstract thoughts or using them as the primary mode of communication. I see his influence on future thinking, but not the technique. But we are talking roots, after all, and it's a great connection.

[Michael Kerpan]

Link to Friedrich's "Monk by the Sea"

I really want to see the original some day.

[zedz]

In painting, the work of Caspar David Friedrich -- his "Monk on the Beach" (or whatever it's actually named) is as expressionist as it gets. ;~}

And, going off topic in a different (but related) direction, you can draw a direct line between Friedrich and Herzog (see the opening of Every Man for Himself. . . or many scenes in Heart of Glass).

I'd be interested in unpacking cinematic Expressionism some more. I see quite a difference between the wild, nightmarish quality of Caligari or the Jack the Ripper segment of Waxworks, the monumentalism of Lang in Nibelungen and Metropolis and the grimy urban stuff (e.g. The Last Laugh). I see a range of different trends competing in the 20s, some of which are in the open-air Scandinavian tradition, some of which are a response to Hollywood, and some which are thoroughly homegrown or personally idiosyncratic.

[Michael Kerpan]

And, going off topic in a different (but related) direction, you can draw a direct line between Friedrich and Herzog (see the opening of Every Man for Himself. . . or many scenes in Heart of Glass).

Absolutely -- but I think Herzog has plenty of neo-expressionist tendencies.

[tryavna]

Well, Herzog has said numerous times that he (and the other New German Cinema directors) had to look to directors like Murnau, Lang, et al for inspiration and continuity with the past. And his respectful remake of Nosferatu -- easily one of the finest remakes ever -- certainly supports his equally numerous statments of admiration for Murnau.

[HerrSchreck]

I'd be interested in unpacking cinematic Expressionism some more. I see quite a difference between the wild, nightmarish quality of Caligari or the Jack the Ripper segment of Waxworks, the monumentalism of Lang in Nibelungen and Metropolis and the grimy urban stuff (e.g. The Last Laugh). I see a range of different trends competing in the 20s, some of which are in the open-air Scandinavian tradition, some of which are a response to Hollywood, and some which are thoroughly homegrown or personally idiosyncratic.

Absolutely.. though I'd say WAXWORKS is far closer to "actual" (or "contemporary") Expressionism than the works of Lang, which were something else entirely, except, in particular, some of the sets for the frame scene in DER MUDE TOD, as well as the Chinese fantasia.

As for the Ripper scene in Waxworks, this has got to be one of the--if not the-- most striking string of visuals ever put on film. I've heard them described thusly elsewhere either in Kracauer or Eisner, and I completely agree. I described them to someone else here as moving Picasso paintings... just unbelievable. The whole film is incredible (as was Leni in genearal); the IVAN vignette an acknowledged influence on Eisenstein for his own Ivan; the Bagdhad scene an acknowledged influence on the 1924 Fairbanks masterpiece THIEF OF BAGDHAD, the whole film an acknowledged influence on the best of 30's horror and beyond. This is Expressionism at it's absolute finest-- and it was a smash hit in the USA as well. They loved him when he came here to Universal. Leni was easily a peer of Murnau & Lang & Dreyer, though the humor & grotesquerie in his films (reminds me of Dovzhenko in his cartoonish monkeying with the human face) give them a less self-serious I-am-now-making-a-great-film tone resident in the aforementioned three, and his early death tweezed him off the planet way way way way too soon. Bret Wood I'm hoping hasn't cleared THE LAST WARNING (his last film) offa the Kino decks. He'd mentioned bringing it out a few yrs ago but so far nothing. The opening Broadway montage (plus the rest of the film.. jeez) is the stuff of legend, and my ahem VHS of this is terrible. It's never been released on anything, anywhere, ever.

[zedz]

Leni was easily a peer of Murnau & Lang & Dreyer, though the humor & grotesquerie in his films (reminds me of Dovzhenko in his cartoonish monkeying with the human face) give them a less self-serious I-am-now-making-a-great-film tone resident in the aforementioned three, and his early death tweezed him off the planet way way way way too soon.

Speaking of Leni, I had the great pleasure of seeing The Cat and the Canary recently. It remains supremely entertaining: a perfect mixture of bold, pseudo-Expressionist visuals and Hollywood pacing, but with a self-deprecating lightness that eluded many of his contemporaries.

It's been ages since I last saw Waxworks, and I remember being less taken by the earlier sequences, but the last one just about made me levitate out of my chair (no mean feat).

[HerrSchreck]

How about the Cin. Bologna/Imm Ritrovata restore of MAN WHO LAUGHS on the Kino disc? May be his supreme masterpiece.. but they're all fantastic.

[gubbelsj]

Have there been any attempts to restore the reputation of Robert Wiene, perhaps not as the Father of German Expressionism, which would admittedly be a tough argument to make, but as a stronger presence in general? Lotte Eisner made very clear she considered him a "second-rate director" who happened to be in the right place at the right time, and generally rode the GE bandwagon into history. She also returns several times to her belief that Caligari is representative of German cinema in that author, designer and technical staff play roles superior at times to that of the director.

But I'm struck by the fact that it was Fritz Lang, not Wiene, who insisted on framing Caligari with a paranoid delusional explanation, thereby muting some of the film's narrative and psychological experimentation. Then, too, Wiene is the one who hired Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Rohrig as set designers and painters, noted Expressionist artists all and the key to the film's groundbreaking visuals. Perhaps Wiene was indeed second rate, and never produced anything close to Caligari again (although I'd like to see Raskolnikov before making up my mind). Has Wiene's role and importance in German cinema been undervalued, despite the high hip cachet Caligari still possesses?

[zedz]

But I'm struck by the fact that it was Fritz Lang, not Wiene, who insisted on framing Caligari with a paranoid delusional explanation, thereby muting some of the film's narrative and psychological experimentation.

I believe this is disputed, and that the genuine origin of the framing story (and even when the idea was developed) is lost in the mists of time. What's interesting about Lang is that I think he's the only person who has been credited with it who actually thought it was a good idea, so in later years he was happy to take the credit for it, whereas others involved in the film tried to dodge responsibility. I'm sure there are others around here who know more of the ins and outs of this.

[HerrSchreck]

Typical Langian ex-post-facto editorialization. I think it's a safe bet that the idea was Erich Pommer's. Mayer and Janowitz-- Janowitz in particular-- engage in a bit of ex post facto spinning themselves. Janowitz alleged that he was responsible for the specific look of the art direction, i e the specific seed idea for such warped visuals, literally "walking around in 2-dimensional paintings", whereas the look is pretty much understood nowadays to have originated by Reimann, who bounced it around with the rest of the design staff in conjunction with Weine, who okayed the completely revolutionary, absolutely astounding-for-the-time, look of the film. It was Pommer who more than likely got the jitters by so many extremes piled one on top of the other, and fearing an audience revolt-- in the same way he did vs. the innovations in Murnaus DER LETZE MANN making him nervous enough to request the happy ending to discharge the audience from the auditorium in a less cockeyed state-- insisted on the frame story. I've also heard it said that Janowitz and Mayer, thrilled at having fulfilled their aim of winning over Decla after literally walking in broke off the street and pitching the script on the skin of their balls, didn't raise the beef that they later said they did when presented with the idea of the frame story.

As for Weine himself, there are examples aplenty of his skill in making this film. Look at the use of shadow, the tight mise en scene, the completely revolutionary editing during the killing of Alan (reminds me of Pudovkin's use of rapid fire cutting in far more emotionally dynamic terms than Eisenstein ie the village lad's attack on the office/boss in END OF ST PETERSBERG) years before the era of Soviet montage.

I always see this film as I do a Zep or Beatles song: equal expertise exhibited on all fronts, rather than the iconoclastic dominance we are used to via Lang Murnau Dreyer Gance et al. I think I'm one of the few people who really loves GENUINE, TALE OF A VAMPIRE... it has the same haunted strangeness that CALIGARI has, and is one of the very few examples of a purely Expressionst script whose strangeness matches the perhaps overly strange strangeness in the art direction in this particular film.

ORLACS HANDE is an excellent film in my view, containing some of Veidt's best German acting, with an extremely haunted mise en scene and sense of mood and place. This and RASKALNIKOV desperately need to be released on disc in restored 35mm versions. This will go a long way toward creating a sense of career continuity and achievement for Weine-- he was not exactly a peer of the German, Scandinavian & French masters who consistently kicked out masterpiece after masterpiece... but he was only a notch or two down, and he alone enjoys the achievement of having created the first genuinely internationally reknowned Art Film.

Does anyone know if a complete print of I.N.R.I. exists?

From IMDB I.N.R.I "Trivia" Page

Trivia for I.N.R.I. (1923)

Believed to have been long lost, a surviving complete copy was discovered in the archives of the Cineteca del Friuli in Italy in October 1999. Another copy was found in Japan and screened at National Film Center, Tokyo at February 2006. Although it looks some scenes are missing, it is 35mm tinted print with English intertitle. (Copy of Cineteca del Friuli is a 16mm print.)

I'd love to see a composite with holes plugged by the 16mm, barring additional elements which might be held in Moscow Gosfilmofond or FWMS or any of the German/Austrian film museums/institutes, et al. Never seen this film before, but it interests me from the peeks from FILM IN FILM excerpts from the silent era about it's making.

[gubbelsj]

While apparently running anywhere from $66 to $80 from US retailers, there is a book out there called Beyond Caligari: The Films of Robert Wiene by Uli Jung and Walter Schatzberg that might be interesting. Published by Berghahn Books, and somewhat cheaper from their site. I'll probably try libraries first.

It would indeed be great for films like Orlacs hande, Raskolnikov and I.N.R.I. to receive a proper release - it is hard to restore a reputation without much evidence. Schreck, in what format did you view Orlacs Hande and Raskolnikov?

[lubitsch]

It would indeed be great for films like Orlacs hande, Raskolnikov and I.N.R.I. to receive a proper release - it is hard to restore a reputation without much evidence. Schreck, in what format did you view Orlacs Hande and Raskolnikov?

ORLACS HÄNDE is fully restored and ran on German television. GENUINE should be more complete than the 40m excerpt on the Caligari DVDs. This month the restored DER ROSENKAVALIER will be shown on television. Don't know anything about RASKOLNIKOW.
It's puzzling that despite the craze for the famous silents, films which would be equally interesting to modern viewers don't get out of the archives.

[HerrSchreck]

Cheap, low quality bootleg VHS's many years old, in both cases. Contacts, contacts. and more contacts....

[Tommaso]

This month the restored DER ROSENKAVALIER will be shown on television.

Ah, I didn't see it yet. Can you tell us people who can get German TV the exact date and channel? Don't want to miss it!

[Ledos]

While it doesn't answer this specific question, it might be interesting to know the Murnau Foundation's page with TV tips. From the main page click News, Fernseh-Tipp or use this direct link.

[Tommaso]

Exactly, Ledos, that's the page I'm always looking at to find out what's on German TV regarding early German movies. But they do not say anything about "Rosenkavalier" (but they're pretty slow with their updates, generally). Well, at least you have a chance to see Fanck's "Holy Mountain" this month if you don't already know it.

EDIT: Oh, I have now found it on this page talking about the film having been presented at the Dresden Opera

And the relevant bit of it is at the end:

"ARTE wird den Film am 29. Dezember im Abendprogramm ausstrahlen. Eine DVD-Veröffentlichung ist geplant."

So, December 29th on arte TV. AND a forthcoming DVD of it. GREAT!!

[Knappen]

Der Rosenkavalier show on French ARTE December 24th.
The recording is done in long play so quality could certainly be better.

[Tommaso]

Yes, I also watched the transmission, and as you say, it looks much better in standard play recording. A nice resto with the original music, but I was somewhat disappointed by the film itself. Far more conventional than you'd expect from a 1925 German film, theatrical in a stiff way, mostly static camera and so on. A far cry from the inventiveness of "Caligari" or even "Orlac", and certainly not expressionist in general (though you've chosen those bits for the screencaps that seem to indicate otherwise).

[Knappen]

The film is still unseen by me. I just picked the juicy bits.

[Mr Sausage]

Interesting to run across this old, old thread and be reminded how infrequently German Expressionism in cinema is actually contextualized in the larger Expressionist art movement. Just looking through the thread, not only are members unable to prove their (correct) suspicion that Caligari wasn't the origin point of Expressionism, but, aside from a couple stray references to Kandinsky, no one actually mentions the Expressionist painters. You wouldn't know by reading the thread that Expressionism had much to do with painting, let alone had its origin primarily in painting. And this doesn't surprise me, because despite an interest in German Expressionism dating back to childhood, I never heard Expressionism discussed in terms of any other medium. It was treated almost exclusively as a cinematic style, rooted in Weimer politics and society, but unattached to the wider movement. I don't know if that's changed since, or if Eisner and Krakauer's work went in to it more than I noticed. But, like some other members here, I knew plenty about Caligari and Nosferatu and Der Golem, but for the longest time could tell you nothing about Expressionism outside film. If you'd asked me to picture an Expressionist painting, I'd've probably pictured a Caligari set.

And that's a shame. I think it's a mistake to view Expressionist cinema outside of the larger movement. Maybe it's been done and I missed it, but what I've always felt lacking from the releases of the key Expressionist films is a documentary or commentary on the Expressionist movement, its origins in painting and literature, especially drama, and the way movies interacted with the style and the ideas behind it. I don't see how you could fully understand the style otherwise.

Because like me most film fans know Expressionism mainly from Weimar cinema, I'd guess their mental image of an Expressionist painting would be something dark, oppressive, and cramped, with bizarre angles and architecture, and a nightmarish feel. A lot of people would be surprised to learn this is an Expressionist painting. This too. I know I was. They're bursting with bright colours, aren't they? And they're not ugly, winding cities, but bright natural scenes. The Expressionists could do cities, like this one by Kirchner, which is a little more ominous, true, and has the odd angles and perspective; or this one by Kandinsky, which is a bit less ominous but still oddly angled. But they aren't nightmarish, ghastly brainscapes, either. It's an odd step to go from them to Caligari.

Expressionism in the graphic arts was a very early 20th century phenomenon. The pioneers of the style formed themselves into two distinct groups: Die Brücke (The Bridge), formed in Dresden in 1905 by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel, and Fritz Bleyl. The group was a close and collaborative bunch, often working together in a small house in the countryside for months. As such, sometimes it can be hard to tell their paintings apart. The other, looser, more theoretically inclined, and arguably stronger group was Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), formed in Munich by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Many avant garde artists were associated with the group at one time or another: August Macke, Paul Klee, Alfred Kubin, Alexei von Jawlenski, etc. Even artists like Otto Dix and Max Beckman who became famous for a style contra-Expressionism, The New Objectivity (Die Neue Sachlichkeit), dabbled in Expressionism in their early days. It was a fecund and vital movement, but while it lasted past the first World War, it never saw the same success (and many of its leading lights either died in the war like Franz Marc or, like, like Kirchner, had mental breakdowns during combat from which they didn't recover).

Expressionism doesn't have such a strict definition, but one of its leading tendencies was to subordinate the tangible world to the mind's perceptions of it. Natural features, buildings, figures, landscapes, they tend to be barely sketched, or blurrily outlined, or even merely hinted at with a brush stroke or two. What you get instead is an overwhelming impression of shape and colour. The paintings approach (and in the case of artists like Kandinsky, Klee, and Marc, would eventually outright become) abstraction. The physical world, the world of objects, is not represented as a tangible reality, but serves instead as the occasion to explore the interaction of shapes and colours to produce a feeling or emotion. The physical world becomes distorted, accruing outlandish colours and seeming to fade into the background as the artists explore their own mental dramas, emotional landscapes, and personal beliefs. Colour and shape as pure expression rather than representation. To get a good sense of this, contrast the paintings linked above with some paintings from the style that opposed Expressionism, the New Objectivity: Prager Strasse by Otto Dix and The Night by Max Beckmann. Here you have bizarre angles, flattened perspectives, lurid content, and, in the latter, ugliness and horror. But unlike the Expressionists, the focus is entirely on the physical objects in the painting. Nothing dissolves into shapes and colour contrasts; everything is in focus, sometimes brutally, helped by the flattened perspectives and geometrical arrangements. It's a style that gives primacy to the figures and objects under observation. The physical world and the eyes of the observer are emphasized over the personal mental landscape of the painter. Turning from them back to the Expressionists, you see how indistinct the world looks, how much detail isn't there. For Expressionism, the object was secondary, the world a kind of phantom amidst the feelings it produces, the colours it suggests.

So given these qualities of Expressionist painting, what does Expressionist cinema have to do with Expressionism in the graphic arts? Taking two extreme examples, Caligari and von Morgen bis Mitternacht, you have worlds that are flattened, ill-sketched, and only nominally representational. As identifiable social realities, these worlds barely exist. Instead, they're there more as occasions for broad strokes of lighting and shading, as locations that can stretch, bend, and cramp in order to communicate an overwhelming impression of entrapment, despair, emptiness, and even psychosis. They share none of the bursting colour or evident pleasure in the shapes and sensations of the natural world that you find in, say, this painting by August Macke. But they favour a similar distortion of the world based on the artist's emotional palette. They use Expressionist techniques, but towards a more narrow mental and emotional space. They retreat into dreams, into mental fictions or, in something like Schatten, into the artifice of magic and story-telling. In a society post-WWI and post-Freud, there are plenty of reasons to guess why this is. But it's interesting how much narrower was Expressionism in cinema than its cousins in the graphic arts. The emotional range being expressed doesn't have much variation across the films. Hence so many of them are horror films. There are some, like Waxworks, that apply the style to exotic fantasy, but even then only for a single segment. But many films labled Expressionist employ distinctly sketched, fully realized physical worlds. Films like Nosferatu, The Last Laugh, and The Hands of Orlac emphasize locations and physical objects to build their atmosphere. The artificiality is present mainly in the acting, lighting, and compositions/camera movements, but otherwise you get recognizable social realities whose distortions reflect, say, the main character's internal world, but don't tend to abstraction.

Expressionist film is really interesting compared to the same movement in the graphic arts. It's a narrower art (and this of something that was already pretty narrow!), one more urban, nightmarish, and negative than you see in the paintings. It's also not as consistently abstract. Outside of the extreme examples, Expressionist films are often rooted in some physically embodied world or other, even if that world is often distorted by this or that character's heightened emotional register. So filmic Expressionism often pushed its emotional register into the extremes, but rarely used the same extreme abstract techniques as the Expressionist painters. No doubt the nature of photography, narrative, and the filmic marketplace helped determined this. There is some overlap in technique between the filmmakers and painters, but anyone expecting Expressionist painting to be some Francis Bacon-type horror show will be disappointed at how brightly coloured and rural the paintings could be. Tho' maybe not disappointed at how abstract, garish, and borderline cubist they could also be.