German Expressionism was an artistic movement that started before
World War I in Germany, and culminated in the 20s with Expressionist cinema. It was an extremely influential genre that demonstrated cinema could be an art form, and not just entertainment. These films were major contributor to the
Horror genre and important precursors of
Film Noir.
While the movement thrived in
Weimar Germany, the
Nazis were virulently opposed to expressionism, and even had a huge touring art exhibit dedicated to making fun of expressionist art. Persecution led to the movement's decline, and many expressionist artists fled to the States or other friendly countries to escape oppression.
Expressionism tends to be characterized by showing the subconscious feelings of the characters and making them the surface of the work. The audience will be shown not what is strictly, naturalistically real, but an abstract view what the characters feel is real. This is generally portrayed as fairly dark. This usually involves surreal set designs, dialog that dispenses with naturalism to let the characters inner motivations and thoughts be stated with brutal honesty, and stark lighting effects. A strong nightmarish atmosphere tends to prevail.
Much modern art, and modern film in particular, is heavily influenced by German Expressionism: films like
Edward Scissorhands,
Dark City, and
Batman Returns are extremely expressionist, and almost any movie that have a nightmarish city, a machine-like bureaucratic government, or an evil AI owes a little to German Expressionism.
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Notable artists included:
- Fritz Lang
- Friedrich W. Murnau
- Robert Wiene
- Carl T. Dreyer
- Joe May
- Paul Wegener
- Arthur Robison
- Paul Leni
Notable films included:
Other tropes frequently associated with the genre:
