German Expressionism: Vol.2

The German Expression movement began before WWI and gained momentum in the 20’s and 30’s. It influenced architecture, painting and cinema. This movement gave surrealistic shape and structure to forms that reflect psychological states. This is evident in the extreme contrast of light and dark, the use of reflective surfaces and abstract optical tricks and even anthropomorphism. 

Vol. 2 – Nosferatu (1922) – Transylvania’s Count Orlok (Max Schreck) is in the market for some new real estate in Wisbourgh, Germany. Hutter (Gustav Von Wangenheim) is sent out to his castle to appropriate the deal for a home near his own house. Then things start to get weird. On his journey to the castle, the locals seem afraid to help him; he gets bit on the neck by two “mosquitos really close together” and constantly feels the presence of a dark shadow looming over him. The count then becomes obsessed with Ellen (Gretta Schroder), Hutter’s wife and her beautiful neck and decides to buy the property and become neighbors… Ok you get the point; it’s an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula or a really original prequel to Joe Dante’s “The Burbs”.

Similar to “Metropolis”, this film could definitely be considered a staple in the German Expressionistic movement. Director F.W. Murnau uses superimposed images, color tinted negative images and obscure camera angles to add more disorientation and overall surrealistic tones to the film. It is this composition of shots that makes this Nosferatu one of the most memorable and discussed films of all time. You may have never seen it but I can almost guarantee that you’ve seen clips from this film. It may have been the moment Count Orlok’s shadow climbs the staircase. Or it could be the image of him first entering Hutter’s room in the castle, stiff like some sort of a zombie rat walking straight towards the camera. My favorite is the shot of him rising from his casket, again stiff as a board, ascending 90 degrees without moving a muscle.

It’s also worth noting that: although Murnau is rightfully considered one of the Fathers of the German Expressionism movement, he wasn’t strictly a surrealist. The line between imagination and reality for him was thin and jagged. As he said:

“I like the reality of things, but not without the fantasy – they must dovetail. Is that not so with life, with human reactions and emotions? We have our thoughts and also our deeds.”

I highly recommend this film to anyone who is interested in the movement or in the history of cinema in general. I would probably say that any film that is considered to epitomize the German Expressionism movement is also very important to film history as a whole. After all, we are talking about a time in which cinema was at the very beginning of defining itself as its own art form and these films were just as much about experimentation and testing the limits of the medium as they were about their own subject matter.

I will also mention that this film is open source so feel free to download a copy. There's a pretty good one here. It is also available to stream on Netflix and Hulu so you really have no excuse.

Enjoy.

(proofread by Dolly Karma)