German Expressionism

The predominance of German Expressionism in Cinema needed different situations in Germany to gain power during the 1920’s. The internal situation and the necessity to activate their industry allowed for the creation of several films in the decade that enhanced the mise-én-scene which became the major interest for directors in this movement. In the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Germany, 1920, Weine), the film that started the movement, and furthermore Metropolis (Germany, 1927, Weine) that provide an example of how mise-én-scene can be exploited in such manner that it becomes part of the plot and interact with the characters, even becoming another character. It is in these films that mise-én-scene transmits emotions and sentiments to the spectator by avoiding the reality of the world and creating an inner world of the German situation in celluloid.

After the confrontation of European nations in World War I, Germany fell in a moral and economic depression which was the reason that the newly born Weimar Republic struggled to aid the nation and their internal industry. One policy that the government adopted to help the film industry to grow and gain prestige among Germans and countries abroad was the establishment of the Universum Film Aktiengesellchaft (UFA), which agglomerated the production and distribution in order to succeed in the film industry (Cook, 2004, p. 90).

The UFA would become the main collaborator for artist and filmmakers to develop their projects and distribute them; the intention of the UFA was to create a cinema that gained prestige in order to compete with other cinemas: “Since in those early postwar years the conviction prevailed that foreign markets could only be conquered by artistic achievement” (Kracauer, 1966, p. 65). The UFA considered that the only way to succeed was by encouraging an artistic movement in cinema in order to gain acceptance and markets.

Caligari is a film that was created by this policy. The artistic movement that was encouraged at this time was expressionism, due to the fact that it became the predominant movement for German artists in other arts as well. Expressionism was brought to film, especially in Caligari, to express the inner feelings that people had about their experiences in the war and the consequences.

Caligari had to innovate in order to succeed; however, the film industry had two problems that affected the production of this film. The first problem was the economic recession that Germany lived in, in the first years of the Republic; after Germany surrendered the Weimar Republic had to ration everything in order to indemnify other nations. The production of Caligari employed the shortage of electricity by painting shadows that reinforced the impression of lighting: “One feature particularly characteristic of many expressionist sets in the early phase of Weimar cinema is the use of painted effects to create the Impression of light and shadow…” (Roberts, 2008, pp. 24-25). The importance of maximizing the light is connected to the expressionist movement by second problem.

The second challenge was the lack of colour, which was handled in other artistic areas like painting and theatre. This situation could not be solved in the era of the 1920’s and directors, and set designers, had to improve their sets to counteract the colour problem. In Caligari, the mise-én-scene became their priority to enhance the quality of expressionism: “Thus the mise-en-scene of the expressionist films sought to add colour through the broader imagery portrayed on screen” (Roberts, 2008, p.24). The set, acting and use of lighting counteracted the lack of colour by allowing the director to exploit the mise-én-scene and innovate at the same time: “… coupled with innovative mise-én-scene resulted in a uniquely stylized set design, the employment of painted chiaroscuro effects and the adoption of an exaggerated acting method… (Roberts, 2008, p.34). The result was that filmmakers focused their attention on the scene and the composition of the frame rather than cinematic movement of the camera and editing.

The mise-én-scene became the main quality of the films in German Expressionism and it had an importance in the plot of the Film. The sets in Caligari were constructed in an exaggerated shape to connect the state of mind to the main character. The director, in order to reinforce the importance of mise-én-scene, adds to the performance of the actors, which had to merge with the sets to develop the style applied in the film.

One example of the exploitation of all the elements in the frame is the presentation of Cesare in the fair town by his master Dr. Caligari. The scene is intercut between close shots to Cesare’s face and full shots when Caligari opens his cabinet and allows Cesare to be free. The mise-én-scene and makeup of the actor aid in reinforcing the mystery of the character; furthermore, the lights enhance all these aspects, which help the actor to reinforce his acting within the plot: “The attempt made in Caligari to co-ordinate settings, players, lighting and action is symptomatic of the sense of structural organization which, from this film on, manifests itself on the German Screen” (Kraucer, 1986, P. 76). Cesare is fused to the set and elevates the emotion that he had to express to the spectator, in this case terror.

The setting of Caligari is artificial and recreates a world that is inside of one of the characters. The set describes a character’s mind, instead of recreating the world that he lives in; the visual construction describes his state of mind and his necessity of control: “In the film Caligari expressionism seems to be nothing more than the adequate translation of a madman’s fantasy into dictorial terms” (Kraucer, 1966, p.70). The intention of describing the mind is connected to Germany’s situation; struggling as a consequence of World War I and their need of control. The film itself seems to appeal to the spectator to choose between control or insanity: “typical movie fare tended to be more sensationalist than expressionist classics like The cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) with its beautiful props and wrenching; unappealing choice viewers must take between tyranny and chaos” (Brose, 2005, p. 146). It is in Caligari that the spectator sees that Cesare and Caligari are not the monsters of the film but the set where they lived: “Although Cesare and Caligari are certainly menacing, the real danger is the threat of madness and of reality breaking down” (Prince, 2004, P.16). The mise-én-scene become a character in Caligari and will be exploited in other German Expressionist films like Metropolis.

After the success of Caligari the UFA became a popular company for almost a decade, even with the Hyperinflation in 1924, which helped them their position in Germany, and their success continued until they started to lose power, in subsequent years, against the influence of Hollywood cinema (Cook, 2004, P.110). The UFA soon started to finance new projects that would help them to regain their previous position. The project that considered would return them to success was Metropolis, although they never achieved that goal: “In Metropolis, UFA handed Lang its flagship film of the later Weimar period, pouring vast quantities of money into the production in the vain hope that the tale would enhance UFA’s position in the lucrative US Market” (Roberts, 2008. p.63).

The UFA intended to continue their tradition of gaining spectators by sophistication and innovation in Metropolis, as Caligari had achieved before. In Metropolis, Fritz Lang had the idea to emboss the techniques utilized in previous films, accomplishing a new level of stylization. Lang succeeded in transforming the use of mise-én-scene by adding special effects to improve the Expressionist technique: “However Metropolis mostly represents and apotheosis of the use of special effects not only in German silent film, but in German film as a whole … but in Metropolis Lang’s team broke new ground by combining state of art techniques…” (Bachmann and Minded, 2000, p17). Lang used special effects in this movie to create an inexistent world of tomorrow and elevate the Expressionist art on his set.

One of the special effects applied on this movie was the Schufftan process [spiegeltrickverfahren], which combined two sets in a mirror that are projected to the camera. One is a miniature set and the other one is live action and both seem to interact simultaneously in one single space (cook, 2004, p.98). The schufftan process is used in different scenes to mix sets and give continuity to the story; however, the process is also used to enhance the action of the mise-én-scene and participate along with the actor which had to merge with the set in order to recreate the world that the film is showing.

One example is the scene where Freder sees how the machine, Molloch, is devouring the workers that walk into his mouth. This scene was constructed with the schufftan process to allow the mix of action and sets to develop the plot of the story: “In Metropolis…used to the film the sequences of the city’s machinery transformed into a monster devouring the workforce amidst a hellish scene of fire and smoke” (Roberts, 2008, p.66). As in Caligari, the set is part of the plot and not ornamentation. The set also becomes a character, literally, which participates and interacts with the actors thanks to the use of Special effects.

The evolution of German expressionism in Metropolis is reflected by the techniques instead of the sets. The set continue to be expressionist; however, it is by Special effects that art is now expressed. Thanks to the special effects, the camera is no longer a spectator, as in Caligari; it also participates on the construction of the plot. The camera becomes a collaborator to express and create. One example of this is when the robot is transformed into Maria in the laboratory of Rotwing, the inventor. As in Caligari, the presentation of Robot-Maria in Metropolis had all the elements of German Expressionism: the lighting help to define the character; the set was built to emphasize the contrast of light and shadow and, although there is no acting by the robot or Maria, it is the acting of Rotwing that completes all the Expressionist element, however the camera rise the transformation with the use of light to describe the transformation: “the anthropogenesis is accomplished by transferring the human from of Maria by means of electric currents… the fantastic-mysterious event taking place here absolutely had to be made visible” (Bachmann and Minded, 2000, p80). In this scene, Lang uses electricity to achieve lighting effects, impossible for Caligari due to the necessity of economizing electricity.

Lang revolutionized the method for German expressionism by using special effects to include the camera in the action and interact in the plot. The transformation   of Robot-Maria mixes the set, the acting and the lighting as Caligari; nevertheless Lang added to these elements the use of Special effects and editing to improve the composition of the same elements. Furthermore, as in Caligari, the mise-én-scene is fully integrated into the plot, becoming the antagonist of Freder, in which the set interacts with the characters and even harms them, for instance the scene of the machine Molloch, where now it becomes part of the action and the actors have to become subordinate to the set in order to enhance the expressionist quality of the movie.

Thus, Caligari and Metropolis recreate a world that is either inside the mind or  is inexistent and permit the use of Aesthetic elements, like expressionism, in order to create this world by mise-én-scene which transfer the feelings of the characters or the director.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari marks the beginning of German Expressionism in cinema, a movement that was exploited by the UFA in order to gain prestige among other nations and individuals and to succeed as an industry. The freedom the UFA permitted to filmmakers and their teams to experiment allowed them to exploit the artistic influence.

Caligari focuses on the use of settings in order to describe the inner thoughts of the characters, creating in this process an extension of the character in the mise-én-scene, which participates in the action. In Metropolis, it is marked the decadence of this artistic movement and the UFA; the necessity to regain spectators allowed the applying of new cinematic techniques to enhance mise-én-scene and participate further with the characters, becoming a main actor in the film.

Both films create a new dimension of mise-én-scene and expresses what existed in Germany in the 1920’s, allowing the filmmakers to recreate two worlds, one that existed inside of the film and that of the Germany that lived through a depression during the time when they were filmed.

WORK CITED

Bachmann, Holger and Minden, Michael (eds). (2000). Fritz Lang's Metropolis: cinematic visions of technology and fear. Rochester: Camden House.

Brose, Eric Dorn. (2005). A History of Europe in the Twentieth Century. New York: Oxford Universtiy Press.

Cook, A. David. (2004). A History of Narrative Film Fourth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Kracauer, Siegfried. (1966). From Caligari to Hitler: a psychological history of the German film. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Lang, Fritz (dir). (1927). Metropolis. Germany: Universum Film (UFA).

Prince, Stephen (edit). (2004). the Horror Film. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

Roberts, Ian. (2008). German Expressionist Cinema: The World of Light and Shadow. London: Wallflower Press.

Weine, Robert (dir). (1920). Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari. Germany: Decla-Bioscop AG.