One of the first German Expressionist Films is known to be ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’, and was created in 1920 by Robert Wiene. It followed an insane hypnotist (Dr. Caligari), who hypnotizes a sleepwalker to kill people. It didn’t take long for people to connect Dr. Caligari to the German government, and the sleepwalker to the German people, making it a film very much aimed against the German Government.
Even though it was produced by UFA.
It is very telling of the mindset of the German people in that time period. The Germans had just lost WW1, and the German populous was untrusting of the government. Additionally, the Weiner republic had cut themselves off from the rest of the world, and no new media was coming in. It was a dark time, and the mise-en-scene in ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ reflects this.
One of the most jarring and obvious things to a modern audience is the background – the extreme and non-naturalistic sets on which the action takes place. They are all pained (no use of location) and have extreme angles, dark lines and are overall very abstract. The sets are confusing and alarming, and overall gives a sense of having a nightmare – which, aside from being alarming and confusing to the audience, they can connect Germany in the 1920s to being a nightmare state.
And even though it’s a silent film, the sound track is incredible and nightmarish.
Abstract sets aside, though, as these only carried over to a select number of German Expressionist films (including from Morn to Midnight), but there are certainly other aspects that do cross over, including strong use of lighting, creating shadows and jarring contrast, heavy makeup, highlighting facial features, and extreme movement, exaggerating elements of the performance.
Make Up
German Expressionism generally has very extreme make up that highlights certain features such as the eyes and lips. It is used to highlight the mental states of characters, as well as dramatize the mystery and emotion. Like the sets, it also creates a sense of discomfort, and seems almost like a hallucination.
Movement
The movement in a German Expressionist film is also very exaggerated and choreographed, creating a sense of alienation. Movement is also very intentional to create extreme shadows…
Lighting
Lighting is used to create dramatic shadows between dark and light, and is used to create a comparison between the light and dark in people. Lighting is also used to create shadows, and give an ominous feel. Using a shadow rather than the character’s actual body is quite dark and mysterious.
So all of these elements – exaggerating the dark – were definitely useful in the consideration of our project. However, we were didn’t want the film to be entirely expressionistic, as we wanted the world our protagonist lives in to be a realistic one, as it is also a horror and we didn’t want to detract from the relation he builds with the audience. For this reason, the set, make up and movement were to remain natural. The film is also a horror, so to remain true to the genre, needed to be (mostly) dark.
But there are moments in the short where we want the audience to question whether or not Sid is actually sane, and for these moments, we decided to use Expressionistic lighting to capture the instability of Sid’s mind, and to contrast the darkness in his mind with the ‘normal’ (or light).
Looking over the script, we decided that the end would be the best place for it, when Sid is fights with Doc and then ends up on the ground, rocking and beating himself up. Having this convention added in at the end didn’t seem (conceptually, at least) to be an issue, as at this point the climax is building and we think that it can be justified and won’t look too irregular. In these moments, the extreme lighting will highlight Sid’s ill state while appearing confusing, which will hopefully bring the audience into Sid’s state as well.
And here is an example of the lighting on Sid’s face, used to heighten emotion. Though this is a BTS shot, not an action shot.
Bibliography…
Blakeney, K. (2010). F.W. Murnau, His Films and their Influence on German Expressionism. Student Pulse Online Academic Student Journal. [http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/371/2/fw-murnau-his-films-and-their-influence-on-german]
Johnson, M. (2010, September 3). Factoidz. German Expressionist Cinema [http://popular-culture.factoidz.com/german-expressionist-cinema/]
Kuhn, A. and Westwell, G. (2012). A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford University Press.
