Count Orlok Nosferatu Expressionism

The photograph above depicts the scene of Nosferatu’s arrival via ship to the fictional city of Wisborg from Transylvania, where the main character Hutter and his wife, Ellen lives. Throughout the voyage, Nosferatu kills all the sailors onboard one by one, ending with the captain. Nosferatu is shown getting off the ship and looking lustfully out into the city of Wisborg in his blood-thirsting quest to spread his “plague.”

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the first film by Germany to be an Expressionist film. Authorities of an avant-garde movement believed that by using Expressionism in films (as they did in paintings, theater, literature, and architecture) this might be a selling point in the international market. The film proved that to be true and because of its success other films in the Expressionist style soon followed.

Count Orlock and Ellen are characters introduced in the silent German film, Nosferatu (1922). The film is a German expressionist horror film loosely based on Bram Stoker’s book Dracula (1897) which introduces the horrifying figure and the virtuous maiden.

When one thinks of Germany, he or she would most likely think of Nazi propaganda, Hitler, and concentration camps. Although these depictions of Germany may be true, they are relatively closed-minded because they only depict a single, relatively dark time period in Germany’s history called the Third Reich. The time periods which portray Germany from the twentieth century to present day are quite diverse, and German films respective to each time period reflect that diversity. The time periods include the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, Germany during the Cold War, and Germany post Cold War. Therefore, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari portrays Germany’s Weimar Republic, Triumph of the Will portrays Germany during the Third Reich, The Lives of Others

Music Created drama for this picture. For example when Igor and Frankenstein when to the graveyard. The sound during that scene emphasized the fact that these characters didn’t want to be caught or be seen until the people burying the body left. Sound also created a more comical aroma. For instance, every time anyone would say Frau Blücher the horses will panic and the thunder would appear. This would always happen randomly which made it very

Overall, Murnau’s Nosferatu created some of the most vivid images in German expressionist cinema during the Weimar years. Throughout the film, we get a sense of the overarching theme of death, which Count Orlok represents. Count Orlok’s plague and death he brought to the German city of Wisborg represents the death that was unleashed during the First World War. German Expressionism was able to subject emotion that was influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions rather than a strictly practical view. Murnau was able to captivate the feeling of death that was common among German society after one of the most deadly wars ever fought in Europe. Nevertheless, Murnau’s style and technique in Nosferatu set a precedent for future horror filmmakers

All films made some sort of impact on the growth of the film industry, including foreign ones. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) was a German horror story of murder, meant as a metaphor for World War I. This German film had an important influence on the German films of the future. Written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, it was a madman's vision of the world. Producer Erich Pommer bought the script from Mayer and Janowitz, then cast Werner Krauss as Caligari. The film was planned to be directed by Fritz Lang, but he went to direct a different film instead, and a man named Robert Wiene took the position as director. Caligari is considered to be the first true example of expressionism in film. The distorted sets and grotesquely angled photography

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on the other hand is specifically designed during a time period that was looking at film as an art piece that with every detail on the screen being dripped with symbolism and meaning much like a painting. It is only appropriate that film experts and observers understand the full implications German Expressionism has endued in some part onto its successors of film styles. Siegfried Kracauer states that the directors at a particular point in the course of this expressionist movement realized the benefit of articulating film concepts to manifest emotion, and declare any given opinion through, “ the whole visual sphere: their outspoken feeling for impressive settings, their virtuosity in developing action through appropriate lighting” (Caligari to Hitler 3). The mise en scène factors setting and composition, are only parts that play a small role in what make this film credible for the success of the expressionist movement. These components when assimilated reveal the psychological advances and reactions that define characters, are conveyed throughout the bleak settings of the film, and exhibits the dramatic dimensions of the world created.

Art as a medium has had a cause and effect relationship with history, reflecting the era of which they belonged to through its representation of society, moods, and anxieties. During the 19th century, expressionism as an art movement was prevalent all across Europe, but was truly prominent in Germany. This art movement was seen across all artistic mediums such as painting, theater, and literature as a reaction to realism and impressionism. Towards the end of the arts’ movement, expressionism made its way into film, depicting the tormented psychological realities of post World War Germany. Although, only a few films are considered to be expressionist due to their stylistic and social criticisms adapted from expressionism and applied through the aesthetics of its mis-en-scene. By researching expressionisms characteristics and social representation I will explore the art movements’ historical relevance into film. German expressionist film

The German film, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, is an expressionistic film directed by Robert Weine and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. The film is seen as a masterpiece of German Expressionism in the 1920’s. The film industry during this period was emerging and becoming an accepted form of art in Germany after the First World War. The film exploded on the art world not only in Germany but made its way to France. France lifted the ban on German cinemas due to its popularity. It eventually spread to the United States. This film is seen as one the great horror stories of all times.

Expressionism is a modernist started from the beginning of the 20th Century in Germany. Expressionism have expressed through their art taking emotional experience and the meanings as a subjective. Their bizarre, chaotic and distorted style soon have developed into avant-garde style before the First WW, extending its style to further range of arts such as expressionist architecture, painting, dance, music, theatre and film. “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” directed by Robert Wiene is one of the first classic Germany’s landmark classic film influential by the expressionism. The use of the artistic features and cinematic soon becomes a great influential of classic horror films in the 1930s and presents many standard horror films.

Throughout the early days of cinema there were many different innovations from the Russian examinations on montage, the rise of the studio system in America and perhaps most interestingly the movement out of Germany know as German Expressionism. German Expressionism is an interesting concept that was applied to many films at the time and later on in US cinema, when German directors and technicians moved over. German Expressionism itself is best described as a abstract form of filmmaking that depicts a unspecified nightmarish time and place that explores the dark side of human nature and society as a whole. Perhaps the best example of a German Expressionist film comes in the form of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), but why is this film considered a prime example of German Expressionism. While there are many reasons perhaps these are the three best examples, with the first being the oddly angular set design of the film, the expressionist lighting and finally the story involving madness which is the crux of why the film

The German Expressionism movement was born in Germany primarily due to Germanys defeat in the first world war, Germany became severely isolated from the rest of the world, not only socially and economically, but also culturally. this lead to the German government issuing a total ban of foreign films, this created an influx of German cinema being produced for an entirely German audience. The primary distinguishing features of German expressionism include high contrast shadows, absurd shapes within the set design, oddly proportioned leads and dramatic nightmarish plots, these aesthetics helped create a sense of fear, anxiety and distrust within these German Expressionist worlds. This greatly parallels Germany’s mindset after world war 1.

When emphasizing on Expressionism, it is difficult to describe the German Expressionism in a suitable manner, one that will paint the picture for passing verbal inquires. Its ominous tones, gloomy faces, eerie image, they are by design dependent on self-experience to understand. Suiting the artistic styles of Expressionism, popularized the likes of Vincent van Gogh and Edward Munch, German Expressionism stands out to produce images that will express more subjective feelings to the viewer than the realistic portrayals of ordinary images (Darsa par. 1-2). After world war 2, the Weimar Republic took control of the UFA, a film community that began in World war 1 producing German propaganda, with a new direction of showing Germany’s greatness by cultivating their own talent and stylings (Gazetas p41).

Robert Wiene’s 1920 film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) is a staple of German Expressionist film. Following the experience of the World War I, the film reflects a distrust in the figures of authority who have manipulated the common man. The figures of power are represented by the hypnotist Dr. Caligari and the conditioned common man by his somnambulist Cesare, who commits murders on Caligari’s behalf. Through an engagement with this concept, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is ultimately challenging the spectator’s perception of the world.