One of the things I would like to discuss is the impact of the silent horror films on the talkie horror films. I start with the most obvious: Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (translated as Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror; or simply Nosferatu) is a 1922 German Expressionist Vampire horror film, directed by F. W. Murnau, starring Max Schreck as the vampire Count Orlok. The film, shot in 1921 and released in 1922, was an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stokers Dracula, with names and other details changed because the studio could not obtain the rights to the novel (for instance, vampire became Nosferatu and Count Dracula became Count Orlok). Stokers heirs sued over the adaptation, and a court ruling ordered that all copies of the film be destroyed. However, one print of Nosferatu survived, and the film came to be regarded as an influential masterpiece of cinema. And the German Impressionist style would be evident in Hollwood for many years to come. Many critics see a direct tie between cinema and architecture of the time, stating that the sets and scene artwork of Expressionist films often reveal buildings of sharp angles, great heights, and crowded environments, such as the frequently shown Tower of Babel in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis.[citation needed] Strong elements of monumentalism and modernism appear throughout the canon of German Expressionism. An excellent example on this is Metropolis, as evidenced by the enormous power plant and glimpses of the massive yet pristine upper city. Expressionist paintings avoided the use of subtle shadings and colors. They often used large shapes of bright, unrealistic colors with dark,and they were often cartoon-like. Buildings might sag or lean, showing the ground tilted up steeply.[3] German Expressionist films produced in the Weimar Republic immediately following the First World War not only encapsulate the sociopolitical contexts in which they were created, but also rework the intrinsically modern problems of self-reflexivity, spectacle and identity. Robert Wienes silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) is universally recognized as an early classic of Expressionist cinema. Following the esteemed critiques of Siegfried Kracauer and Lotte Eisner, these films are now viewed as a kind of collective consciousness, so inherently tied are they to their social milieu. Briefly mentioned by J.P. Telotte in his analysis of German film, “German Expressionism: A Cinematic/ Cultural Problem”, expressionism focuses on the “power of spectacles”[10] and offers audiences “a kind of metonymic image of their own situation”.[10] This film movement paralleled Expressionist painting and theater in rejecting realism. The creators of the time sought to convey inner, subjective experience through external, objective means. Their films were characterized by highly stylized sets and acting; they used a new visual style which embodied high contrast and simple editing. The films were shot in studios where they could employ deliberately exaggerated and dramatic lighting and camera angles to emphasize some particular affect - fear, horror, pain. Aspects of Expressionist techniques were later adapted by such directors as Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles and were incorporated into many American gangster and horror films. Some of the major filmmakers of this time were F.W. Murnau, Erich Pommer, and Fritz Lang. The movement ended after the currency stabilized, making it cheaper to buy movies abroad. The UFA financially collapsed and German studios began to deal with Italian studios which led to their influence in style of horror and films noir. The American influence on the film industry would also lead some film makers to continue their career in the US. Here is the film in its entirety. youtube/watch?v=rcyzubFvBsA Contents [hide]
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 10:42:27 +0000
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