GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM 3:METROPOLIS

Lecture 14

WHAT ARE THE STYLISTIC FEATURES OF EXPRESSIONIST FILM VS. IMPRESSIONIST FILM?

Impressionism1. Mise-en-scene/pro-filmic:

naturalistic• Location/outdoor shooting

2. *Innovates in the area of camerawork (i.e. the enframed image):

• Superimposition• Distortions• Masks• Filters• Soft focus• Mobile camera• Variety of angles and heights

3. Transforms image of nature using photographic means: defamiliarizes nature: photogénie

4. *Innovates in the area of editing• Continuity based on graphic, rhythmic,

associative, connotative relations between shots

Expressionism1. *Innovates in the area of mise-en-

scene (i.e. the pro-filmic)• Sets: artificial not natural• Costumes• Props• Acting• lighting

2. Enframed image/camerawork• Unobtrusive• Stationary camera• Eye-level• Straight-on angle

3. Replaces the image of nature with art: substitutes for nature

4. Editing• Unobtrusive• Continuity

o Shot/reverse shoto Cross-cutting

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: BUILT SETS

From The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari From Metropolis

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: GRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE SHOT/ SETS AS ACTORS

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: GRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE SHOT/

DE-EMPHASIS ON THE HUMAN FIGURE

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: GRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE SHOT

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: GRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE SHOT/

DE-EMPHASIS ON THE HUMAN FIGURE

BIRTH OF A NATION

THE CROWD

METROPOLIS

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: GRAPHIC QUALITIES OF THE SHOT

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: DISTORTION AND EXAGGERATION

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: JUXTAPOSITION OF SIMILAR SHAPES

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: COSTUMES

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: ACTINGSLOW AND EXAGGERATED

EXPRESSIONIST STYLISTICS: LIGHTING

THE LESSON OF FORM (STYLE) AND CONTENT (STORY) IN METROPOLIS

• Two kinds of objections

– Stupid story, amazing style• Ex: the Young Buñuel in 1927: “Those who consider the cinema as a discreet teller of tales will

suffer a profound disillusion with Metropolis. What it tells us is trivial, pretentious, pedantic, hackneyed romanticism. But if we put before the story the plastic-photogenic basis of the film, then Metropolis will come up to any standards, will overwhelm us as the most marvellous picture book imaginable.”

• Ex: reviewer: “Dear Mr. Lang, don’t always think in terms of individual images! Your problem is that the idea counts as nothing for you…. [M]any of your images are very beautiful…but shouldn’t they also have meaning and sense?”

– Inconsistent story and style• Ex: Kracauer in 1947: “It makes sense that, on their way to and from the machines, the

workers form ornamental groups; but it is nonsensical to force them into such groups while they are listening to a comforting speech from the girl Maria during their leisure time. In his exclusive concern with ornamentation, Lang goes so far as to compose decorative patterns from the masses who are desperately trying to escape the inundation of the lower city.”

THE ASYLUM

Inside the framing-story Outside the framing-story

KRACAUER: “CINEMATICALLY AN INCOMPARABLE ACHIEVEMENT, THIS INUNDATION SEQUENCE IS HUMANLY A SHOCKING FAILURE.”

Final shots of Metropolis

Lang on Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister:

• According to Lang (1941), “…he [Goebbels] told me that, many years before, he and the Fuhrer had seen my picture Metropolis in a small town, and Hitler had said at that time that he wanted me to make the Nazi pictures.”

THE MASS ORNAMENT IN

LENI RIEFENSTAHL’S 1934 PROPAGANDA DOCUMENTARY,

TRIUMPH OF THE WILL.