German Expressionism

During 1919, Expressionist films began to emerge and explore the use of various film style and film form techniques. One of the main styles which defined German Expressionist films was the manipulation of mis-en-scene; this included creating twisted and distorted sets, actors using strange and dance-like movements and costumes and appearances tending to be over-exaggerated and outrageous (Horak, 2010, Moran, 2010, Read, 2010, Thompson and Bordwell, 2008). During this time, the culture of German Expressionism boomed as cinema-goers were excited and interested in the strange plots and film techniques which contrasted classical Hollywood films which were popular and increasingly emerging at the time (Thompson and Bordwell, 2009). Genres like fantasy, horror and science-fiction were prominent in Germany throughout the period of the import ban because it protected film producers from competition; giving writers and directors the opportunity to express their creativity and in the future, influencing on French poetic realism and Hollywood film noir (Read, 2010 and Thompson and Bordwell, 2009).
The main characteristics of German Expressionism were the inventive and creative set des...
The film directed by F.W. Murnau in 1922, Nosferatu was a significant film created during the German Expressionist period and reflected many of the different attributes at the time in terms of the larger cultural, technological, political and economic developments. Throughout this essay, the main topics discussed will be how the film form and film style techniques used in Nosferatu can be understood in terms of its culture; being the idea of fantasy genres, utilisation of Expressionistic attributes and its influence on other countries and forms of popular culture in the present day. Technology; discussing how industrial advancement expanded and improved the production of filmmaking and also how Germany was seen as innovators and pioneers of technology who set the benchmarks for filmmaking