Expressionism and UFA

In the 1920s, German silent film was among the most admired and imitated in the world. Painted shadows, crooked streets, a vampire climbing a staircase and a robot built in a laboratory all come from this period, and their influence on horror, science fiction and thriller films is still obvious. This chapter looks at the studio system that made them, the style called Expressionism, three directors whose names recur in every history, and the way the best talent was drawn to Hollywood. Dates are given from general knowledge and flagged where they should be checked, and the chapter also says what is reputation and not record.

UFA and Babelsberg

The studio UFA (Universum Film AG) was formed in 1917 by merging several film companies, with support from the German government and military, during the First World War. A reason often given is that the authorities wanted a strong German film industry to compete with foreign propaganda and entertainment (check the detail). After the war it became the largest German studio, and it worked mainly from a site at Babelsberg, near Potsdam on the edge of Berlin, where film-making had begun in the early 1910s. Babelsberg is often described as the oldest large-scale film studio in the world, though that kind of claim should be treated as a boast (check).

What Expressionism Means

Expressionism was an artistic movement, found in painting, theatre and writing as well as film, that favoured inner feeling over realism. In film, it is usually recognised by distorted, stylised sets, strong contrasts of light and shadow, exaggerated acting and stories about madness, fear and authority. The label was applied by later critics, and not every film now called Expressionist was made with that name in mind.

Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) is usually the first film named in any account of Expressionism. A hypnotist and a sleepwalker are linked to a series of murders in a town of painted, crooked buildings. Robert Wiene directed, from a script by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz. The ending, in which the story is revealed to be told by a patient in an asylum, was reportedly added in the course of production and changed the meaning of the whole film, a point on which accounts differ (check). Even so, the look of the film, with sets that appear to lean and slant, made it a landmark.

Nosferatu and Murnau

Nosferatu (1922), directed by F. W. Murnau, was an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, with the names changed. The author's widow took legal action and a court ordered the copies to be destroyed, but some survived, which is why the film can be seen today. The film's best-known image, the long shadow of the vampire creeping up a staircase, is often quoted. Murnau also directed The Last Laugh (1924), famous for a camera that moved through spaces, which was unusual at the time, and later went to Hollywood, where he made Sunrise in 1927 (check).

Fritz Lang and Metropolis

Fritz Lang made some of the best-known German silent films, including a crime serial about a master criminal, Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), and a two-part retelling of the Nibelung legend. His most famous silent film is Metropolis (1927), set in a future city divided between rich rulers above ground and workers below. The film is known for its enormous sets, huge crowds, special effects and a robot woman.

• Cost. It was among the most expensive films of its time, and its cost is often said to have strained the finances of UFA (check). A deal with American studios to share distribution is generally mentioned in this connection.
• Cuts. The film was shortened for release and for foreign markets, and for decades only incomplete versions survived.
• Restoration. A longer version, assembled with the help of a copy found in Argentina, was shown in 2010 (check the years).

Other Currents

• Realist films. Directors such as G. W. Pabst made films about contemporary life, including Pandora's Box (1929) with the American actress Louise Brooks.
• Comedy and costume drama. Ernst Lubitsch made popular historical dramas and comedies in Germany before moving to Hollywood in the early 1920s.
• Mountain films. Films such as those of Arnold Fanck celebrated mountains and physical heroism, and are discussed again in Chapter 3 because of the later careers of some of those involved.

The Exodus to Hollywood

Many German film-makers, actors and technicians went to the United States in the 1920s, drawn by higher pay and larger budgets. Lubitsch and Murnau were early examples, and the movement continued, with a second and larger wave after 1933 for political reasons (Chapter 3). The effect was that German visual style influenced Hollywood, especially in horror and in the crime films later called film noir, which is why the British and American film vocabulary borrows so many German techniques.

Exercises

Next chapter: Weimar Sound & the Nazi Screen, which follows German cinema from the arrival of sound through the years of National Socialism.