Artists tend to convey their emotion or feeling in many kinds of arts, such as paintings, literature, music etc and creates an expressionist art. This had also included the film which was developed by German back in 1920. According to Bordwell and Thompson (2010), a lot of films back in that year were influenced by the style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) which was the first successful expressionist film in history and this had lasted for several years.
THEORY DISCUSSION
German expressionist depends heavily on the mise-en-scene of the film. This is because the visuals had actually played a very important role in the expressionist film to bring out the emotion of the narration. The themes for the German expressionism usually involves rebel, self-analysis, insanity, primitive and sexual savagery. There are various styles that often being used in the expressionist film.
First of all, expressionist innovated the use of oblique camera angles in most if their films. According to VideoEditingSage.com (n.d.), this type of angle is being known as The Dutch Tilt, which is one of the cinematic strategy where the camera is tilted to one side so that the plane of the horizon meets the bottom of the camera frame at a certain angle to create an “in balance” or “uneasiness” feel for the shot or scene of the movie. Audiences will also put themselves on a high alert situation and feel tension while watching the movie. This tactic often used by German expressionist as they are able to express the sense of insanity, madness, and betrayal in the movie.
Next, it is often to see distorted bodies and shape in expressionists’ films. The difference of using a character or an object with the correct proportion and using those with distorted ones is the feeling that it can give to the audiences. By distorting the shape of an object, it is more easily to express idea emotion or feeling. For example, instead of using a realistic tree, it is easier to use a really twisted one to bring out the fear of the audiences. This is why expressionist tends to against the actual proportion of some different objects.
Besides, expressionist will also tend to use high contrast lighting to create dramatic shadows. High contrast lighting not only can create a scary atmosphere in a horror movie but it also ideal to create a romantic and mysterious atmosphere. It might be unnatural sometimes but it could really express the emotion of fear, love, and curiosity.
Lastly, German expressionist will also create a surreal and Gothic content or unnatural acts in their narration, which is against the norm of a realistic story. They usually build a bizarre and incongruous setting in the storyline to express the chaotic situation of the content. Although it is unnatural but the exaggeration of the content can let the audiences to feel the story in a more effective way.
MOVIE: THE CORPSE BRIDE (2005)
SYNOPSIS
The parents of Victor and Victoria had planned a marriage for the two of them. However, Victor had created a huge chaos during the rehearsal and he ran to the forest. Victor unintentionally proposed to Emily while he was practicing for the wedding and he was brought to the world of the death. Victor was terrified but he slowly fell in love with Emily and he is willing to sacrifice his life to marry her. Nevertheless, Emily realized that she does not deserve to have Victor’s life for their marriage and she left him with Victoria.
ANALYSIS
One of the traits of German Expressionism that can be found in this movie is the rebellion of norms from the characters, especially Victoria. The story reflects the restriction of Victoria’s freedom from her parents. As she fell in love with Victor so badly, she had started to revolt her parents’ order for the sake of her love. For instance, Victoria tried for a lot of times to tell her parents that Victor had married to a corpse, Emily, but they refuse to listen and eventually shut her up in her room. However, Victoria rebels the orders and sneak out from her room to save Victor. This scene had shown one of the themes of expressionism which is the revolt.
Besides, this movie also uses a lot of oblique angles in the scenes. For example, when Victor practices his vow after he ran into the forest, we can see several shots in this scene that is taken in an oblique angle. This tactic had successfully alerted the audiences and make them think that something bad is going to happen on Victor. Thus, we can feel the tension and excitement in a lot of scenes in this movie, especially those that were shot in oblique angles.
Last but not least, we can find a lot of distortion of shapes or bodies in this movies. It is really crucial for a horror story like this to have distorted objects because it can express the danger of the situation or the fear of the characters and the audiences. One of the examples is also the scene of Victor practicing his vow in the forest. Audiences are able to know that something bad is going to happen to Victor or he is staying in a dangerous place by just looking at the setting of the background. The trees that are designed in this movies are twisted and slanted. It is really abnormal and unnatural to have trees in such shapes but this distortion had successfully expressed the alarming atmosphere in this scene.
CONCLUSION
Nowadays, German expressionism can easily be found in fantasy and horror films. The distorted shape of the objects and the environment, as well as the unusual camera angles, are really crucial to bring out the sense of terror and mystery. Unlike the way they did in the past, these can be achieved without setting up the props in the studio but people nowadays are using CGI or Visual Effects to create such distorted visuals. A lot of animated movies, like Corpse Bride (2005) are applying expressionism style as well. Therefore, this trend is still being preserved in some modern films today.
References
Bordwell, D & Thompson, K. (2010). Film Art: An Introduction. New York, America: McGraw-Hill.
VideoEditingSage.com. (n.d.). Camera Angles The Dutch Tilt: How to Set a Darker Mood!. Retrieved from https://www.videoeditingsage.com/camera-angles-dutch-tilt.html.
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