Pick any one film from the German Expressionism category to view and discuss

German Expressionism

Pick any one film from the German Expressionism category to view and discuss

Film List

Possible Viewings for German Expressionism: Der Golem wie er in die Welt kam / The Golem (Galeen & Wegener, 1915), Der letzte Mann / The Last Laugh (Murnau, 1924), Metropolis (Lang, 1927), Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens / Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922), Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari / The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wiene, 1920)

Example of Film Journal Entry

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Weine in 1920, is a German silent film about a sideshow operator Dr. Caligari who uses his Somnambulist to commit crimes. The pictures itself are very dark, consisting mostly of gray and yellowish lights. A scene of the film is shown, then the words are show with a blue background. The plot itself is not all that scary, but the landscape depictions are. Weine uses jagged lines and dark shadows to instill fright within the audience.

Like many films in the German Expressionism era, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari uses distortion and exaggeration exemplified by the twisting turning streets in the German town Holstenwall, where the film takes place, and the mountainous background made up of pointed lines and jagged edges. The director regularly opens the shots up close then moves backwards.

I found this film very slow moving, though I did like the plot. It was difficult to follow along because the scenes were shot, then words were shown to give the characters dialogue. It was even more difficult because those words were in German and the English subtitles took a looonnnggg time to scroll through. So even though the movie itself moved slowly, I did enjoy the story and the detail the director placed in the scenery.

Last Completed Projects