-started to become established in Germany in 1910
-valued expressionism over impressionism
-Expressionism was popular in Germany and Austria
-Expressionism went against the constraints of tradition
-Post war expressionist art drew on the emotions of the people
-The movement started to fade in 1933 after Hitler’s Nazi party rose to power
Common themes:
-bold use of colour
-inspiration from non-western cultures
Examples:
-1914 cinema becomes established (1500 approx cinemas)
-social and economic devastation after war led to slump
-Germany’s political and economic instability post war led to a new culture later described as “German Expressionism”
-In the 1920s cinema started to spike as people started to seek out escapism from the economic problems
-German Expressionism cinema tended to explore darker themes like crime, social decay and the destructive powers of money and technology
-German Expressionism gave birth to two new genres of film: Gothic Horror and Film Noir
Source: https://alphahistory.com/weimarrepublic/weimar-cinema/
‘Name at least 3 other films identified by critics as classic German Expressionist films + Illustrations’
3 films that have been identified as classic German expressionist films are:
‘Describe some of the stylistic conventions associated with the expressionist art movement. Post some additional examples of expressionist art.’
Expressionist art tends to use a lot of extreme angles, rough lines and distorted views in order to portray what the artist is feeling rather than focusing on making the art look realistic. Along with that, expressionist art tends to use a lot of vivid colours and bold strokes in order to exaggerate what the artist is feeling at the time.
Some examples of this are:
Out of the Past (1947)
Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Touch of Evil (1958)
Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam -The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920)
Faust (1926)
The Last Laugh (1924)
Vertigo (1958, Alfred Hitchcock)
Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Big Sleep (1946, Howard Hawks)
‘The Testament of Dr. Mabuse’ (1933, Fritz Lang)
‘Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam’ (1920, Paul Wegener, Carl Boese)
The Man Who Laughs (1928, Paul Leni)
‘In 1997, UFA and the Luxembourgish rival CLT established the joint venture CLT-UFA, which, following the takeover of British rival Pearson Television, was restructured as RTL Group in 2000. Today, UFA GmbH (UFA) works as a subsidiary of RTL Group’s production division FremantleMedia, which had been formed out of Pearson TV, and is responsible for all production activities of Bertelsmann and FremantleMedia in Germany.
Until August 2013, eight subsidiaries operated under the UFA umbrella: UFA Fernsehproduktion, UFA Entertainment, Grundy UFA, Grundy Light Entertainment, UFA Cinema, teamWorx, Phoenix Film and UFA Brand Communication.
In August 2013, UFA underwent an organizational restructuring that simplified the company down to three production divisions. Today, UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama, UFA Show & Factual and UFA Documentary are the four units responsible for production.’
(source – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFA_GmbH)
Examples include ‘distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements’ to create a sense of ‘highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression’.
(Source – https://www.britannica.com/art/Expressionism)
(Illustrated examples:)
‘Evening on Karl Johan Street’
Painting by Edvard Munch
‘The Yellow Cow’
Painting by Franz Marc
