Nick Hausch October 15 2012 IB Film 0 Period

German Expressionism
German expressionism spanned over the first three decades of the 20th century. These years were major years for german artist. The artists from germany through out this time span had plenty of material to base there drawings and collages off of. During the first decade of the 20th century there were thousands of people migrating to the USA which was mostly a european based population. The area that was just about become a major factor for many people in the years to come was the movie branch. The movie branch so far had been very unimportant. It was a time of great political and societal upheaval, were the younger population was on the look out for a different why to express their feelings and or opinions towards political views. Some of the major films that influenced current genres are Metropolis, Nosferatu, and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. These films influenced current genres like film noir, horror and modern cinema. These films not only influenced the current genres but also defined what the realms of the genres are. Many modern films still today demonstrate influence in particular horror films of German expressionism. The reason that the german expressionism movement had an effect on these genres is because it had to do with tragic, scary, and harmful events at the current time in Germany. At the time there were a good group of 5 or 6 famous or popular . The first was Robert Wiene who became known for The Cabinet of Dr Caligari which is one of the biggest movies that came out of the german expressionism movement. Next important director is Fritz Lang who is one of the most inspirational directors but also had the capability to act and write the script for movies such as Metropolis. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau directed the very important movie Nosferatu which was the first real horror film to scare viewers. During the early 20th century german expressionism had a major impact on the time period but also on the current film making industry especially with horror and film noir. A very special part that inspired this movement to occur was the possibility that the directors, actors, and script writers were able to relate and have the same feelings going through all of these different hard events for the German economy. Most of the people in the film industry were there to express there personal feelings towards the way germany was being run and not to become a world known rich superstar.