Don’t you just love when you find movies that change the way movies were made? Whether it be in modern times or even a hundred years ago now. Finding the movies that changed the course of film history is seriously a mind-boggling such a cool experience. For example, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
This film was made in the year 1920 by an independent production company with the abbreviatio DECLA. While watching the film, there’s no audible speech, since it is a silent film. However, the some eerie music that all throughout the film. This movie brings the aesthetics of German Expressionism to life, and shows what the movies in the German Expressionism movement can be like.
German Expressionism has a very nightmarish look to it. There’s a very big contrast with lighting, the shadows are very prominent, and there’s not that much color either. Is there is, it’s just one solid color all throughout the scene. For example, in Dr. Caligari, two main colors that are extremely prominent are yellow and blue. Now personally, don’t know if that has a specific meaning to it, however, is a repeated aesthetic that we see throughout the film.
While watching these movies, you could say that they’re almost dreamlike. The uniquely drawn-out text cards, the dark and somber look of each character, all of it. One might even make the joke of how Tim Burton got his inspiration from German Expressionism. And honestly, I wouldn’t even be surprised.
In the film Nosferatu, which was created in 1922, it’s the same concept of Dr. Caligari. The dark tones, the prominent shadows, and even the color choices. Now in this film, the main colors that are used are yellow, blue, and red. The text slides are more fitting to the Victorian style film aesthetic, however it’s still sticking to that German Expressionism look. With this aesthetic, it adds to the horror aspect of the movie. It makes the movie seem more scary and intrigues the audience even more. Because not only is their color, unlike there was before, but it’s also a scary story. Now being someone who used to not like horror, even if you’re not into it, once you start hearing a scary story, it’s hard to stop listening. So I can imagine that lots of people enjoy this genre of movies and filmmaking.
The German Expressionism genre is very unique in such a wonderful genre to look into. I love the way that these films are made. The look that was picked for these films fits the genre absolutely perfect and it seems as if each film in that genre turned out to be really good. Now while this era of movies was revolutionary, there’s still much much room for growth. And I bet after this era, the people were excited to see where the film industry would go. At least in Germany anyway.
Coley Rose's Corner 