Sep 28, 2023 • By Kat Bello, BA in Visual Arts & Art History

German Expressionism in cinema is known for dramatic camera angles, looming shadows, optical illusions, haunted anti-heroes, claustrophobic cinematography, and shocking twist endings. It’s difficult to imagine what the landscape of cinema would look like today without the breakthroughs of this 1920s film genre. With heavy symbolism and bold dark themes, German Expressionist films quickly took hold of a country reeling from the aftermath of the First World War.

German Expressionism was an early 20th-century art movement, wildly influential yet notoriously difficult to pin down. Its cinematic incarnation is an offshoot of the larger Expressionist movement, which had a profound impact on visual arts, theater, literature, and architecture in the early 1900s. Expressionism was influenced by post-impressionist and symbolist artists like Paul Gauguin, Edvard Munch, and Vincent Van Gogh, as well as by African and Polynesian art. It sought to express individual emotions and subjectivities, rather than depict the impressions of a realistic world.

Expressionist artworks often depicted the alienation, anxiety, and sexuality of the modern world. Expressionists used bold and unrealistic colors, jagged lines, and semi-abstract and exaggerated shapes. In theater and literature, Expressionism sought to explore characters’ mental states, often using symbolism, and depicting heightened, exaggerated emotions.

German Expressionist cinema sits at the convergence of these art forms. It developed largely in the 1920s, a decade after the outset of expressionism in visual art and literature. Following the devastation of the First World War, the movement brought to the silent film screen innovative ideas and disturbing stories. The mise-en-scène of these films did not use realism. Instead, it expressed subjective viewpoints, seeking to immerse audiences in twisted narratives and haunting tales. To do this, the authors used distorted, unrealistic set design, bold makeup, experimental camerawork, and chiaroscuro lighting.