German Expressionism In Weimar Cinema

Over the fifteen weeks of the first semester of film school, we were taught many interesting types and styles of early world cinema which were extremely informative and influenced the filmmaking style of the whole class and made us better filmmakers instantly. One such ‘ism’ which inspired me the most was German Expressionism which is a unique characteristic of Weimar Cinema. In this essay I am going to talk about the history of this ‘ism’, its impact on cinema, some significant works and how it inspired me and influenced my filmmaking style.

German Expressionism is one of the earliest artistic genres to influence filmmaking, and one that ostensibly prepared for some other cutting edge artistic styles and techniques. It is an artistic genre

This is something which has always intrigued me as a filmmaker, as I have always loved watching films with two or more dimensions, and learning about German Expression has made it clearer to me. One thing that I have learned from this form of expressionism is that film becomes art only to the extent when the film image differs from reality. The constant use of crooked shapes in larger than life and artistic sets, the overexaggerated movements of the actors, and focusing on making the film a more visual fest to the eye of the audience while having a deep metaphorical layer has really inspired me. This new information could really influence my filmography as prior to learning about German Expressionism, I always used to think that having a metaphorical layer is enough for your film to be poetic but now I have learned that to make that metaphorical layer more believable to the audience, you need to support it by creating a world which would emphasize on the metaphor and also with the help of artistic visuals, just like in the German Expressionist films. This would help in making the audience connect with the story and the characters more easily. I now have a better understanding of film in general and how it can move and transcend people of the society at a particular time when it can take them to a different world and make them forget about their worries. Just like German Expressionism inspired me, a budding filmmaker, this specific translation of cinema as craftmanship would go ahead to impact the absolute most essential filmmakers of the twentieth century, including Alfred Hitchcock, Werner Herzog, and Tim