German Expressionism In Hollywood Film

It has been observed that German expressionism has affected some Hollywood films and black films in the 1940s of the silent era. Some of the well-known directors such as Hitchcock, and Orson Wells were also influenced by German expressionism. Although the history of German expressionist films was transient, it still has an impact on the visual style of the development of film, especially in the performance of criminal activities in the Hollywood films. Thus, this article aims at exploring the politics, economy, and film advance of Germany at that time. Moreover, film Metropolis would be used as an example to help contextualise the arguments.

German expressionism is a distinctive film school appeared in Germany in the 1920s. Once again, it

German expressionism originated in 1919; from 1924 it began to decline and experienced approximately five years. Speaking of Germany 's political and economic background at that time, it had to mention the Weimar Republic. During 1919 to 1933, German was in the period of the Weimar Republic. The German Federal Law was enacted in 1919; Friedrich Ebert was the first President. He made it clear on principles of popular sovereignty and created the German history of the Republic. The German Federal Law was the world 's longest constitution at that time. It theoretically established parliamentary democracy regime. In 1918 after the First World War, victors (Allies) signed a Peace Treaty of Versailles, the purpose of this peace treaty is to punish and weaken Germany. In order to compel the Allies to reduce Germany 's war reparations of the First World War, the German government vigorously cut in public spending. While in doing so, the consequences are a large number of unemployment and deflation. In the meantime, a large number of unemployment and deflation created conditions for the Nazis came to power. This is one of the most eminent financial crisis happened in the history of Germany in 1923. The disaster of hyperinflation was indirectly caused by the symbol of the end of the First World War, namely the Versailles Treaty. What is more, German had to pay huge compensation to Allis. However, the fuse is that France and Belgium occupied the Germany Ruhr industrial centre so as to

The first half of the 20th century can be seen as the turmoil of the era. For Germany, the couple years after the end of the First World War were a peculiar period of time. At the beginning of the short-lived the Weimar Republic, German was the Versailles Treaty imposed breath liabilities. At the same time, German had to maintain the stability of domestic balance. The worse material conditions led to the corruption of the shared values, the domestic was filled with anxiety and discomfort, so as to make the German artists fanatically devoted themselves to expressionism movement. In contrast to France and other countries, German expressionism poured more intense emotions on the subject matters.

The reality of post-war German society reinforced the people 's sense of loss of life and sense of crisis, as a result, people began to call the mind, the voice of the entire era into a cry for help. Art also will call together, she calls towards the invisible dark, and she calls for rescue. In such a social background and under the direct action of expressionism painting and drama, Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari came up, which acquired applause in artistic and commercial success promoted the similar film creation appeared one after another.

In 1920, Karl Heinz Martin filmed Von morgens bis mitternachts based on the homonymy expressionist drama; Robert Wiene launched his second expressionist film Genuine; Paul Wegener, starring and directed the famous