Essay on German Expressionism & Classical Hollywood

F.W. Murnau as one of the representative directors in German Expressionism, who also made achievement in Classical Hollywood, to compare The Last Laugh (1924) and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), the differences and similarities between these two, would be able to show how German Expressionism transform and have influence on the visual style of Classical Hollywood cinema.

In the film called The Last Laugh, the story was no longer being horror or fantasy. It was about realistic life at that time, but some significant characteristics of German Expressionism, were immerged in the design of cinematography, and creatively expressed the inner struggles within characters.

The use of shadow and silhouette, didn’t go through the whole film. This stylish effect in lighting, specifically appeared in the unusual scenes, when the character’s anxiety became the tone. It enhanced the intensity of conflict, developed a dramatic blocking, meanwhile allowed the audience being focus on the feeling of the character, with simple contrast between darkness and brightness.

And the twisted body language in performance, was reduced to a reasonable perspective. That kind of awkward body gesture, mainly showed up with the character’s emotional breakdown. These unwell postures turned into the reaction after the character was shocked. The clumsiness of these behavior, indicated the character doesn’t know how to behave normal, to respond the bad things that happened to him.

The major element of geometry lines in production design, was assimilated into the architecture of the scene location. For example, the revolving door in hotel where the old man worked, added complexity in the space, and evolved into a symbol of the construction. The divisions between outside and inside the glass door, symbolized the gap between lower and upper classes, it’s nearly visually invisible but physically existed.

However, the subjectivity of cinematography was also contained in the camera movement. The camera moved around in a way of shaky handheld after the old man was drunk, made the dream sequence indistinct and unstable, just like the confused state of mind of the character.

In the film called Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, there was also a stunning camera movement by following the man meeting his mistress, from a subjective angle as the character’s point of view. This shot revealed the secret in the man’s heart, but didn’t make it with much terror, to fit in the romantic tone of the story.

The style of Classical Hollywood lighting by using soft light, was meant to show the beauty of the actresses and actors. This kind of soft light was incompatible to the high contrast lighting in German Expressionism, therefore the darkness became the background of night scenes, to maintain the sense of dark tone.

The fantastic production design was replaced by visual effect in the imaginary scenes, like a garden dissolved from the traffic when crossing the road. This kind of effect blurred the distinctions between location in reality and state of mind. And the storm that happened realistically, could also be seen as the externalization of inner heart.

The methods of emphasizing emotional state of mind in German Expressionism, were gradually transformed to some stylish elements in mainstream movies. Overall, it brought an aesthetic trend on evolving film language in visual storytelling.