Masters of European Formalist Cinema:

1
Masters of European Formalist Cinema

• From German Expressionism
• to Bergman

2
German Expressionism

• A film premiered in Berlin, late February, 1920.
• Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari by Robert Wiene
• Stylized sets with distorted buildings on canvas
  backdrops, crooked trees and lampposts, interiors
  in a theatrical manner.
• Completely non-realistic performance - jerky and
  dance-like movements

3
(No Transcript)
4
German Expressionism

• Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr.
  Caligari, 1920)

5

• Thomas Eakins, The Champion Single Sculls (1871)
• Realist painting realistic representation of
  outward appearance

6

• Photographic realism in painting - painters
  attempt to record reality as a camera does
• Thomas Eakins, Students at the Site of the
  Swimming Hole (Albumin print on paper, 1883)
• Thomas Eakins, Swimming (The Swimming Hole, 1885)

7
Claude Monet, La Cathédral de Rouen (Full
Sunlight Gold in Dull Weather Harmony of Blue
1894)French impressionism - attempt to capture
fleeting qualities of light.
8
(No Transcript)
9
Expressionism in Painting

• Abandonment of realistic representation and the
  expression of inner emotion through extreme
  distortion
• Large shapes of raw, unrealistic and symbolic
  colours expressing psychic condition.

10
Expressionism in Painting

• Anguish, anxiety, fear, vanity, pride and other
  emotion represented by elongated figures and
  distorted faces

11
Expressionism in Painting

• Tilted, lean buildings, oddly angled streets, and
  distorted perspective express a state of mind.

12
Expressionism in Theatre

• Expressionist theatre
• Expressionistic stage design (Bertold Brecht and
  Kurt Weil, Drei groschen oper)
• Unnaturalistic performance

13
German Expressionism

• Actors and their performance fit to the
  composition of shots, set designs, costumes and
  lighting.
• the film image must become graphic art
  Herman Warm

14
German Expressionism

• If the décor has been conceived as having the
  same spiritual state as that which governs the
  characters mentality, the actor will find in
  that décor a valuable aid in composing and living
  his part. He will blend himself into the
  represented milieu, and both of them will move in
  the same rhythm. Conrad Veight

15
German Expressionism

• Nosferatu eine symphonie des grauns (Vampire a
  symphony of horror, 1922)
• Directed by F.W. Murnau starring Max Schreck as
  Count Orlock (Count Dracula) based on Bram
  Stokers Dracula
• Albin Grau, art designer, costume designer and
  producer

16
European Art Films

• International avant-garde style - French, German,
  Soviet filmmaking as an alternative to American
  realist film style
• The epitome - Carl Theodor Dreyers Passion of
  Joan of Arc (1928)
• The film depicting the trial and execution of
  Joan of Arc

17
European Avant-garde Films

• Great many close-ups, often decentered
• Filmed against blank and white background or
  symbolic objects and signs (the sets designed by
  Hermann Warm, the designer of Caligari) The
  inquistion of Joan

18
European Avant-garde Films

• Close ups of the face of Joan of Arc (Italian
  comedienne Renée Falconetti) without make-ups -
  every emotional detail can be shown.
• Dynamic low and high angle framings
• Symbolic scenes juxtaposed in editing
• Accelerated subjective editing (Soviet Montage
  film)

19
Luis Buñuel (1900-1983 Spanish/Mexican)Ingmar
Bergman (1918-2007 Sweden)Federico Fellini
(1920-1993 Italy)Michelangelo Antonioni
(1912-2007 Italy)Robert Bresson (1901-1999
France)Jacques Tati (1908-1982 France)