German Expressionist Film? - Page 2

Jane13 · 03-29-2006, 04:15 PM

Wow drama at the top of the thread... and I can't beleive I didn't see this thread! German Expressionist movies and Japanese Kwaidon are my favorite genres!

Has anyone here seen "Der Golem", Das Wachsfigurenkabinett", or Der Januskopf"?

I have a really great issue of Rue Morgue magazine that has a whole feature about expressionist films, followed by an article about the film "Shadow of the Vampire" (another of my favorite movies), and then a defense of the remake of Nosferatu (which I thought was all for notheing, 'cause I personally think that movie SUCKS). It's a really nice read if you happen to find it... it was from December of 2000, though.

ps Don't EVER call my sister Xngeula "bitchy", "stupid", or a "cunt" in any combination. I don't think the one who said that is around anymore, but that goes for everyone >.>

Pathogen. · 03-29-2006, 04:20 PM

Don't know too much about German Expressionist film except for 3 things:

*There's a student club at my college with Drama major student-members dedicated to that genre of foreign film. I only sat in on their very 1st meeting/film screening. That was it.

*Fritz Lang, 1 of my favourite directors of all time, began his career making such films before he fled Hitler's Fascist Germany & resettled/continued filmmaking in the U.$.

*German Expressionism inspired U.$. Film-Noir.

My favourite G.E. flicks:

*Faust.
*Metropolis.
*M.
*Nosferatu.
*Destiny.

Beowulf · 03-31-2006, 02:25 PM

Hi Pathogen,

Have you seen the re-mastered version of Metropolis with the Giorgio Moroder `Rock` soundtrack, that was made in the eighties?. Nosferatu is one of my favorite films (I still have`nt got the version with the Type O Negative soundtrack...Doh!) , it has so much atmosphere and the mis-en-scene is amazing, it is so hauntingly eerie (spelling?).

Is `Faust` any good?.

spookypurple · 03-31-2006, 03:34 PM

Yes!!!

I saw Faust on DVD first and then at the National Gallery in London on the big screen - gobsmacking on both occasions. You wouldn't believe the images they were able to create...

A lot of very cynical and up-themselves folks were in there, but by the end, there was hardly a dry eye in the house.

spookypurple · 03-31-2006, 03:38 PM

Ooh! And another good one, which came with the "Vampyr" DVD is a short film called "The Mascot", about a little toy dog that comes to life to steal an orange for the sick child of the woman who made him - it even managed to mix 'live' action and stop frame - or at least make it appear to.

Morrigan_Dubh · 04-04-2006, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beowulf

Have you seen the re-mastered version of Metropolis with the Giorgio Moroder `Rock` soundtrack, that was made in the eighties?.

I have huge admiration for Metropolis... (And to say Hilter missed the point is a slight understatement) And I saw this re-mastered version! Christ it was awful... They colourised it using some odd method that reminds me of the updated version of "Reefer Madness", except it has a lot less meaning. And the soundtrack was of similar quality and irrelevant - Freddie Mercury's solo work with cheesey keyboards, and other offerings from cringe-inducing rawk dinosaurs...The blasphemy of it all... The songs just don't fit into the film in any way, shape, or form... If anyone can explain how they do, please enlighten the rest of us...

Pathogen. · 04-04-2006, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Beowulf

Hi Pathogen,

Have you seen the re-mastered version of Metropolis with the Giorgio Moroder `Rock` soundtrack, that was made in the eighties?. Nosferatu is one of my favorite films (I still have`nt got the version with the Type O Negative soundtrack...Doh!) , it has so much atmosphere and the mis-en-scene is amazing, it is so hauntingly eerie (spelling?).

Is `Faust` any good?.

BEOWULF: Hella good. If you're into silent movies from the 1920s. Still haven't seen the re-mastered versions of "Metropolis" or "Nosferatu" with the Type O soundtrack. Mis-en-scenes are what make German Expressionist flicks [& Film Noir] everything that they are. My favourite part of "Metropolis" is the worker's revolt instigated by Maria's robot double.

Loy · 04-07-2006, 09:14 PM

Pathogen-German Expressionism didn't inspire Film Noir, Film Noir was a direct child of expressionism.

To understand this, you have to understand that "film noir" isn't even really a genre. Basically it was the nickname French film critics gave to american trash flicks from the 40's and 50's. They noticed a dark streak underneath the stories, and thus called it "dark film".

Where did this "darkness" come from? Well, when all these European film-makers emmigrated to the states to flee Hitler, they were usually tossed onto B films. A lot of these guys fidured out that as long as budgets were kept low and they didn't go TOO far over the line, they could slip in whatever they wanted to in the films. Thus, Hitchcock with his sexual perversions, Anthony Mann (an american, but whose crews were German refugees) and his Shakespearian dramaturge, Lang and his fascination with evil.....we could go into Siodmak, De Toth, and the influences upon other filmmakers such as Ray, Lupino, and the rest, but I gotta go to a party and lose my virginity, so I'll drop my geekiness for now.

Oh yeah, the 2 greatest Expressionist films were made in America, not Germany-King Vidor's "The Crowd" and Murnau's "Sunrise". Think about it for a second.

spookypurple · 04-14-2006, 01:07 PM

Wow. That's impressive.

I'm going to get my film geek hat on now and go and look up those references.

Once I've finished wiping the drool off my chin.

Mistress-Liriel · 04-28-2006, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jane13

Wow drama at the top of the thread... and I can't beleive I didn't see this thread! German Expressionist movies and Japanese Kwaidon are my favorite genres!

Has anyone here seen "Der Golem", Das Wachsfigurenkabinett", or Der Januskopf"?

Love them, have them all. German Expressionist movies are wonderful. We also have Nosferatu, Metropolis, and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Der Blaue Engel is wonderful too, you have to love Marlene Dietrich. I don't 'think' this fits into that genre though... Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. It is the same time frame of German cinema.

~L

Loy · 04-28-2006, 05:48 PM

Actually, "Der Blue Angel" was made after the heyday of Expressionism. As I pointed out earlier, all the great expressionist directors were leaving Europe right around the advent of sound (Lang was the last one to go, and he did so after making "The Testament Of Dr. Mabuse", where the nutcase bad guy spouts speeches lifted from Hitler).

But even taking this into consideration, the great expressionist directors were already leaving behind the ghetto of expressionism for richer pastures (except for Murnau, who made the silly mistake of dying). Lang had moved to crime serials ("Spiders", the "Mabuse" films, "M"), Pabst was working more with theatrically based materials (specifically the works of Brecht), Henrik Galeen was moving more into straight horror, and Robert Wiene was moving towards straight melodrama.

Even the ways Expressionism had influenced other film-makers was being bastardised to beautiful form (especially the works of Hitchcock and Dreyer, but we musn't forget the great Italian epics of the time, the awesome "La Rue", the works of Victor Sjostrom, and of course America's King Vidor, whose "The Crowd" stands as 1 of the 2 greatest expressionist films ever made).

So in the end, expressionism is (like it's bastard child Film Noir) not a real genre, but a ghetto created by film critics to lump together a bunch of films that in actuality have no connection to each other whatsoever.

Mistress-Liriel · 05-02-2006, 01:07 PM

Ah, my apologies. I'm not very aware of the history of the movement. Thank you for the insight.

spookypurple · 05-02-2006, 01:36 PM

Loy, if you don't mind me saying, I remain as ever in awe at the breadth of your knowledge on this subject.

Loy · 05-06-2006, 07:46 AM

Thank you. But remember, my breadth of knowledge only points to my personal dorkiness, which prevents me from getting laid....at least without alcohol being involved.

Mistress-Liriel · 05-09-2006, 08:12 AM

That's okay. Getting laid is highly overrated. I would rather be intelligent and lacking, than dumb as a post and over-sexed.

**Pretends to look cool.**

Elder · 05-24-2006, 02:25 AM

But Liriel, if you were dumb and oversexed, you wouldn't know anybetter, and be blissfully ignorant. Sometimes being smart hurts.

But getting back on topic, expressionist films interest me too, although I admit, my experience of them is Caligari, Nosferatu + Metropolis.
That was from my college film studies coarse.