Private Study Activity

1. Private Study Activity Consolidating our knowledge of Weimar Cinema

2. Aim: to consolidate notes with the aim of planning the following essay: Discuss how far your international film style was developed by directors and how far by other influences. Sanity warning: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WRITE THIS ESSAY IN PRIVATE STUDY TIME, JUST PREPARE FOR IT!

3. Your task Use the templates on the following slides to consolidate your notes on the individual study films, identifying: • The individual director’s style • Identifiable contextual influences • Examples for each of the above • Examples where the other directors have used comparable methods • The first one has been done for you!

4. The Cabinet of DrCaligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) Other influences Expressionist art movement Horrors of war and hysteria Political uncertainty Authority as corrupt or ineffectual Society vulnerable to collapse Mob rule Insanity and psychological motivation The supernatural Fear of outsiders Commercial influences Developed by directors (Overview of cinematic style) Static camera Elaborate, highly artificial set Heightened, stylised performance Painted light and shadows Actual lighting is generally plain Heavy makeup Subjective narrative Examples Flattened, angular architecture warps perspective e.gthe city buildings at imposing angles in every scene Trench-like avenues, e.gCaligari’s walk to the town clerk Alan’s bedroom – dagger shapes on the wall Clerk’s murder scene – the dagger shaped window Jane’s bedroom, bisected by a diagonal between soft & round/harsh & jagged to separate jane and Cesare Expressionistic influence on design – e.g the trees mimicking Cesare’s collapse Expressionistic collapse of logic: the narrative itself is untrustworthy and ambiguous – e.g. the twist in the framing narrative Typically grotesque appearance of Caligari and Cesare. E.g. the waking of Cesare scene Typical representation of ‘outsiders’ as animalistic/inhuman. E.g. Caligari’s stylised use of gesture Alan’s hysteria at Cesare’s prediction – wartime experience? Caligari bribing the official – suggests corruption The police sit on crazy, high stools and do nothing – useless authority Cesare sleeps in a coffin-like cabinet – reference to war dead? Somnambulism – a metaphor for shell shock? The mob chase Cesare – bourgeois society breaking down? The asylum director’s insanity – loss of faith in authority

5. Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1927) Other influences Developed by directors (cinematic style) Examples

6. Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau 1922) Other influences Developed by directors (cinematic style) Examples

7. International Film Styles Your answer should be based on a minimum of two films and should be based on one of the following: German and/or Soviet Cinema of the 1920s Neo-Realism Surrealism New Waves. Discuss how far your international film style was developed by directors and how far by other influences. Level 4 • A very good knowledge and understanding of the international film style itself and of specific film examples which can be referred to accurately and in detail. • A sound ability to understand and respond to the terms of the question, including a good knowledge of directors’ contribution to the chosen international film style. • A confidence in responding directly to the question, weighing the relative arguments for a ‘directors cinema’ and those for other and different inputs. • (The very best candidates) … will develop a sophisticated argument and have the confidence either to adopt and defend through elaboration a very definite position – or to offer a refined weighing of different creative inputs.