horrors of wars in german

horrors of wars in german

Germany is a country with a rich history that is sadly tainted with the horrors of wars, which greatly affected the population at that particular time. The German cinema took shape around the 1920s, which was quickly changed drastically the prevailing political environment, which affected its development significantly. Adolph Hitler made the matter worse by using the Germany cinema for pro-Nazi ideologies. The political class made every effort to control the German cinema because they had come to terms with how powerful it was in fueling their propaganda. In the hands of the government, the film industry suffered significant setbacks as the country was involved in both world wars. After the war, the citizens who had experienced one of the horrific act of war that went against every aspect of human rights. The founding of Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft (UFA did little to help salvage the image of Germany from the emerging anti-Germany propaganda. The effort of the government to intervene saw large studios built in Berlin with an attempt to counter attack and protect the country’s image. However, the defeat of Germany in the world war saw an emergence of expressionism who used this form of art because the Germans did not want to remember their past. The rise of German expressionism was triggered by the country’s experience with war and suffering.

The first and the second world war played a significant part in explaining how expressionism use in cinema was predominant. The artistic was first to use their form of art to depict the horror that people went through in the hands of the Nazi-army lead by a dictator Adolf Hitler. The rise of the use of bizarre images and expressions in German cinema could be interpreted by the artistic desire to portrays the inner feelings of the people and telling of the psychological torture that people went through during this period. However, it is critical to note that expressionism had existed before expressionism. According to Cook, the horror films from Hollywood had adopted most of its original ideas from expressionism in German (75). Expressio0nism in German had gained popularity in thought the movie Caligari by Werner Krauss that sought to portray subjective realities through the use of personal terms. Deshmukh claims that “During and after the war, these same artists were almost universally regarded as an integral part of the cultural establishment” (66). The rise of expressionism in German is seen as a tradition in the country that went back even before great expressionist film directors incorporated it into cinema. The German film use of expressionism had placed it ahead of other countries like French in film production.

Light and shadow accompanied the themes in the German film, which left the viewers with a mystery to unveil. The unique use of lighting and shadows in expressing psychological and mental status depicted the inner realities of the people. The theme originated from as early as the 1910s to 1930s were mainly inspired by the Weimer republic, which existed just before Hitler was elected to power. The central theme that fueled the famous German film was primarily based on the depiction of fatality, horrific actions, insanity, and death, which was able to stop the uprising of realism. The directors offered the audience with the mise-en-scene that explored and showcased extreme distortion as a way of communicating the inner feelings of the characters. Mise-en-scene use provided a manipulation of cinematography and which made expressionist movies hard to compete with today because of the use of many special effects (Alfrey). According to the author, the German film had incorporated the use of special effects in telling their expressionism cinemas. The German earliest cinema had already made a significant step in changing the narrative of how the mise-en-scene was being used in making of the film in places like Hollywood. The expressionist such as Werner Kraus had introduced the use of special effects in the earlies movies. Cook states that “In a film such as Caligari that required many dramatic lighting effects, it was cheaper and more convenient to simply paint light and shadow onto the scenery itself than to produce the effect electrically” (75). According to the author, the use of special effects had made a debut in the history of the narrative film, which placed the German cinema in a different ladder way from realism films being produced at the time. The innovation in the selection of them and the use of light and shadow was able to tell the horrific realities of German society. Exploring the themes that were used in the making of expressionism film, we get to see how the directors in the German movie were able to construct the plot by painting shadows and using lighting effects to depict inner realities. After the collapse, UFA, which was incorporated by Hollywood by Paramount Pictures to what came to be known as (Paramount–UFA–Metro) AFERT BEING BAILED OUT. The themes in German movies remained to be highly dependent on the use of specials effects with Pabst introducing continuity editing and shot-reverse-shot (Cook, 84). Mise-en-scene use was much used by the German director even after they migrated to the U.s, which first introduced realism in the German film industry. However, the early German film themes were influenced by the realities that existed in the country, which had been triggered by the war that had played a significant part in the histories of the country.

The German film industry has gone through phases, and after post-war, it faced immense competition from the Hollywood film, which had taken an international outlook because it was intended to reach the audience globally. Although the expressionism theme had made a new shape in the United States as what was described as horror movies, the German directors at home felt that it no-longer served the audience. Most of the filmmakers criticized the films that were produced during the Hitler era because they did not help the audience after the fall of Berlin. Brockmann claims that “Critical postwar filmmakers knew or suspected that German audiences wanted future films to conform to the style of those previous films” (6). According to the author, the filmmaker still feared that the German audiences were always attracted to the earliest style of movie production, and any attempt to change the central theme would disorient the understanding and the normality that existed in the country. The German expressionism style was being challenged by progressive filmmakers but continued to face challenges associated with dormant audiences that were used to expressionism rather than realism. The progressive filmmakers made strides in introducing realism in the German film industry because they felt like the audience needed to be educated. Filmmakers such as Maetzig had a belief that the filmmaking was a tool that could be used to offer re-education to the Germans after a dictatorial tyranny and years of years and economic sanctions. There was a significant number of Germans who had come to work in Hollywood (Cook, 138) and had been exposed to the films that focused on entertainment and educative such as documentaries. These Germans filmmakers knew that the history of German had to be forgotten inor5der for the audience to accept new kinds of films that were not horrific and carried the theme of fatality and death.

Technology came at a time when there were still conflicts in the ideologies the German film industry should take. The ability to capture realism downgraded the expressionism that had existed in Germany. However, the German film influence was so immense that it could be felt in the American industry, which was into realism but saw expressionism as complex and more rooted in explaining the inner realities of characters to the audience. Most of the America film was not apolitical or, anyway, horrific, but according to Cook, the presence of Germans in Hollywood significantly had an impact by introducing lighting and camera in capturing the expressionistic works in their early films (138-139). According to the author, filmmakers such as Freud went on to make successful careers in Hollywood by incorporating expressionistic style in into realism. Over the years, narrative motion pictures have gone through tremendous changes, mainly through the influence of increasing technologies globally. The most ironical thing is that even after the introduction of realism and cinema in the digital age, expressionism has not been entirely forgotten as horror movies continue to be popular all over the world. Rombes claims that “Digital cinema is haunted by a double logic; the striving for ever greater realism via a technology” (81). According to the author, the introduction of technology in filmmaking has shifted the previously expressive mode to more realism and humanism.

The policies that were formulated in German continued to impact the film industry, which was now facing greater competition from other European countries such as France and Italy. After the postwar, there were efforts to bring boost competition of German films, but it still faced setbacks because of linguistic centrality, which was not the case for Hollywood and French films. The local audience played a part in limiting the growth of German movies because most preferred to stay at home or attend Hollywood movies. Rombes states that “In the era of NGC, film policy sought to bolster competition with Hollywood by subsidizing German production” (729). According to the author, the local films were facing a new challenge, which was still associated with the use of expressionist style in movie production. The local audiences related more with extreme distortion and the use of special effects in films that had a hidden reality. German was also slow in adopting the sound system because of the German cartel to counter the American sound equipment. However, co-production has continued to play a significant part in keeping German at the top of the film industry as it sought a transnational view in reaching more audiences. Expressionism might have become unpopular in the country; it has taken an international approach where it has been used in Hollywood movies to evoke fear and superstition that exists in society. Nosferatu is still a classic in expressionism, where it significantly explored the themes of madness and insanity, which is a reflection of today’s horror movies. Kammerspielfilm continues to impact the film industry around the world and learning about its meaning in German society in World War One; an individual can relate why it was so popular from the 1910s.

Expressionism in Germany has continuously gone through phases and challenges, but it emerged to be resilient to the dominance of the Big Five. The participation of both the first and the Second World War was challenging to the country where it faced economic sanctions from other European countries and the United States. The social structure was destroyed as young men were absorbed in the war, thus causing a lot of pain to the local people. The Hitler lead army had subjected people to horrific experiences that were marred by death and fatalities. All these factors influenced the expressionist to use are and cinema in showing the inner feelings of the people who were eager to forget about these atrocities. The history and development of the film industry offer an insight into what was going on not only in Europe but around the world. However, expressionism impact was felt between the 1920s-1940s faced competition from filmmakers who turned to realism where Der Letzte Mann (The Last Man) became the first German realism films produced by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Realism still had some themes that were previously used in expressionism, which incorporated the use of lighting and camera technique into Hollywood. It is a clear proof the expressionist had made an impact and left a mark in the history of narrative film.