Question

Impact of expressionism and neorealism on international cinema

Answer 1

What does the word 'Expressionism' mean?

Before going into the movement, you should know what the word 'expressionism' means. It was a modernist movement which originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.

Before the First World War, Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style.

German Expressionism: Representation of psychological states

Expressionists were less concerned with producing aesthetically pleasing compositions but represented extreme psychological states of the subjects.

German Expressionism : Abstract shapes and uneven brushstrokes

The films based on this movement had the use of bright and clashing colors, flat shapes, and uneven brushstrokes

The film used various techniques for the visual appearance such as Anthropomorphism (attribution of human form), Chiaroscuro lighting (extreme contrast of light and dark) and abstractionism (style of art that privileges internal form over pictorial representation)

German Expressionism: Movement spread across the world

Artists of the time were inspired by the horrors of the trenches and the bitter aftermath of war. The movement had quickly generated high demand due to the government's ban on foreign films

During the 1920s, when the movement spread around the world, many European filmmakers had begun experimenting with the bizarre and wild aesthetics of German cinema