Film and Film

"NOT ALL GERMAN SILENT FILM WAS EXPRESSIONIST"

Some notes on the false belief that German silent film was expressionist film.

Gustavo Valencia P.

Introduction

The German silent film huge and full of wealth in production, in filmic quality and in contributions to the creation and realization of cinematographic art, was called through the years under the reductive term of "German Expressionism", which has became a powerful myth that indiscriminately mixes tapes that have nothing in common with each other by the years of its implementation, nor for its subject matter, or for the most evident, its different styles and concepts in filmic matters.

Thus there appear scrambled and under a single denominator, movies from after the war era, made with fixed camera, light management in Studio, showing a theatric space, with a very strong acting, in contrast to achievements of the last half of the twenties, where the first thing that stands out is the mobility of the Chamber which they themselves had "invented" and that along with other factors finally created the filmic space; a light more natural and in open spaces, another type of acting work and many other aspects that stand out immediately as soon as these tapes are watched. To appreciate such marked differences it is not required much analysis or knowledge.

Everything was reduced to "German Expressionism" and with that term, it is true, sometimes it is pretended to specify the famous work of light of Berliners studies at that time, but as this is only a part of this large and extensive production which covers so many aspects as well as in the genres and themes, as in stylistic and creative wealth consolidation and development of film art which by then it was creating at the global level, it is therefore impossible to cover all this as "Expressionism", with the name of an avant-garde effort, very interesting indeed, which had no continuity which produced very few films and which is intended to encompass all other sessions, moments and production in general.

The predominant trend when it is pretended making studies on periods and other eras in the history of cinema (also in the art and aesthetics in general), is the interpretation, mystification and alteration. The more it is interpreted, hopefully with delirious imagination, the more acceptance it seems to have and it is better considered, than observing in detail the diverse and varied production, as in the case of German cinema in those years, that accepts all that is presented by the movies, and from there, enters to analyze and make reflection, free of that straitjacket so called "Expressionism" (in the 1920's and 1930's in France was called "caligarismo"), and that in other cases, it is always the result of interpretation, fantasy and assumption of situations that never existed, and distorts the facts and put them under the prevailing ideology of the time. In this regard, the thesis that still appears as first is Kracauer's, who stated that all German silent film was a mere procession of tyrants to prepare for the arrival of Hitler to power (!). No comments.

The following notes are intended to carry out a general approach to the period between the end of the war until the generalization of the soundtrack in Germany, approximately by 1929, the most significant period of the German silent cinema. It begins by highlighting the consolidation of the German film industry and thereby the flourishing of all possible genres and themes to bring to the screen; a topic no too known, it will be also analyzed, that is the most significant contributions that this cinema developed in the field of filmic aesthetics; and Lastly, some of the movements and steps that originated within the vast production, such as, Expressionism, the kammerspielfilm, the street cinema and the new objectivity.

PART II
The film industry consolidates

Those years from 1918 until 1929, that is in the period from the end of the war to the generalization of the soundtrack, are the ones in which the German cinema produced a very special chapter in the history of universal cinematography; develops the most the filmic and artistic potential of the new medium, as well as the years of its consolidation, climax and subsequent crisis at the level of its filmic industry, developing parallel to the artistic level of its productions, with the exception of one or other works specially towards the end of the Decade. A development marked by artistic, technical and commercial interests of a large company who knew how to bring together... To be continue ...

All these elements in a single bundle, with the corresponding successes and failures of an event of this magnitude.