German Expressionism; Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Weine & Murnau)

Lab:

Watch the following video on German Expressionism. Take notes.

Read the articles (packet #1) on Robert Weine's "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"& "Nanook of the North" and F. W. Murnau's "Sunrise"--we will cover these fellows during our second class period screenings. Read the article (packet #2) on narrative. See the notes below and prepare for your test Friday.

With time remaining in period 1, please continue reading your chosen script and work on your narratology notes. See handout and previous posts for additional help.

Elements of Narrative Film:

• Story: a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end focusing on one or more characters.
• Plot: the order of events and actions of a story.
• Characters: major characters and minor characters anchor the events of a narrative.
• Characters are generally a mid-point between ordinary and extraordinary. They can represent ideas (minor characters usually) or stand in for the typical movie-going viewer (major; protagonist). Antagonists generally reflect the opposite aspects of the protagonist.
• Characterization can include the values, actions, behaviors of the character; actors, directors, and writers tend to represent characters, sometimes through stereotypes or archetypes.
• Characters are developed through change of status. This may be an external or internal change. Change may be progressive (growth) or regressive.
• A film's narrative is affected by the diegetic and nondiegetic elements. 
• Narrative patterns can be linear storylines, flashbacks/flashforwards, or non-linear patterns.
• One temporal scheme in a narrative film is the deadline structure. This structure accelerates the action toward a central event or action that must be accomplished before the resolution.
• Parallel plots use two or more plots that occur simultaneously; they often intersect by the climax of the narrative.
• Narrative duration refers to the length of time within which an event or action is presented (shown) in the film.
• Frequency refers to how often plot elements repeat.
• Narrative frames depict the POV of a narrative. Often the camera determines whose POV we are supposed to identify with.
• Narrative can also be reflexive (commenting on itself--like The Disaster Artist), unreliable, or use multiple narrations. 
• Classical film narrative centers on one or more central characters who propel the plot with cause-and-effect logic, whereby an action generates a reaction. It usually develops a linear plot, with progressive characters. Acting, setting, and cinematography tend to be realistic in style. 
• Avant garde or Formalistic film narrative tends to deviate from classical/realistic narrative style. Plots are reflexive, or question/challenge realism; Expressionistic; plots, characters, settings may be metaphorical or symbolic. Camera work or photography tends to bring attention to itself. 

When writing about narratology, you want to examine your film's script for its narrative techniques. You should be able to identify the narrative style, the beginning, middle, and end of the plot; major events that provide meaning (duration/frequency, etc.), identify the use of characters, setting, meaning; identify the diegetic and non diegetic elements of the film, the structure of the plot, important scenes, and use the vocabulary listed here and in the articles you have read.

Period 2: Classroom/Screening

Expressionism

“Why should an artist duplicate the real world when it already exists for everyone to see?”

• Begins in Europe around 1906 in painting and theatre
• Style is unrealistic, stylized
• Attention often given to angles
• Distorted perspectives
• Narrow, tall streets and buildings (set pieces)
• Lighting is “dramatic”; Use of shadows
• Actors are grotesque, exaggerated make-up
• Dark, nightmarish tones & moods
• Attempt to show the interior lives of characters through exteriors
• Expressionism influences Futurism (and Modernism)
• Expressionism influences Film Noir in the 1930’s (more on that later...)

Robert Weine's bio

• Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Robert Weine (director) 1919
• Hands of Orlac (1924, trailer); Hands of Orlac (1924, fan review)
• Hands of Orlac (1924, full film--extra credit option)

F.W. Murnau's bio

• F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922); Nosferatu (1922, full film)
• F. W. Murnau's Sunrise (trailer, 1927)

The following movies, along with Dr. Caligari, are influential in creating the "horror" genre in film. Why, do you think, is expressionism a good stylistic choice for horror films?

• Paul Wegener's Der Golem (1920)
• Carl Laemmle's The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923)
• Carl Laemmle's Phantom of the Opera (1925); Phantom of the Opera (full film, 1925)
• Harry Hoyt's The Lost World (really sci-fi/romance/adventure...) (1925)
• Paul Leni's' The Cat and the Canary (1927)

Contemporary films that use expressionism in part or whole:

• The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1972, trailer & full film)
• David Lynch's Eraserhead (1977, trailer)
• Guy Maddin's Careful (1992, Trailer)
• Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992, trailer)
• Shadow of the Vampire (2000, trailer)
• The Call of Cthulhu (2005, trailer)
• Pan's Labyrinth (2006, trailer)

HOMEWORK: Complete your chosen script reading. Take your notes on the narratology of the script. You may use your notes for the exam on Friday, but you will only have 1 period to complete your test. Please do not be late.