German Expressionism: Film Analysis

Four things from the beginning of the semester I enjoyed learning about and am still extremely interested in are Orson Welles, the Lumiere Brothers, Silent film and the German expressionist movement. I find Orson Welles interesting due to his life, his three career transitions, and how he had so much talent that was wasted because of his ego. Welles’s life is extremely incredible seeing he had three incredible careers. His start in the theater is interesting because he obviously was talented, but he still decided to move away from it into radio. This move is fascinating due to Welles being an actor who also used his body to express his parts. With radio, he completely loses the physical expression he was able to use when on the stage. Even though he loses his ability to physically act with radio, his voice was so good that he could send a whole city into a panic. This just emphasizes how incredibly talented …show more content…
Its realm of inspiration is astounding. It inspired noir films that run from cop films all the way to BLADE RUNNER. The dark overtones of Expressionist films fascinate me and influence films to this day. The reason dark overtones fascinate me with how they are used to bring out ethical questions that cause me to think about the film and their statement on the world. I also love seeing the modern use of German Expressionism in films like INCEPTION. The major ethical questions raised in expressionist films intrigues me as well. Metropolis is just a fascinating piece of art and it is a great example of how Expressionist films use dark overtones and expressionist film style to create a film with massive ethical questions and implications. I believe this fascination with ethical questions comes from people’s desire to question the world around them. German expressionism actively uses its art style to raise these questions in film and is why it is such an inspirational