Content - in Metropolis

1. GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
and it’s influence on Fritz Lang’s
Metropolis

2. Social Conditions
• WWI also known as the
Great War 1914 – 1918
• Germany: 1.7m killed and
4.2m wounded
• The war was fought in the
trenches
• Men came back physically
maimed and
psychologically damaged

3. Post-war 1918-1939
• Germany had to pay
reparations to the Allies
• Suffered hyper-inflation
• The hardships faced by
the men in the trenches
were continued home –
poverty, starvation.
(1923) Woman feeds her stove with
Papiermarks (German money) which
burnt longer than the amount of wood
people could buy with them

4. Cinema
• During this period cinema production,
distribution and exhibition was at its height
• Inflation led to a boom in German film
exports that began around 1919
• No film censorship directly after war and
films depicting nudity, homosexuality and
drug use were made

5. Weimar Republic (1919-1933)
• Removed censorship laws – yet
introduced laws for film (no
pornography or other indecent content)
• Time of decadence and permissiveness
• Characterised in the rise of the cabaret

6. Cabaret
• Berlin became the
cosmopolitan
capital of Europe
• Anita Berber –
Expressionist exotic
dancer and actress
in German silent
movies.
Otto Dix, The Dancer
Anita Berber, 1910

7. Bob Fosse – Cabaret (1972)
• Film musical depicting
the decadence of the
Weimar Republic and
the rise of the Nazi
Party
Starring Liza Minnelli &
Michael York
http://www.nodanw.com/shows_c/cabaret_essay.htm

8. German Expressionism
Towards a definition
Impressionism
Concerned with outer appearances – a visible reality.
German Expressionism
A reaction to the impressionist concern with the outer and with
appearance. It portrays the inner and psychic values. The painted
forms are externalised emotions. Colour no longer designates
optical facts.
http://www.tate.org.uk/collections/glossary/definition
Die Brucke (The Bridge)
Erich Heckel, Lyonel Feininger, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

9. Erich Heckel (1883 – 1970)
Reading Aloud, 1914 (woodcut)

10. Lyonel Feininger (1871–1956)
Town Hall, Zottelstedt, 2, 1918

11. Lyonel Feininger
Villa on the Shore, 4, 1920

12. Ernst Kirchner (1880-1938)
Potsdamer Platz Berlin, 1914 The Street, 1913

13. The Red Tower in Halle, 1915
Ernst Kirchner

14. Metropolis (Lang, 1927)

15. Metropolis (Lang, 1927)