The first Expressionist films made up for a lack of lavish budgets by using set designs with wildly non-realistic, geometrically absurd angles, along with designs painted on walls and floors to represent lights, shadows, and objects. The plots and stories of the Expressionist films often dealt with madness,insanity,betrayaland other "intellectual" topics triggered by the experiences of World War I (as opposed to standard action-adventure and romantic films). Later films often categorized as part of the brief history of German Expressionism includeMetropolis(1927) andM(1931), both directed byFritz Lang. This trend was a direct reaction against realism. Its practitioners used extreme distortions in expression to show an inneremotionalreality rather than what was on the surface.
Two genres that were especially influenced by Expressionism arehorror filmandfilm noir.Carl LaemmleandUniversal Studioshad made a name for themselves by producing such famoushorror filmsof the silent era asLon Chaney'sThe Phantom of the Opera. German filmmakers such asKarl Freund(the cinematographer forDraculain 1931) set the style and mood of the Universalmonster moviesof the 1930s with their dark and artistically designed sets, providing a model for later generations of horror films. Directors such asFritz Lang,Billy Wilder,Otto Preminger,Alfred Hitchcock,Orson Welles,Carol ReedandMichael Curtizintroduced the Expressionist style to crime dramas of the 1940s, expanding Expressionism's influence on modern filmmaking.
(wikipedia)
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