1. Expressionism is very different from Impressionism
Claude Monet : Impression Sunrise  C.1872
The focus is on creating the mood of ‘being there’
Edvard Munch: The Scream (1893)
The painting depicts raw, primitive emotion – the feeling of a scream

2. Expressionist painters were influenced by the paintings of Van Gogh, who used bright, unreal colours, for expressive reasons.

3. Wounded Soldiers (1915), Heckel o Schmidt-Rottluff.
Expressionist artists also used German and Nordic folk myths and art techniques, of the European Middle Ages, of between 1000 — 1453.
These produced by carving images on wood, the wood is inked and pressed onto paper. This prints rough images with very strong, strange angles.
They also used art techniques and ideas of non-European art, such as African and Asian arts.
Wounded Soldiers (1915), Heckel o Schmidt-Rottluff.

4. The First World War was an obvious influence on expressionist art.

5. Georges Grosz was one of the greatest expressionist artists.
George Grosz John the Sex Murderer. 1918

6. Expressionist artists wanted to paint very strong emotions, sometimes crazy emotions, more than real objects as we see them in the world. They wanted to paint wild emotions and the world of dreams.

7. Some expressionists argued that real life was not clearly logical
Some expressionists argued that real life was not clearly logical. They argued that because of this, the images of realist arts were not true to life.

8. The expressionists argued that as real life was contradictory, then the arts need to be contradictory to reveal that too; that they needed to represent a contradictory, alienated and insane world.

9. The expressionists pointed to the contradiction of Western Europe claiming to be civilised and yet to be sending millions to war and death in WWI. To allow us to see this sort of insanity, and to understand the true nature of humans and the true social world, art would need to be the same. Art would need to present the world and human emotions and understandings in the same way: contradictory and irrational to represent human reality and the human condition.

10. Key features of Expressionism:
Expressionist artist used strong emotional colours and wild brush strokes.
The stressed irrationality of the world, the natural and the social world
The world of the supernatural was a strong influence, of ghosts, magic, monsters, strange things happening, to mythic tales, etc.
Individual alienation from the natural world and from the social world — The individual does not feel like they belong in either the social world or the natural world and are alone and abandoned.
The impact of industrial, capitalist society on human beings.

11. The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari
The architecture in Dr. Caligari clearly the shows the use of distorted perspective in Expressionism. None of the angles are normal 90 degree angles.

12. Nosferatu
Expressionists used darkness and shadow to give their films a stronger feeling of fear, and anxiety. We can see this in the stills, from Murnau’s Nosferatu

13. Cities and buildings do no look like they provide a safe environment for people, but they look like they are going to collapse. By this method the world looks out of the individual’s control.
Note the odd use of camera perspective in the image below from Metropolis:

14. There is a strong use of darkness and light, especially of shadow.
The specific influences of Expressionism on films are:
The influence Expressionist painting can be seen in the way the film set was painted and built.
There is a strong use of darkness and light, especially of shadow.
There is also use of strange angles in making Expressionist cinema, strange camera perspectives.
The story is sometimes taken from Gothic myth, the 14th century, e.g., Caligari, Dracula, ghosts.
The supernatural has a very strong place in the film.
There is the appearance of irrationality, in the world, in the people, and in the story.
Emotions are strongly expressed.
The film and the world appear to be insane.
An insane world is not a place where there is a happy ending.