German Expressionism in Film Noir.

German expressionism in Film Noir.

Film Noir first came to American screens during the early 1940’s after the war. It was something that was very new to people so they didn’t really know what to expect. However, it made a big impact in Hollywood which therefore saw an increase in the genre. Film Noir is the French term for 'black ' or 'dark cinema'. It was characteristically shot in black and white and had stories which nearly always featured anti-heroes and femme fatales. Film Noir mostly featured crime and mystery which showed the hidden flaws within certain characters. Film Noirs aesthetics were very much influenced by German Expressionism. German expression referred to a number of creative movements which featured lots of different art like painting and cinema which all mainly happened in 1910's -20's and eventually hitting a peak in Berlin in the 1920's. Because of the separation between Germany and the rest of Europe during the first world war, the movement only really included Germany. This then lead to the banning of foreign films in 1916.

The people who were behind these successful films were mainly German Jews who had fled the war in Europe and made it safely over to America. The experiences that they had been through were often traumatic and found a metaphorical outlet through film and art. European directors were in their attempt to try and escape the rise of fascism and brought their dark styles that they had developed in certain conditions in work and lifestyle which created a sense of uncertainty within us. German expressionism didn’t just start in the 1940’s. It goes back to the 1920’s. The expressionism movement is known for its birth a “renaissance in the graphic arts”.


In the thriller that I will be making there are some useful conventions used in certain film noirs that I can use. Dark alleyways, low key lighting and a mysterious plot could all easily be put into our thrillers. I think as a group we will mainly focus on making sure that conventions like low key lighting feature in our camera shots. In lots of film noirs, close up and extreme close ups are commonly used on a character to show his emotion in greater detail. I think this is something that I will definitely want to feature in our thrillers because I want the audience to understand what is going on in the story completely. Even though film noir is meant to bring a sense of the unknown and uncertainty to viewers, I would like the audience of my film have some sort of an idea of what is going on. I don't want to make it too hard to figure out otherwise our audience will spend most of the film trying to figure things out instead of listening to more important things that will follow.