Page 42 - Studio International - January 1970

REINHARDT thinking Left (a follower of which Lang 3
W. Reimann
Lotte Eisner suggests that the obvious source would probably have counted himself) as the Sketch for Caligari
for this preoccupation with shadows is the latest bourgeois fad and as that artistic style 4
sparse, symbolic style of theatrical production which most completely stood for the society Caligari: Abstract configurations and emotional states
5
initiated by Max Reinhardt. For plays whose that the radicals were trying to destroy. Caligari: Expressionistic architecture
theme could be treated in an emblematic or The sources of Die Nibelungen are very dif- 6 & 7
Dramatic shadows: Caligari and the vampire in
symbolic way, Reinhardt evolved a style of ferent : the film was inspired by the paintings Nosfratu
presentation which relied on a minimum of of Arnold Böcklin, by certain Romantic 8
scenery and which made its points by means artists and by other painters and sculptors 9 Böcklin's Island of the Dead
of a dramatic and plastic use of light." who, around the turn of the century, were Lang's paraphrase of Böcklin in Die Niebelungen
Reinhardt's contribution to the German trying to give their idea of nationalism a 10
Die Niebelungen: Hieratic and ceremonial figure
cinema, direct and indirect, was enormous. monumental and heroic form.14 The borrow- compositions
11
Some of the directors (Wegener, Murnau) ings are often obvious. Brunhild lives on an Die Niebelungen: Siegfried and cement trees
and almost all of the actors ( Jannings, Veidt, island very like Böcklin's Island of the Dead,
Krauss) had been members of his company
and Cesar Klein was not the only designer to
work both in theatre and cinema. Reinhardt,
who often employed celebrated painters
(Munch) to design his sets, ironically made only
one film, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and that
in the States, where commercial pressures
prevented him from having a free hand.

COMPARISONS
The close links between the German film and
other arts have been emphasized. But do these
really add up to much ? Do they really in-
crease an understanding of the films them-
selves? What I want to suggest is that the
similarities between painting and film at this
time, that the care with which certain direc-
tors chose their sources, sheds light on the
significance, on the meaning of many films.
Fritz Lang was perhaps the most determined
borrower from paintings and used a variety of
sources. A look at two of his films, Dr Mabuse
and Die Nibelungen, shows how his choice of
source amplifies an understanding of his work.
The visual style of both films is related to con-
trasting styles of painting which were chosen
to underline each film's meaning. Mabuse was
made in two parts, Dr Mabuse der Spieler (The
Gambler) and Inferno des Verbrechens (Inferno
of Crime). Each part had a subtitle: 'Image of
Our Times' and 'Men of Our Times' and, as
Lang has recently emphasized,12 the film,
apart from cashing in on the vogue for thrillers
about criminal masterminds, was intended to
be seen as a piece of social criticism, as a
revelation of the corrupt city-life during the
early years of the Weimar Republic.13 The
sets for it were based on the then modish
interior designs of the Munich Kunstgewerbe-
schule, which was a development of jugend-
stil. It was also affected and precious, the
perfect complement to the degenerate at-
mosphere and behaviour of the old aristo-
cracy and the new rich. The choice of ex-
pressionist paintings and objets d'art as
decorations for the house of, for example, the
Countess, was also more than an attempt to
make her appear modern. By 1922 (when the
film was made) expressionism had become
very popular and was being bought en-
thusiastically by a middle class which, before
the war, had despised it. Consequently it
came to be hated and despised by the free-