Page 43 - Studio International - January 1970

and the broken ice on the water in the first ing which echoed his purpose. NOTES
Brunhild scenes recalls Friedrich's Die Ge- One further point needs to be made. The 1 The Haunted Screen (Expressionism in the German
Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt), Thames
scheiterte Hoffnung. The hunt, during which style of the film is monumental; it expresses
& Hudson, £4 4s; From Caligari to Hitler, Princeton,
Siegfried is murdered, takes place in a forest Siegfried's heroism and the inexorable work-
paperback reprint, 1966.
of birch and fir trees which is clearly a film ings of fate through a symmetry and parallel- 2 Das Kinobuch, published by the Kurt Wolff Verlag,
version of many familiar Romantic and Neo- ism that is obvious in every scene. This was Leipzig, included screenplays by Lasker-Schüler, Brod,
Romantic paintings. Siegfried on his white not only Hodler's method, but also that of a Pinthus, Ehrenstein and Zech. None of the screenplays
was ever made into a film.
horse looks like Böcklin's Pan, and the land- school of monumental artists who were, at
3 Reprinted in German and English in: Dennis Sharp,
scape which begins the film is a version of this time, using the same means to express the
Modern Architecture and Expressionism, London, 1966.
Friedrich's Landscape with Rainbow. Moreover, virtues of the military and the heroic life. 4 Published in : Lotte H. Eisner, Murnau, Hanover, 1967.
many of the ambitious scenes in which many Arthur Moeller van den Bruck's book The 5 According to Eisner (Haunted Screen), Eisenstein's
figures are carefully choreographed seem to Prussian Style (1916) describes the style that Ivan the Terrible 'shows the influence of the decorative
stylization' in Leni's Waxworks. His Alexander Nevsky is
have been derived from Hodler's hieratic and began with decorative stylization : 'Monu-
in some ways similar to Lang's Nibelungen and Lang's
ceremonial figure-compositions which gave mentality is manly art ... its stanzas sound
Mabuse impressed the Russian so much that he 'ob-
an often theatrical form to the heroic ideal. heroic. Its lines are composed hieratically. Its tained a copy of it, analysed it, dismantled it and re-
These parallels and borrowings are neither elements work like dogma. In it are the steps assembled it in various ways to see how it worked'.
random, nor are they haphazardly inserted. of warriors, the speech of law givers, the re- 6 Although almost all of the expressionist directors, in a
conscious retreat from reality, and in an attempt to
Lang went to endless trouble to achieve pre- jection of the moment, the calculation in the
control their films down to the last subtle nuance,
cisely those effects he had visualized and, in face of eternity.' There has been no better confined themselves to the studio, Murnau, whose
his programme notes for the film, writes about description of Lang's Nibelungen, and it also images in Nosfratu are as expressionist as any in Cali-
`what I dreamed up as a painter wishing to makes clear why the film became one of gari, shot almost all of his film on location, choosing
evoke the plastic image....'. The trees for the Hitler's favourites and why Lang was offered Baltic medieval towns for his settings.
7 The film was first offered to Lang who was interested
forest scene were constructed from cement; control of the Nazi film industry—an offer, be
but was busy with another project, Die Spinnen (The
even the brook was created in the studio. The it said, that he vehemently rejected. Spiders) at the time.
opening rainbow was painted on the negative. 8 There are many stories, some of them probably
The art-historical references, chosen by Lang FILM WRITING apocryphal, about the circumstances in which the sets
the painter, were intended to be recognized This discussion of two of Lang's most cele- came to be designed. One of the most pleasing was told
by Erich Pommer, apparently the producer of Caligari.
by the audience. Böcklin's and Friedrich's brated works has perhaps shown how com-
`The studio had a very limited quota of power', he
paintings made up an important part of the parisons between the visual arts and film can wrote, 'and on the day when we were notified . . . my
visual education of every German. Böcklin's be made to increase an understanding of both. three artists . . . brought in a proposition that seemed
often erratic mythology was generally taken The cinema is itself one of the visual arts. Of to me absurd, even reactionary: 'Why not paint lights
to embody, or to symbolize, an important part all the media, particularly in its silent form, it and shadows on the sets for this Caligari film?"'.
The original screenplay demanded that Caligari
of the national consciousness, and Friedrich's is closest to painting, and yet little of the
relate a real story and not be the imaginings of a lunatic.
landscapes were the first depictions of national writing about film sees it in this context. The
It therefore implied that Caligari, Director of the
scenery as such in an age that valued nationa- classic era of German cinema reveals this asylum, was truly mad. The producers thought that
list sentiments. The original Nibelungenlied was relationship with special clarity, but the films even the slightest suggestion that authority could be
also celebrated as one of the keystones of the mentioned here are not the only ones to have faulted would be dangerous and forced on the writers,
Mayer and Janowitz, the film's final form.
national heritage. Every German knew all the close links with certain kinds of painting.
10 Published in Eisner, Murnau.
ramifications of its narrative and treasured it Peter Wollen, in his significant book Signs and
11 Perhaps Reinhardt's first experiment with light was
(as Wagner appreciated) as a living link with Meaning in the Cinema (1969), makes a plea for his treatment of Sorge's expressionist drama Der Bettler
a glorious national past. Lang, who subtitled a new kind of film aesthetic which would (The Beggar), where he used imaginary settings and
his film Ein deutscher Heldenlied, exploited this draw on all kinds of related arts and disci- made great play with single spotlights.
12 In his introduction to the newly edited version of the
common ground between him and his audi- plines for its foundation. He frequently draws
film made by Erwin Leiser for Atlas-Verleih.
ence to the full, and produced a film of epic historical parallels and suggests that they are 13 When, for example, Wenk the public prosecutor
proportions that was considered to be so im- important for a fuller understanding of what goes into the gambling den for the first time he is
portant and educative that classes were taken the cinema is about. The films produced in casually asked : 'Cards or cocaine?' There is even a nude
to see it during school time.15 He therefore Germany from 1919 to 1925 seem to vindicate cabaret scene, exceedingly daring for the time.
chose for his film precisely that sort of paint- this method beyond question. q 14 Die Nibelungen was also made in two parts: Siegfrieds
Tod and Kriemhilds Rache (The Death of Siegfried, and
Kriemhild's Revenge). Together, they run for more
than three hours and are seldom shown together. It was
at that time the most expensive film ever made, took
a year to make and two years to prepare.
15 The screenplay was written by Lang's wife, Thea von
Harbou, who often brought nationalist sentiments into
her work. She later joined the Nazi party. In his
programme notes, Lang hoped that he had brought
`the great national epic dramatically nearer to the
public', and that his film would gain 'recognition
abroad of the great art of which the song of the Nibelun-
gen is one of the most noble roots'.

All illustrations for this article are taken from
The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German
Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt, by
Lotte Eisner (published by Thames and
Hudson, price 4 gns), and are reproduced by
courtesy of James Price.