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Cinema Scope with Andy Nelson takes you on a captivating journey through the ever-evolving landscape of film. Moreover, it offers a unique and engaging perspective on the art of cinema.
Welcome to CinemaScope where we shine a light on the shadows of cinema's genre landscapes. I'm Andy Nelson, your guide on this journey to bridge film genres, subgenres, and movements, ultimately deepening our understanding of them all. Today, for our second episode, we're digging back into early film history to look at German Expressionism to discover the roots of this influential movement that would go on to shape the world of cinema for decades to come. We'll explore the distorted sets, high contrast lighting, and psychological themes that define this groundbreaking style and trace its impact on everything from film noir to modern horror. Join us as we uncover the secrets of this pivotal moment in cinema history.
Andy:I have 2 fantastic guests joining me today. It's gonna be a lot of fun talking with these 2 about this. Doctor Ian Roberts, hello.
Ian:How are you?
Andy:And Ken Dansinger, how are you?
Ken:I'm very well. Thank you.
Andy:I'm thrilled to talk about this, with both of you. Before we jump into the conversation, let's hear a little bit about each of you and kind of how you came to German Expressionism. You both teach and there's a lot of German Expressionism in the stuff you teach and write about and everything. So, Ian, let's start with you.
Ian:In a sense, I I have to confess that initially, at least, I came to Weimar cinema almost by accident in as much as my PhD. My early career was dominated by the fiction of the post Second World War West Germany. For a while, when I was kind of struggling to get my first academic post, I thought I might have to reinvent myself a little bit. I'd always enjoyed film in the broader sense of the word. Almost despite myself, as I started to watch some of the Weimar classics, found that I was just getting sucked into them.
Ian:Once I then started on my teaching career, both from a personal point of view, really enjoying the films themselves, the themes that were on the screen, the way they reflected aspects of life and society in their day. But also as the years have gone by, what's really struck me is how those films still shed light on our own society, our modern times, and how successive generations of my students have woken up to that reality too. Means that now sort of 25 years later, I'm finding the films fresher than ever and really enjoying, again, personally watching them myself and still exploring them, but also sharing them with each successive generation of students. So I think I think they're terrific films. I think it's a really exciting topic, and I'm I'm really thrilled to be talking about it today.
Andy:Oh, well, I'm so glad you're here. Ken, how about you?
Ken:I started making films, and somehow I was always pitched a teaching job. And, of course, to pay for, work as a writer or director, you needed a job.
Andy:And so
Ken:and I had always been what I would call a fanatic about movies. And so I would say if I've spent the time since, fairly long time, exploring storytelling, and storytelling from the point of view of the writer, the director, and the editor. And I've written a number of books about these, And I've always viewed my teaching as a kind of laboratory to explore these three areas. And expressionism, very early. You know, I was a student in Boston.
Ken:I would go, while I was a student, every night to a different Cinematheque and see movies. And so over the 3 years I was there, I saw everything. I saw more than a 1000 films. And what I was struck by in the expressionism is their darkness, their technical strategies, and how they really, provide us with a foundation for modern filmmaking because they used studio production as opposed to going to Monument Valley or where or part of Hollywood to fill. And, people like Hitchcock went to Germany to look at expressionist production strategies, and they they're profoundly influential on his career.
Ken:People like Moore now, the way he used the moving camera, Fritz Lang, the way he used sound. It was all so creative. It was wildly creative. So I found the period very rich, and it's always been foundational in my writing. So I'm happy to be here with both of you and talking about this very exciting, formative advance in film.
Andy:Well, and that's, you know, I'm glad that you both kind of spoke to that because that's definitely an element that gave me reason to want this particular movement early in the conversation of the that I'm gonna be having across this show because it is such a formative film movement that created very early in the kind of toward that birth of cinema, like, right toward the beginning. But it's also one that is very particularly like windowed in this period of Weimar cinema, this period in German history because of like what was going on then. And so it's just it's amazing to me how, widespread its fingers kind of wove through cinema afterward. And I and so for that reason, I really wanted to make sure that I was talking about this early. Before we really jump into kind of the history and everything, for people who are tuning in who, like, they've heard German Expressionism, I mean, probably some people out there have heard German Expressionism as a term, in the art world.
Andy:They may not be familiar with it in the world of film. How would you just simply describe to somebody, like, what is German Expressionism?
Ian:Well, I I think from a scholarship point of view, it's a really interesting question because that's a question that's still being debated even today. As you say, the the the fine art movement and the theatrical movement of Expressionism effectively died during the course of World War 1. Indeed, many of its exponents were killed in action. And then this kind of renaissance of the movement in the early 1920s is still open to debate about the extent to which every film from this period might even be called expressionist. A very influential critic from the seventies, Barry Salt, depending on even his own shifting interpretations, is prepared to accept a maximum of 7 films which you can say are truly expressionist.
Andy:Wow. A very tiny movement.
Ian:Yeah. Well well precisely. Of which then he would have claimed the others were expressionistic. And then later in the period of Weimar Republic, a new art movement called New Objectivity comes about, which is a much more realist driven approach. But crucially, that that tagline of expressionism, in a nutshell is about mood.
Ian:The German word is stimmung where where the image is used to evoke emotion visually. Very often using starkly contrasting light and dark. Again, the the term that's often used here is chiaroscuro, which is a theatrical term meaning the the play of light and darkness. And it's a period where a lot of a lot of what really interests us is is on the border between what is light and what is dark, what is day and what is night, what is life and what is death. And these films, regardless of of how many who might fit into that that category, These films play with quite fundamental aspects of of of the human psyche with with that visual imagery, which which makes it so rich for interpretation.
Ken:I find the period post D. W. Griffith entering the early twenties is a very experimental time. It's experimental in theater. It's experimental in the visual arts, and it's experimental in literature.
Ken:To add to that, there's a feeling in Germany at the time of betrayal. There is not quite a civil war between the German army and the nascent communist movement. There's assassinations, and there's a general instability in Germany around the economy and the politics and this sense of, live life in the moment because tomorrow you may be bankrupt or you may be dead, etcetera. And so the the notion of life being so vulnerable emanates in everything in Weimar, Germany in the twenties. And I would say psychoanalysis as an explanation at one end and John Maynard Keynes as an explanation at another end says, this is a period of ferment.
Ken:And the creative ferment expressed itself in these films, beginning with Caligari. So, you know, it's a period that's rich in experimentation, particularly in film techniques.
Ian:I think Ken's point about the instability of the period is really quite illuminating. There seems to be a correlation between times of great upheaval in society and great creativity. That's certainly true of the Weimar period. Film becomes, I've sometimes even termed it, a new kind of battleground as German people are trying to establish what kind of nation they want to be. The end of the First World War has seen the collapse of the monarchy.
Ian:It's seen the establishment of for the first time in Germany's history, because Germany is a very new country anyway in 1919. And for the first time, you have something like a proper democratic form of government. And out of all this comes this huge wave of creativity, which both reflects many of the issues and the societal movements that are going on in the period. But also then, internal also seem to shape some of the developments that come about. There was a time when if we showed students a picture of Spanish influenza wards because that blighted many countries in the last couple of years of the war and into 1920s.
Ian:And my students would be at least puzzled, if not quite repulsed by some of the images we saw. But now, of course, we're beginning to see similar kinds of upheaval in our recent past, where we've had the global pandemic. And so images of people wearing masks is not so strange. Equally in the 1920s, both at the beginning of the decade and of course the Wall Street crash at the end of that decade sees, as Ken said, huge economic upheaval, which again people kind of get these days. Most of the world is suffering from sort of economic crises of one kind or another these past few years.
Ian:And then you have a really bitter struggle, politically speaking, for ascendancy and the right to determine the direction of a country as it emerges from some of these catastrophes and these periods of upheaval. And that just makes for this incredibly rich backdrop to the filmmaking.
Andy:I think one of the things so talking kind of like that, the the birth of this movement and everything. I mean, expressionism had, as an art form, had kind of been around before it kind of moved its way into film. Like, I think a lot of people who may not be familiar with German expressionism in film or at least the term likely are familiar with, you know, Edward Munch's, The Scream. Like that is for many people, just kind of an iconic element of what they would think of as kind of expressionistic art. And I think seeing that painting and then this movement, you can definitely see, the parallels of, like, how that kind of moved into this.
Andy:Yes. Was it all of this turmoil that was going on that kind of created that that movement in the art world to begin with?
Ian:Well, I suppose the the very origins of of the art movement, you would have to say perhaps no in the first instance because it comes in a period which was still relatively stable, sort of the period from 1900 to 1910, say. But you are beginning to see artists and playwrights especially trying to view the world differently. And a lot of fine art is about abstraction and distortion. A lot of the sort of the jagged lines that we associate with the expressionist cinema movement, we're seeing in some of the paintings and fine art that's coming out of not just Germany, out of various European countries in the in the early 1900. The expressionists believe that by distorting reality, they were able to catch a glimpse of something more fundamental, something which was beneath the surface, something which was essential, the German term.
Ian:And so when you have the added trauma of the First World War, which at one level shattered many of the illusions of the original wave of expressionist painters and writers and thinkers. It clearly struck a chord with the early filmmakers that emerged in that first period 1918, 1919 through to the early twenties. Added to that, at least according to some narratives from that time, was a rather more pragmatic sense that by simply painting jagged backcloths and things, you could produce a film quite cheaply at a time when hyperinflation meant that electricity, for example, was ruinously expensive. And so to light a film set in any way that might be considered even today the correct approach, that was proving a technical challenge at the time. A number of factors seem to come together in a perfect storm of creative juices that bring about this first wave, which just captures everybody's imagination.
Ian:Germany has a bad rep in 1918. And then these wildly experimental films in that first couple of years after the war actually attract global interests and and for many were seen to be kind of a first step towards rehabilitation as well. So it it just works on so many levels.
Andy:Well, and it's, you know, Ken was saying who you know, we've we've unfortunately lost Internet issues. Hopefully, Ken will be able to, rejoin us. But, was talking about how this was a a period of great play and creativity in film anyway. Like, all of these early silent films, wherever they were being made, like, you can you see such, frivolity and experimentation in the tools that they had and the way that they were exploring. And, you know, the cameras were much smaller.
Andy:They hadn't, introduced sound yet, which suddenly makes these giant cameras, and it was a very different thing to have to wield when they were filming. And so they were able to really play, and you get some exciting movement and and, like, there's just a lot of, joy that they're having. And and, yeah, in Germany, like, we you're talking about kind of the the, the lower budgets and everything that they were working with. And so using these stylized sets to kind of create a mood without having to build this fantastical world, I think, is, a great point just to how they were accomplishing a lot with not necessarily having to spend as much and doing it on stages where, you know, they didn't have to go out into location and everything.
Ian:I mean, to be fair, that changes, obviously, as time goes by. You know, by the time he gets to the mid twenties, some of the sets for, say, Fritz Lang's Nibelungen are fantastic creations built within these big sort of zeppelin sheds left over from the war. But it's that early period of kind of crisis and innovation, which marks the whole decade plus of filmmaking until the rise of the Nazis. Yeah.
Andy:And they would start going out on location too with, you know, some of the films that we'll be talking about both in the first part of a show. And then for our member bonus content, we'll be having some additional ones. And some, like, crossovers, like, there's a mountain film that we'll be talking about that. I mean, they're filming that out on location in in the the Alps. It's just like some beautiful filming that they're accomplishing.
Ian:And hugely dangerous.
Andy:Yeah. Oh, yeah. Some of that stuff, I'm like, well, that looks like a real person hanging off cliff right here. Yeah. Some crazy stuff.
Andy:Okay. When I first say German expressionist films, my brain always first goes to the look. You've already been talking about kind of like the painted sets that they would create. Like this stylized visuals, you've got a lot of distorted looking elements in it. Sharp angles, shadows.
Andy:Sometimes the the sets themselves, the design of them, it just seems not right. Like, I'm thinking of in the cabinet of doctor Caligari when they go into the police station and the police the desks are, like, incredibly high and the chairs also are high, but as high as the desks. So they almost have to, like, sit over the desk. Like, it's just, like, kind of nonsense when you look at it, but it creates this thing in your head. Like, something is wrong here.
Andy:Like, this is these people are, like, looming over everyone who walks into their office. It's it's fascinating. So I think the looks, that's an incredibly important thing. But also, I I think stepping away from that, I think you're getting into these characters where there's so much psychology that we have with them. We're really looking into the inner state of the people themselves and just kind of like this psychological viewpoint of the world, and I think that's a very important element.
Andy:Right?
Ian:Yep. This is where the films as inheritors of the expressionist movement makes for this really nice kind of flowing development of of artistic expression in this period because because the expressionists were already experimenting with this idea of digging beneath the surface, of getting to a deeper understanding of the human psyche. That visual carries into the Weimar films, but then so do the themes. It's all about exploring what it is that makes us tick and Themes of love and jealousy and hatred and revenge and control or freedom, these are meaty subjects which in the first instance you might imagine wouldn't work as themes for film. But but the creative talent of these teams in the period means that they they can come up with plot lines that that develop these themes in a way which is really accessible to audiences.
Ian:Both, you know, the evidence would suggest they were on the whole, the ones that we know about, very popular in that day, but I've certainly remained popular in that sense ever since.
Andy:Yeah. Absolutely. Ken, welcome back to the show. Sorry about your Internet troubles. That's never a fun thing to have to deal with.
Andy:But we were just talking about kind of like this psychological element that is in these stories and the darker side of the characters. Do you have, anything you'd like to speak to about that?
Ken:So the themes of despair, poverty, self image, station in life, male female relationships, jealousy, envy, sensual desire, all of these were subject matter, as was criminality, pedophilia, and, m, and so on. So prostitution quite often in the films like Joyless Street. So the issues of psychology are are are very prominent. And the difficulties of the individual in the midst of these challenges is the subject matter so often of the films.
Andy:That speaks to a lot of what I've especially, like, the films that we're talking about. I see that a lot across this whole, this, the breadth of the the stories. I wanna talk a little bit more about it, but I wanna use the first film that we're gonna be talking about, just to kind of, like, start illustrating some of the points that we're making here. We're over the course of this discussion, we're gonna be talking about 5 films, The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, The Street, The Last Laugh, Pandora's Box, and M. We'll talk about 5 others in our member bonus content afterward.
Andy:But just to kind of really kick things off, I wanna jump into The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari because it is such a a critical film that really kind of was right at the beginning of this movement that really set the bar for kind of what people expect. My hunch is, Ian, that this is one of those 7 on that person's list of films that are a 100% German expressionist. Let's kind of discuss a little bit about that. This is one, Ian, that you were talking about, like, the sets. It's all painted backdrops.
Andy:They didn't probably have the budget to kind of build all of this. The thing the thing that really struck me on this rewatch of it, there's a staircase in the film that has this fantastic it it's very dark, but it has a fantastic bit of light, like, streaking across, like, kind of going all the way up. And on this watch, I really was able to notice that, oh, that's just painted onto the stairs. There's no not an a light doing that because when the actors walk up and down it, they're casting a completely different shadow. It's very fun to kind of pick up on those elements.
Andy:But that being said said, it still creates an incredible mood just looking at, like, some of these elements within the set. Are there particular elements in the set design that kind of really stand out as, like, this is a good example of what you see in German expressionism, particularly, I suppose, as as we can talk about how it relates to our character's mental state.
Ian:The element to which that painted light plays into much of what we're going to talk about today with this tension between light and darkness and how that reflects on the human condition. We see that in spades with Caligari. Again, there's a little bit of debate about the reason why it was done. The common explanation is simply that it was a way to save some money. Eric Palmer, who's the producer and actually goes on to be the producer for so many of the key films in our period.
Ian:He claims from the very beginning that for him, the relative inexpense of the production was what really mattered. But I think from our point of view, regardless of the truth or otherwise of why they painted the sets the way they did, is that they both reflect this sense of chaos, internal chaos which is externalized, a world which doesn't seem to quite add up. And what a lot of viewers don't quite realize the very first time they watch Kalagari at least, is that actually not all the film is shot that way. There is what we call a frame story wrapped around the main film where in fact we don't have that set design. It's quite clear that whenever we are looking at the main part of the film where all these jagged designs are confusing our eyes, that's because that's a reflection of the confusion of the central character, Francis.
Ian:What of his experience is real and what is a figment of his imagination? And that's where the film is just wonderful for unpacking that sense of how sometimes the harder we try, the less we can make sense of the world around us. And towards the end, although really it's the central moment, a lot of these painted lines and play on light and shadow come together to a single focal point in the courtyard of the of the insane asylum, where at one point we think that Francis as the hero is about to unmask the evil doctor. And then it transpires, or does it, that in fact, he is simply an inmate of this asylum, and the doctor is is is trying to cure him. And that becomes this wonderful play on this period when the film is being released about madness, authority, the Conrad fight character Cesar, this sleepwalking somnambulist who is this automaton killing at the behest of his master, which has been read by many as a metaphor for the First World War itself.
Ian:People are just confused in this period. Ken mentioned it too. People just don't know where where they stand in society and where the society is going. And have they put the evils of the past behind them? Or my reading is very much that all the kind of there are lots of lots of images of cycle and literally revolution in the film as well.
Ian:Is it in fact that these evil days could come back if we're not on our guard? So it just becomes this wonderfully psychological deep dive into somebody's mind and and and wondering whether life any part of life is real or not, which is which is so fabulous about it.
Andy:The story is as you were talking about, we kind of get this framing device, then we jump into the story where we have this hypnotist, doctor Caligari, who keeps this somnambulist in a cabinet as we have in the title, who is murdering people in this community. But then it it's woven into this framing device, this this overarching story that leaves us with this twist at the end of, like, is this guy really just crazy? It's it's questioning the nature of reality. There's a lot of we were talking earlier about the the police desks and how high they are and, like, it gives this air of, like, this overwhelming authority in the movie, but perhaps also in society. Ken, do you wanna speak to what we're talking about here and how there's this, like, this surreal world that we're in, but it also is kind of creating this unease by the way that it's telling the story?
Ken:Essentially, the counterpoint to this would be a realistic approach to a visit to a madhouse. Now the idea of non naturalism or expressionistic or exaggerated portrayal of an environment takes us to interpretive different levels, to madness, to the inner world, to the world of superstition, paranoia, fear. And in a way, set design to create a feeling of that inner world is, to my mind, the the the real achievement here. You know, the the painting, the irregular shapes, the lines, the exaggeration in the set design takes us to seek an alternative meaning than naturalism. And so we're often running in a kind of pictorial madhouse and and trying to interpret it, get what, the filmmaker is taking us to.
Ken:And, I think it's it's as Ian says, it's a kind of portrayal of feeling at the end of the war. Chaos, loss, instability. And here, set design and pictorialization is taking us into that feeling of unsteadiness about the world.
Andy:It's a fascinating way to tell a story. It's it's fun I mean, it's it's kind of just a brilliant film in the way that it weaves this tale to really kind of paint a picture of this broken man as we kind of come to the end. And we're, like, we're getting this sense of, oh, was he the crazy one all along, and he's in this institution and everything? Or as you said, Ian, or is he? Like, where are we in all of this?
Andy:Like, it's it doesn't leave you with necessarily a sense of feeling settled at the end. And that's, I think, such an interesting element of this film, of this period of the movement of history, you know, and I find that so interesting about it.
Ian:Even the opening scene where we see Caligari for the very first time, he's shot against the background of a of a fairground carousel.
Andy:Yeah.
Ian:And and and that says from the very beginning, nothing's gonna make sense. It's gonna be in constant motion. Every time you think you've made up your mind, something else comes around to change the way you feel about about what's being portrayed. And and that's just a wonderful device for setting the tone.
Andy:Yeah. It's just a beautiful, beautiful way to kind of craft the story. Before we start talking about some of these others, I like to talk about all of this as this big cinematic family tree that all of these films, these genres, movements, and everything are kind of under. This is one of these movements that was brought on. We've talked a little bit about its history as far as, everything that's going on with World War 1 or the great war as it was at the time.
Andy:Obviously, other countries were involved in that too, but they all kind of spun off their own different things. I think in in France, it was a little more of an impressionistic sort of storytelling. The Soviets had kind of created a montage style of storytelling. Any sense from either of you as far as, like, how everything that had gone on with the war was leading to such different types of storytelling in different parts of, Europe?
Ken:What's interesting in this period is we have an art defining itself. What is its purpose? What relationship should I have with the audience and so on? And for example, in Russia, we have everything running from someone who says narrative is bourgeois. Let's do just reality, like Vertov, or let's make it even more theatrical, or let's make it revolutionary as Eisenstein, or poetic as Dobzhanko.
Ken:I mean, everybody is experimenting, and they're trying to reach an audience and really have impact. You know, even in England, you know, Grierson's work with the documentary and saying this is an educational tool we need to change our society. So in various countries, you're getting a different goal. It's not commercial as the goal was in America. It's far more serious because what's going on in the country is not being taken lightly.
Ken:It's it's unstable. And so let's try to, reach people, change people, make the world a better place. And in France, we've got people like Dali and Bunuel presenting antinarrative. Like, everything is absurd, in Shandong Dayu. And so this this is the twenties, and the twenties is very formative on the different branches of what film will become.
Ian:And actually, that that is quite important, Ken. You're right. Because crucially as well, the twenties is the time of modernity and the the establishing of the city as the the the place of action. But that itself is both fascinating and terrifying for many observers at the time. Yes.
Ian:The move away from the countryside, what many saw as the abandoning of traditional values. In different countries, you've still got what is effectively the late industrialization process having an impact on on populations. And of course, film comes out of that. Film is a technological marvel, which is bringing all of this to people you've never had the chance to see some of these images before in their lives. But I think crucially, coming back to Germany, what is almost unique to their mix is defeat.
Ian:That means that the country, not only does it go into revolution as the war is coming to an end. There's open warfare on the streets of Germany even before the armistice brings the war to an end and the Kaiser is toppled. Even as you go into the Weimar period, you've got a country which is asking really fundamental questions about itself and its identity and where it wants to go next. And film is the entertainment medium of the day, which seems to be able to explore the question if not necessarily offer all the answers. And I think that still for us today as well as for contemporary audiences, that's past the fascination.
Ian:And that's even before I guess we think about what comes at the end of the period with the rise of the Nazis in 1933, which for many is the answer that people choose.
Andy:I think that's a really interesting element when you look at the darkness of the films here as far as, like, you were talking about the the defeat and how that, kind of shifted into a thinking and, you know, you know, where are we? Who are we? You know, how do we move on past this? And we get these stories of these people trying to kind of contend with the answers to that. You also brought up the idea of the change in society is like the the city became the central, point for people's lives.
Andy:And that's something that we see in some of the stories, including the next one we're gonna talk about, The Street, directed by, Carl Grun. And I I don't think we mentioned it, but Cabinet of Doctor Caligari was directed by, I'm not sure the last name. Is it is it Robert Ween or Wine or
Ian:Vina. Vina is how you pronounce it. Yeah.
Andy:Robert Vina. The Streets directed by Karl Gruen. This one, I had not seen before. And watching this, I could not help but think back to Sunrise, a song of 2 humans, which, has a similar feel. This one, however, is a couple.
Andy:They're already living in a city. They're not they're not farmers, but the husband clearly is bored with his life at home and decides he's gonna go out on the town and ends up getting tempted and drawn into this, this downfall, with this woman that he encounters, and it takes him on quite a dark journey. That film, I think, it's definitely less of the internal kind of psychological exploration that we have in the cabin of doctor Caligari, which is very surreal, very dark, certainly kind of pushes into the kind of the horror elements of it. This one is really kind of this this just human drama of this person who's looking for something more in life, essentially, and ends up going down a very dark road.
Ian:But I
Andy:think it also I mean, it very much fits into the genre still, and it's very psychological dealing with this person. And it speaks a lot for me to all of those points you were just saying, Ian, as far as the life in the city, this feeling of defeat, this feeling of, like, who am I? What what am I doing? And and trying to figure that out. This was one of the ones that you had added to the list of films that you thought would be worth talking about.
Andy:What is it about this one that stands out as far as, like, its place in German expressionism?
Ian:It's regarded as as being a film which launches a genre, which is always an interesting thing in itself. I mean, the street film becomes part of the Weimar expressionist toolbox as it were. But actually as well, we can see already the beginnings of what becomes film noir in the US and elsewhere. This idea that we can be both attracted to and repulsed by the city in equal measure, which in a sense is not a 1000000 miles away from some of the things we're saying with Caligari or any of the other films that we'll talk about where where there's where these conflicting associations and and desires going on in in the individual. I mean, one of the opening sequences in die Schwase sorry, in the street beg your pardon, you're gonna need to the English accent.
Andy:Yeah. Yeah. Sure. It's fine.
Ian:One of the opening sequences in the street shows the husband kind of lounging on his sofa and looking up at his ceiling. And there are there are images from the street outside flickering on the ceiling. And of course, that is a self referential notion of the cinema already, where images flicker in front of in front of the audience's eyes and talks of temptation, of the deep seated human desire to want something more, something different, something more exciting. And he follows that temptation and learns a pretty harsh lesson. And so it's just a super little film at that level.
Ian:It's not one I knew until quite recently. And there aren't really very good copies of it. It's being I think there's a new copy due out imminently. The digital restoration was premiered at the Pordenone Film Festival late in 2023. And so we're kind of waiting eagerly now for the new the new restored DVD with, I think, as well maybe even some missing sequences.
Ian:But there are times again when some of the images in the film, he steps out onto the onto the street. He goes on his adventure and almost immediately passes an attractive young woman. And as he pauses, the woman's face morphs into a skull.
Andy:Right. Yeah.
Ian:And you don't get that all that well at the moment with the copy we've got. But, yeah, that I think quite a shocking moment for for the the man. I think it's quite a shocking moment for the audience. Because that's that that sense of promise and threat combined in that that one scene. And you're quite right.
Ian:I know. I mean, obviously, Murnau was working in Germany already by this time. And and some of that definitely translates then all the way into Sunrise later on with that that notion of of, dare I say it, at the time, sort of the vampish it girl who who is is symbolic of this period, sexual liberation, frivolity, but coupled with a fear that this means that some quite fundamental values and beliefs might be lost at the same time.
Ken:You know, if we use Callegari as an example of narrative exaggeration. Here, we have a more realist presentation. I would call it an early melodrama, and melodrama has always been very popular in Germany. It's the story of a powerless person trying to acquire power from whatever the power structure is, the city, you know, people who are better off, and fails and suffers the consequences. And so here, we have a different kind of arc.
Ken:It's in the world as you and I know it. It is urban. And the outcome, though, is dark in in a similar way. But the the presentation is utterly different than a film like Caligari.
Andy:That was something I found really interesting watching this one. In that, it does have a much more realistic tone to it. And, you know, Ian, you had mentioned that this one is the the birth of kind of the street films, another subgenre within the the Weimar era of films that, there is this urban realistic world that we kind of depict in the street films. We're out in the streets. We're seeing real life of everything going on here, But there's definitely these expressionistic elements that you were talking about, and that's what I found so interesting about it that really kind of got into the psychology of our of our protagonist as he goes on this incredibly dark journey.
Andy:And that image of the woman turning into the the or her face turning into a skull, like, that really spoke to me of, like, the way that they were using the German expressionistic stylings to kind of craft this story and get us into this this person's journey. And it it made for an interesting exploration and really kind of this crossing of these 2, subgenres or or kind of the in the German expressionistic movement, this was something that kind of squeezed into that in an interesting way. And I I found just a really kind of fascinating exploration of his psychology here. Speaking of these other films that kind of a whole variety of these different types of films, we should just mention there are a few other films that came out of the and I'm forgive me if I'm my German is obviously not the strongest, but is it the Weimar era or Weimar? Am I saying it wrong?
Ian:It's it's a v sound at the beginning of the name. Yeah.
Andy:It's a v. Okay. You have Weimar. Gotcha. So this this Weimar period of cinema, there's the street films.
Andy:We also have mountain films. We're gonna talk about a film that fits into that subgenre in our member bonus content. You know, there were also some, like, chamber dramas and a number of other different types of of stories that were all told in this era. And a lot of them do do dabble in kind of the German expressionistic story and to this world. The next film that we have is one that, you know, a number of these I had seen back in film school.
Andy:F w Murnau's The Last Laugh was one of them, or the last man depending on the, the the title and how you're gonna Yeah.
Ian:It's interesting mistranslation, isn't it?
Andy:Yeah. Right. I always found that to be strange. Mhmm. But it's a film that, again, not as necessarily stylistically, expressionistic like with the painted sets and everything.
Andy:It feels a little more real world kind of like we have in The Street. We're we're following a man who works as a a doorman at a very fancy hotel. Because of that seems to be generally well respected in his community. Everybody, looks up to this man, but he's also aging. And when his, boss sees him struggling after, carrying a heavy suitcase, demotes him essentially to working in the, the bathroom.
Andy:His he's he's broken. Like, that to him is pushing him past a point where he just no longer like, he was his identity was so core to his career. Like, that was such a part of who he was that everything about him breaks. Like, he carries himself differently. He's horribly embarrassed to even tell anybody about this.
Andy:Doesn't want anybody to see him to the point where he sneaks in after hours to steal his outfit and and continue wearing it home just so people know, oh, yeah. He's still he's still as great as he was. And then when people actually discover this, it's just like it really breaks everybody. And, you know, the everybody shuns him. He's totally broken.
Andy:And then the film gives us what I found to be such a strange shift at the end of it because suddenly it's like the filmmakers, I'm not sure if they felt bad for him, if they felt they wanted to give us the happy ending or exactly where it is. But it seems like somebody higher than Murnau was just like, we want a happy ending here. We can't end with, you know, his downfall, essentially. And it feels very tacked on to the point where it literally is tacked on. We've got an inner title saying, you know what, brother?
Andy:Let's give him something a little more happy to end the story with. And we see him actually having his happy ending. I mean, the last laugh is a very prominent film in in this movement. What is it about this film that stands out?
Ian:Well, I I think many critics consider it the perfect Weimar silent film. Murnau had had claimed even before shooting this that he wanted to reach the point where silent film would not need intertitles. And apart from the fact that we have a couple of letters and newspaper articles shot in close-up to actors in titles that there is actually no reported speech in the intertitles. So in one sense, he achieves this. He and his cameraman, Karl Foynt, I think, isn't it?
Ian:They innovate not necessarily for the very first time, but the first time with real impact with this with this unchained camera, where the camera is kind of put on pulleys to represent sound coming out of trumpets and things. The camera is put into the basket of a bicycle for the long shot through the hotel lobby, which establishes this this not just a place of work for the for the port, but as you say, the place which which conveys his status upon him. And this builds on a long tradition in German literature as well about clothes making the man. And of course, a very militaristic tradition where his uniform is deliberately quite quite martial in its in its outlook. Some critics now see the whole film doubling up, not just as a film about this one man's fall from grace, from his his standing in society, but also as a reflection on on capitalist principles, modernity, of course, is very much about a fascination with the US, Fordian principles of production and the idea that you would retire a gentleman for the heinous crime of getting too old to do his job.
Ian:And so the film can be seen, especially then, yes, as you say, this really awkward tact on ending can be seen as as the beginnings of of US loans. This is still a period where Germany is dogged by huge economic problems which are only solved by American loans. And so the happy ending can be seen in fact as not just the one man but as Germany being rehabilitated in the post war period by America extending a hand of friendship and of course, and huge amounts of financial aid to help the country get back on its feet. So it works really nicely at both those levels. But it's also just more now at his creative best.
Ian:It's all studio shot, experimenting with forced perspectives with all the huge skyscrapers and the cars scurrying by in the background, all done with little cardboard cutouts and things. But it's also a very intimate film about this one man and and his fall from grace. So it it it works brilliantly on a number of levels.
Andy:Ken, what do you what do you where does this one stand for you as far as, like, the the way that it fits into German expressionism?
Ken:Very high. Particularly, two things. 1 is highlighting a performer whose stature only will grow through this period, Yahnings. And he's a great, great actor, and the performance is remarkable. In a way, you know, going to Blue Angel and so on, we see the range of this man.
Ken:And he he made an American film called The Last Command. Brilliant, brilliant level of performance. The other thing that I is very important to me is more now, I associate with the moving camera. The subjective movement, objective movement, but more the subjective movement. We're following somebody.
Ken:We're seeing what they see. The subjectivity is very compelling and is really, you know, when we look at a line, up to into modernity, the subjective camera, goes from worn out all the way to someone like Stanley Kubrick and, Steven Spielberg and Roman Polanski all embrace the camera the way that Murnau does. You know, I can't exaggerate in a way his importance on film and visualization strategies. And were it not for his early death late in the in the decade, we would have seen many things from this man. He's a remarkable talent.
Andy:It's amazing to look at these films and just feel how alive they are. And, you know, that's what's I I was really taken by Murnau's films. You know, I I've seen a few others like Nosferatu and and Faust and already mentioned, Sunrise, A Song of 2 Humans. In all of them, you can just see a person who is, like, really playing with the tools in ways to, to bring the story to life. I think it was Faust where there's a moment where I think it's the woman who screams, but it's like you get this shot of her face, and it's like moving across this landscape.
Andy:Like, it's a it's it's, a composite image of moving across the landscape all the way like her and then coming to him standing on a mountain top or something. It's just like this incredible, like, I'm like, what? Where did that come from? Like, it's just it's mind boggling. And and The Last Lap has these 2.
Andy:Like, you talked about that bicycle shot, like, moving through the the space in the the hotel and just, like, giving us this sense. I mean, it's a totally different context, but it still gives us this sense of, like, this bustling life that that he's, capturing with the movement in the way that he's crafting the story. And I think that was in the just in the word expressionist. I I feel like that became, like, the movements and becomes really key part of of how do you kind of use the tools that you have at your disposal to to build this emotion into this static screen that we're staring at? You know?
Andy:And I think that's what, for me, was really exciting about, revisiting the last laugh. And I'm glad you also brought up yawnings because I was very taken with him. I already talked a little bit about how he completely changes his his posture and everything, but he really changes it. Like, he goes from this imposing tall figure of a man when he's in his uniform, to something more akin to, like, the vampire Nosferatu. Like, he's all he's all hunched over and, like, a broken figure once he is demoted and sent down to the washroom.
Andy:And, going from this, and then we'll talk about in our member bonus content, the Blue Angel, that exploration of an actor who came to largely kind of be so key to the movement. I think that's something that is exciting to see here. And we have a few familiar faces that we see across these. And that's it's it's nice to to see them, being so elemental to the stories they're telling.
Ian:Yeah. It was an industry which was quite quite tight knit in those early days. Keimayer calls it although UHFA was not the only studio involved in making these films, it's it's the one which we've come to kind of consider synonymous with the period. And Klaus Keimayer calls it UHFA's magical kitchen, where where all these different elements of acting talent, of of fabulously inventive cameramen, of scriptwriters, and of course of directors, it just all comes together. They they they create these these units that stayed together, spent lots of time together talking about the films they were making.
Ian:And and to be able to eavesdrop on those conversations now, you know, that would be an amazing thing to do just to to see this creativity and action before they then go back to the studio the next day and actually film these things.
Andy:Yeah. Yeah. The stories so far, they've largely been stories of of men that were kind of watching them as they go through as our protagonists. The next film that we have on the list is Pandora's Box, from 1929 that, GW Pabst directed. This film, we have a a female protagonist here, and it also kinda fits into that world of, you know, this this modern society and this liberated woman who she's very excited by a lot of the stuff going on, but also drawn in to essentially her own Pandora's box.
Andy:And that's the story that we kind of watch her take this journey that takes her deeper and deeper down into troubles and and problems by wanting to kind of, you know, experience enjoy life. She kind of essentially goes all the way down to the bottom until eventually, she ends up a victim of Jack the Ripper, which was, quite quite a surprise to see that one coming. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Andy:That was a really interesting one. I hadn't seen this one before. This is one that I had heard of a lot. A lot of it is because Louise Brooks, that look, that incredibly just perfect look when we see her and she's got that that iconic image that we think of with the twenties and the kind of the flapper era and everything. Like, that I think just spoke to why this film may be something that people recognize if they haven't seen it before.
Andy:What is it about this one that kind of ties into all of this?
Ian:Yeah. That the film historian and and critic Lotta Eisner talks about the miracle of Louise Brooks in this film. And there is at least an apocryphal story that perhaps held up shooting until he found the right actress and discovered Brooks still in the States at that point and invited her over specifically to play this role. And she did some more work with with Paps, but then went back to the States. I mean, the film is almost unimaginable without her.
Andy:Yeah. Right. Right.
Ian:This this idea of her encapsulating this moment in time where modernity has allowed women a degree of freedom which they've never enjoyed before. They can express themselves sexually. They can, to a certain extent, be independent. But then in the film, coupled still with a patriarchal system that may not be entirely okay with this after all, system that may not be entirely okay with this after all. That's the, you know, the the notion of the Greek tragedy is once you open the box, you can't you can't put things back in the box.
Ian:And you unleash this, the character Lulu, you unleash this this sexual force. And the men in the film, and one would suggest from interpreting the film, the men watching the film desire her, but they also fear her. She she's another kind of vampire like like Nosferatu. You might get your your pleasure from your encounter with her, but that that pleasure is going to be pretty ruinous. It makes for a a great film.
Ian:Perhaps was a a much more socially aware director than probably the other major directors this period. He seems to be keeping an eye on social trends more than some of the others and is exploring this tension. In academic circles, we talk about the virgin vamp dichotomy in Weimar film, where a woman can be both liberated and sexually attractive and wanted, but also then punished for encapsulating those things as well. At a time when society is debating where it's going. What what are these values that we want to uphold as we go forward?
Andy:And that's definitely gonna be an interesting thing to kind of continue in our conversation in the member bonus content when we talk about different from the others because that one's definitely dealing homosexuality in a very open way. So a lot of these things that the society is is sorting out at this particular point in time. Ken, as far as kinda like these themes of sexuality and social norms, you know, what's your impression of this one?
Ken:Well, I mean, it's it's a remarkable movie, and Brooks, of course, is, at its heart. But just picking up the issue of yawnings and switching over to women, Joyless Street earlier with Garbo, this film with Brooks, Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich, there is an arc of sexualized women, desirable women in these works. And in terms of Pandora's Box, I would add that there's a dimension to the performance and to the use of light, which to me is a kind of an uninhibited libido, sexuality, and it needs to be punished to be reined in. So here we've got this explosive sexualization of this woman, a remarkable performance, and the use of light to energize this ball of fire. And I think it's a tragedy, when Jack the Ripper comes into it, because that's the only force that can that can reign in the sexual power and desire of Lulu.
Ken:You know, this is a character from Biedekind, his play. Transgression in society is what, you know, Lulu represents and needs to be contained, in the way it is, tragically. But it is an energy that captivates all the men in it. So it, to me, there's, there's a, an affiliation to psychoanalysis. There's, an affiliation to stardom, which all these women represented well into the forties.
Ken:So it's it's a kind of, it's a force of nature, and what do you do with it? You know, in the Notchka, Lubitsch said it in communist terms, but liberated that sensuality. Here, we have the tragic end to that sensuality. And, anyway, it's remarkable, remarkable work.
Andy:But it's a but it's an interesting, ending because by the time we get to that final scene where, Lulu ends up with with Jack, it's her sympathy and her kindness that wins him over and essentially almost keeps him from actually killing her. And it was, like, such an interesting way to play that because it's kind of breaking with that idea of her sexuality and everything. It's just like there is this actual human connection that keeps him from doing anything. And it's only the fact that there's that knife lying on the counter that that kind of pushes him over the edge eventually. Yeah.
Ian:We we we explore with our students that's ending because Yeah. It's the only time that Lulu engages in a relationship which is not transactional. Yeah. You know, although she's not a prostitute as such earlier in the film, she's a kept woman and various men are vying for her her final attention. And actually, Jack the Ripper says he hasn't got any money because by then, she's been forced into prostitution.
Ian:And and for the first time, she's clearly attracted him just for the man he is Yeah. And lets her guard down. And that that's the moment when she's punished, which is which is really quite interesting in its own right.
Andy:Well, makes it all the more tragic. Real you know, she she finally breaks away from that, and it, still doesn't help, which, you know, speaking of of stories of crime, the final film that we're talking about, you know, Ken, you had already introduced this one, Fritz Lang's m as the story of pedophilia and this this nature that, we're kind of exploring a serial killer's psychology in this film. And what I I this is a film that I've long loved, just kind of the way that Lang tells it. And it really kind of becomes this procedural film following the police as they're trying to figure out what's going on. But also and this is what I find so exciting about the film is the criminal underworld also.
Andy:They just they get tired of the police hounding them, and so they decide they're gonna do it themselves, and they wanna figure out who this is. And then we get this whole tale of the criminal underworld trying to figure out who it is, and they eventually do. And it's a fantastic film. It very much fits into the work that Lang was doing, but also feels very expressionistic. And something we haven't talked about is the introduction of sound that by this point, 1931, I believe, with this film, that we're getting the sound of the iconic whistling of Peter Lorre when he's, sees the kids in his interest, whistling of Peter Lorre when he's, sees the kids and is interested.
Andy:Ken, as far as, like, this story, the way that it's told, and then the introduction of sound and and, of course, this is also kind of like the end of that Weimar era as then we shift into Hitler and everything. How does this kind of tie into everything that we've been talking about with expressionism and the breaking point away from it as as Germany shifts beyond it?
Ken:The use of sound is pretty inhibited by a noisy camera for a few years, and it's only a few adventurous filmmakers that break away from the static camera and and simply a stage view of someone talking or singing. So we've got Mammalian, with applause and with Jekyll and Hyde in the 32. And then we've got this film. And in each case, they're using sound as either a transitional device or an a device to affiliate. So for example, in dialogue sequences, he'll cut between the criminals and the police, and they will continue the dialogue.
Ken:But the con the consequence of that is Lang saying to us, is there really any difference between the police?
Andy:And, and,
Ken:in other places, it's used kind of emotionally. When the mother, for example, of the girl who's killed is calling out her name, She keeps calling, and the sound, the tone is very loud, prominent, and it keeps receding receding until it's almost a whisper. And the consequence of that is the mother is losing her daughter both, you know, metaphorically and physically because that last is she's now been killed by the pedophile. So sound is kind of used far more freely by Lang and the mammalian. That sort of liberates and transitions to the sound era that's less contained by technical, you know, limitations.
Ken:So, creatively, these filmmakers like Lang have used sound in a much more liberated and effective narrative fashion. I would say that's one of the great things about the use of sound in this film. The other thing that I would say, which goes to Krakauer's interpretation of this, which is that the police are ineffective in this film. And it requires the criminals to reestablish order in the society and and justice against the murderer In a way, that more societal observation, you know, is saying, hey, we're going down a rabbit hole, folks. Law and order ain't gonna do it for you.
Ken:So it's it's a powerful idea, and, you know, one can carry that forward as perhaps we're about to enter a new era. The last thing I would say about this is the performance of Peter Lorre is astonishing. And like Yanings, like Garbo, like Dietrich, everyone gravitates towards American cinema eventually. And Laurie had a a pretty interesting career in America, post facto. But what also has to be said is that some of these people left because the Nazis were anti Jewish.
Ken:And, you know, people like Laurie and Ulmer and and Siodmak, all these people left Germany. So we we, in effect, get, a transfer of talent to the benefit of, Hollywood and the detriment of German cinema, although German cinema enters then the age of Leni Riefenstahl, and it's a different kind of power.
Ian:Yeah. Well, I mean, what's interesting, you know, talking again about the expressionistic heritage of this period. I mean, although films have slowly but surely shifted into a much more realistic mode of representation as the as the decade has progressed, Thematically and to a certain extent visually, the films never seem to lose sight of those roots of of exploring the human condition. And M of course is a very uncomfortable exploration of the human condition with, as Ken said, Peter Lawrie giving this masterful performance of a man obsessed. Obsessed with something which society doesn't approve of, but obsessed nevertheless.
Ian:And Laing harnesses so much of the experience of that previous decade in terms of storytelling and in terms of visualization to represent this this mania, which causes panic in society. So you've got all the same themes. You know, what what kind of society do you want? What kind of society have you got? Where is the sense of community in the modern world?
Ian:People who for all kinds of reasons have descended into what we would call madness. And bringing that to a screen in in a way which almost one film after the other takes the medium a step forward means that they just become marvelous, whether you watch them in chronological order, whether you watch them thematically. They speak to each other in ways which just surprise even now.
Andy:And Peter Lorre is very familiar face. I mean, I feel like as a kid, I probably first saw him in, like, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And then as you kind of, like, grow older and you start looking into film, you start seeing all of these other sorts of films that he's been in and very just prominent actor who's just got such an iconic face and that voice and everything. And it's so fun seeing him pop up and things like Casablanca, but he's been in plenty of horrors. And, of course, Hitchcock, used him in a film shortly after this with The Man Who Knew Too Much.
Andy:It's just so iconic. And it's such a like you said, both of you have said, like, this psychological exploration of this character, this and this type of character. Like, there's probably other moments like this in film, but, like, the the next one that really stands out in my head is, like, going to something like Little Children with Jacky Earl Haley. Like, you're really kind of jumping into the psychology of a person who's who has this compulsion and and and can't hold back. And it's it's it's horrifying.
Andy:And by the time we have that final sequence with him after he's been captured, it's it's it's a pretty terrifying glimpse into the psychology of this man. Can you you talked a little bit about how from this point, with the rise of Hitler and the Nazis and Lenny Riefenstahl kind of starting to do all of the films that she'll be making in the, the Nazi era. A lot of these filmmakers left. Fritz Lang comes over and starts making films, in Hollywood. A lot of these other filmmakers do.
Andy:As we start kind of closing our conversation and wrapping up, I wanna talk a little bit about, how it evolved from this point. Again, a lot of these filmmakers came over here, continued a lot of these stories that really kind of helped to birth film noir. But so many other films and styles and filmmakers have taken from German expressionism and used it to kind of craft the stories that they tell. As far as like, the journey of of expressionism, what has it gone on to influence and and where can we see its impact? I know it's a big question.
Andy:It's like where can't you?
Ian:It it is a big question because I mean, at one level, it might seem a bit oversimplistic. But I I would almost say you can see the influence this period in every national cinema, however we might define that these days, in every period of cinema which follows, the degree of innovation.
Andy:As as we start wrapping up, I I would love to know from both of you, you know, we've talked about these 5 films. We're gonna talk about 5 additional films, shortly in our member bonus content. We'll talk about different from the others, the Holy Mountain, Asphalt, People on Sunday, and the Blue Angel. Outside of that, if people are interested in kind of exploring some more in the world of of German expressionism, do do either of you have any films that, you would recommend people also check out?
Ken:I think Variety by DuPont is well worth seeing if you can see it. It's very powerful, pretty sophisticated, technically. That's a pretty interesting movie.
Andy:And, you know, your point about that was, you know, well taken. A lot of these films are harder to track down. And, sometimes the prints aren't great. Like, The Street, for example, Ian, you mentioned that that one is, hopefully being worked on in a restoration, but, you know, I Ken and I had to watch a not so great YouTube copy of it. Yeah.
Andy:And, you know, that's where a number of these, end up is like, hey, at least it's out there, though. It's accessible. You know? Ian, what about you? Any any other films that you would recommend?
Ian:Well, my my specialist area of research is Murnau. So I would I would say anything by Murnau. But but if if if I step away from Murnau for a second because, you know, Faust, Nosferatu, Sunrise, just for the sheer fun of it, I love Fritz Lang's Woman in the Moon from 1929. It's one of my my secret favorites just for just for the sheer joy of cinema in the period. Lang was a a real rocket nut anyway.
Ian:Great technical effects. Some effects where I think still film scholars not entirely sure how some of them were achieved. But science fiction, which is not that common in the period, science fiction nevertheless which explores very very human emotions again. You know love and hatred and loyalty and deceit. It's just a fun film and I think that's what it boils down to.
Ian:When I first came to Weimar film it was almost out of a sense of duty that it's a period I ought to know about. And then I just fell head head over heels in love with the films. And and sometimes it's just good to enjoy the films. Yeah. So, yeah, that that would be my kind of my hidden tip.
Andy:Excellent. Excellent. Well, definitely, I haven't seen either of those. So I've added 2 more to my list. I'm very much looking forward to checking those out because, yeah, reexploring these films and this movement, it's just ignited my my passion into watching them because it's so exciting to see what these filmmakers were doing a 100 years ago, you know, with the tools they had.
Andy:And it's just amazing to watch the films. And, I mean, the color, the hand tinted look that they've crafted with it. I mean, it's just they're beautiful, beautiful, exciting films to watch. Well, both of you, thank you so much, for joining me here today. Ken, I know you you ran into some Internet issues, but I I I'm glad you were able to to continue the conversation with us.
Andy:Do either of you have any any, books that you would recommend or anything that you would want to direct people to check out?
Ian:Ken mentioned Krakowars from Kalagari to Hitler and that that he went through a period. It was written in 1947. And and Kracauer was an exile from Germany. He'd been a film critic and a philosopher in Berlin in the twenties. So he has an agenda in the in the immediate post war period.
Ian:But but the title itself from Kalagari to Hitler, it is a great study of how film can be used as a cultural artifact to try to understand better this fascinating period and how how Germany ends up sliding into totalitarianism. I am working on a monograph of of Moore now at the moment. That that's kind of what I would hope to be the the final publication of my career really. But it back in 2008 now I I published a short volume called German Expressionist Cinema The World of Light and Shadow published by, Wallflower Press. I think it's since been picked up by Columbia University Press.
Ian:I'm not sure. And I wrote it in the first instance as as a guide and an introduction for people who were perhaps trying to find their way into the topic when they knew little or nothing about the period. I recommend it to my students and they often say they find it very illuminating. And again, I hope at least, I mean, I had great fun writing it about films I love. So I hope and I've had some feedback from people very kindly saying that they they found it fun to read as well as kind of a gateway a gateway publication.
Ian:So I I guess I would recommend that.
Andy:Excellent. Well, I'll I'll make sure I put a link for it in the show notes.
Ian:Thank you very much.
Andy:Yeah. Thank you. Ken, how about how about yourself?
Ken:Well, most of what I've written is about storytelling. The dry the dry titled technique of film and video editing, which I'm about to do an 8th edition of, is not that dry because it's the history of editing. And, but I was stuck with a title that Carl Rise and Gavin Miller used called the technique of film editing, which went into the fifties in publication, although it's been republished more recently. I also would recommend something that I didn't write, but that I find very useful as a continuum. There's a a a cinematographer named John Alton who wrote Master of Light.
Ken:And it's really all the lighting techniques that developed in the expressionist period. He exercised as a cinematographer and then wrote this book about it. But his films are very reminiscent the way they're lit to the expressionist period. He's really an interesting guy.
Andy:Yeah. And that's I that was a book that I had from film school, painting with light, I think it's what
Ken:it's called.
Andy:And so, yeah, very interesting, beautiful work that John Alton does. So I'll I'll make sure I have all links for all of these in the show notes. So, well, both of you, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. It's been a wonderful conversation, with the 2 of you.
Ian:Thanks for having us.
Ken:Thank you.
Andy:And before we close, members, don't forget about our special bonus content. We're gonna be taking a look at 5 more German expressionist films to further deepen our understanding of this groundbreaking movement. If you're not yet a member but you're interested in joining us on this extended exploration, visit the next real dot com slash membership to access the exclusive content. Next month, we will be diving into the wild and wacky world of Ozploitation. We'll explore how this uniquely Australian subgenre burst onto the scene in the seventies eighties, delivering a heady mix of action, horror, and comedy that gleefully push the boundaries of good taste.
Andy:From high octane thrills to gory delights, we'll discover how Ozploitation put Australian cinema on the map and left an indelible mark on pop culture. So buckle up and join us as we take a white knuckle ride through the irreverent, audacious, and utterly unforgettable films that define this one of a kind movement. Thank you for joining us on CinemaScope, part of the True Story FM Entertainment Podcast Network. The music is junky monkey by orcas and class act by Adrienne Beringueir. You can find our show and the entire The Next Reel family of film podcasts, a true story dot f m.
Andy:We'd love for you to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, threads, and letterboxed at the next reel. We greatly appreciate your ratings and reviews. So So if your podcast app allows it, please let us know how we're doing. And as we part ways, remember your cinematic journey never ends. Stay curious.