Dark City - German Expressionism

Today, I would like to discuss about German Expressionism, which is a creative movement beginning in Germany in early of 1900s. Besides, I also will discuss about how this movement relates to film industry and also the film of this week, Dark City.

As I mentioned above, German Expressionism is a creative movement that appeared in Germany from 1919 to 1926 and reached a peak in Berlin during 1920s. German Expressionism is influenced by the Expressionist movement in modern art of early 1900s. There are some themes that highlighted in this movement which is self-analysis, revolt, sexual savagery, madness and primitive. It is widely used in many industries such as literature, architecture and theatre. It spreads into cinema in term of narrative, set and mise-en-scene. It is most apparent in set design and chiaroscuro lighting which is low key lighting. We can see that German Expressionism’s style includes oblique camera angle, distorted bodies and shapes, gothic style in looking and framing, high contrast lighting that creates dramatic shadows, and the content is usually about surreal and gothic, unnatural acts or realities. This movement can be said that is brought in from Germany to USA as the filmmaker migrated from Germany to USA, and they bring their making practice into Hollywood. This has a great influence on horror film and film noir.

(Source: https://www.google.com/search?q=dark+city&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwirpOrG4ILOAhXKvI8KHQ4fCZQQ_AUICCgB#imgrc=Hf4CpjfkVcR8eM%3A)

About the film, Dark City. This is an American neo-noir science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas in 1998. The screenplay was written by Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer. The story starts with the main character, John Murdoch, woke up in a bathroom and there is a naked woman dead body around him. He becomes the suspected of murder but he can’t remember anything even his wife. So he was trying to find out what happen to him and the city where he lived. Slowly, he approaches the truth while he is running away from the police and a group of mysterious group known as “Strangers” who want to kill him.

There are some German Expressionism elements that we can found in this film. Firstly, the chiaroscuro lighting, which is the most appeal in visuals. There is a low key lighting shown in the set designs of film. The high contrast of lighting creates an obvious shadow. This can enhance the investigative nature of the film. The audience will be curious and want to have a closer look to that specific scenes. The high contrast provides the audience a sense of mystery. They will want to know what will happen next in the film. For example, when John Murdoch wakes up in the bathtub, the entire bathtub is very dim. This will make the audience has an idea like “Where is this place? Why so dark?”. Then they will pay attention on it. Furthermore, the narrative also sets that the whole story happens at night, there is no day time in the film. This also highlights the dark, damp and cramped atmosphere.

The second element is primitive sexual savagery. It means the killer was targeted to murder. All the victims are women. The weapon is also a very traditional murder weapon, a knife. For example, the murderer in the film, Mr. Hand, kills the victims (all are women) by knife. He even depicts spiral patterns on their body with that knife. This will bring out the sense of sick and madness of the murderer.

Then, we can see a lot of gothic, bizarre and stylized design in the film. There is distorted sets and bodies in some scenes. For example, during tuning, the sets and buildings are spinning and changing differently. Besides, the Strangers also have a different look with normal human proportion. Their body looks longer and higher and they always wear in black. This also makes their walking style looks different with human. The setting of the Strangers’ movement that are reminisce of the past events shows a Gothic style design. It looks dark and depress.

As a conclusion, a German Expressionism film shows a highly stylized visuals, chiaroscuro lighting and strange camera angles. It shows a big contrast between light and dark. The storyline need to be match with the visuals in term of lighting. That’s why the horror film and film noir much influenced by German Expressionism. It creates a dramatic effect on feeling. The audience will feel like this film is sick, depress and gloomy.