Unstable realities: the German expressionism influence on Film Noir.

When looking at Norma Desmond the last thing that comes to mind is the monstrous figure of Dr. Caligari, but their movies have more in common than we think. I want to compare two scenes: one from Sunset Boulevard and another from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, to show how German Expressionism helped shape the aesthetic of Film Noir. While both of them rely on making a distorted reality that keeps us restless, Sunset Boulevard lacks the twisted visual style that characterizes The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

German expressionism was born around the first decades of the twentieth century. Following World War I, it focused on giving “objective expression to subjective human feelings and emotions” (Barsam & Monahan 194). To do so they manipulated design elements. Their aim was to immerse the audience in the story by creating a mise-en-scène that would intensify it.

Film noir derives from the pulp fiction stories written around 1930. Its consolidation was also a result of war, World War II, by exposing Americans to the horrors of war and greeting soldiers with an unstable economy. As Barsam & Monahan state: “film noir fed off the post-war disillusionment that followed prolonged exposure to this intimidating new perspective” (93). But it wasn’t immediately a success. American scholars rejected it because of their start as low-budget “B” movies, their emphasis on corruption, and an unflattering portrayal of the American culture. It was the French critics who gave its very well-deserved recognition.

Both genres share things in common, one of them being that German expressionism sets many of the visual techniques that film noir employs. The two movies I speak about are well-known for their excellent portrayal of the genre. For Sunset Boulevard I choose the scene in which Joe Gillis and Norma Desmond have just met and they’re talking about the decadence of silent films now that films have dialogue and audio. For The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I choose the scene in which Jane is sleeping and Cesare creeps into her room to murder her.

Let's start with acting styles and character portrayal. In Sunset Boulevard, Norma Desmond is the one who always does grandiose movements. She doesn’t walk, she glides. She goes over to Joe Gillis, who is standing without moving, and it feels like she can jump at him any second. Her hands never stop moving and her eyes give her words emphasis. Nonetheless, the makeup she wears is realistic and not heavy. Joe Gillis, on the other hand, is self-contained and doesn’t make any unnecessary moves.

Whereas in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, both Cesare and Jane move in exaggerated ways. As LoBrutto says: “The acting style is as emotionally over-the-top as the narrative and visual style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. […] Staging and movement of the actors respond to the hysteria of Caligari’s machinations and to the fun-house labyrinth that appears to be the reflection of a crazy mirror, not an orderly village.” (64). This adds up to the overall sense of a distorted reality German expressionism aimed to create.

Sunset Boulevard relies on lightning to create the mood of hopelessness and doom we can feel throughout the movie. The main technique, chiaroscuro lighting, creates a deep contrast between light and dark. In this scene, we can see Joe Gillis partially obscured and the background behind Norma illuminated only by candles. We can see a clear contrast between her black robe and the light background. At first, she stands in the shadows but as she comes closer to Joe the light illuminates her and she becomes the main subject in the frame.

In the same way, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari also creates deep shadow and sharp contrast with artificial lighting. As we can see on the scene, Jane is asleep on her bed, covered in white sheets. Cesare is approaching her, all dressed in black, shadows obscuring his face. Most shadows are painted on the set, like those in the windows, arrow-like, threatening Jane. This means their primary source to convey the horror of the story is their use of design, not lighting.

In Sunset Boulevard the design makes everything feel uncertain, but it’s still somehow realistic. Exterior scenes are filmed at night. Interior scenes, like the one we are studying, were shot with curtains covering the windows, casting shadows, and splintering the frame (Barsam & Monahan 95). The room is cluttered, there’s a coffin with a monkey inside, candles, a chandelier, and statues all over the frame which gives it a claustrophobic feeling. But it’s nothing too far from reality, we all know people who are a little eccentric and have cluttered homes.

In contrast, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary is nothing close to reality, or sanity. Since everything was shot in a studio, the painted sets “reflect the anxiety, terror, and madness of the film’s characters” (Barsam & Monahan 197). In the scene of Jane and Cesare, everything looks crooked. The windows have sharp angles and diagonal lines, the paintings on the wall end up with a sharp tip. And while everything that surrounds her is soft, curved, and white, the angle of the shot, the wall, and the windows let us know the threat that lures her.

While both movies aim to make the viewer feel unstable and unsafe, they do so in different ways. Both were born under the horrors of war and thus wanted to take that into the cinema. While German expressionism created monsters and grim fantasies, film noir took an anti-hero doomed from the start. And so, Sunset Boulevard relies on lightning to set a mood, filled with tension and uncertainty. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari instead, uses design, with its twisted proportions and distorted sense of reality. This makes the world unstable and us, afraid of it. All things considered, the influence of German expressionism is visible in the themes and visual techniques of the film noir, but the latter transforms them into a more down-to-earth, realistic style.

Works Cited:

Barsam, Richard, and Dave Monahan. Looking at movies: an introduction to film. 4th Edition ed., W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 93, 95, 194,197.

LoBrutto, Vincent. Becoming film literate: the art and craft of motion pictures. Praeger, 2005. 64.