German Expressionist films are therefore notable for their dark themes of insanity, horror, death and fatality that translate into the film’s mise-en-scene and narrative. It counters the principle of realism and practices extreme distortion as means to communicate inner emotional reality. The story takes place in a constructed reality in which the characters live in a world of deformity. This is done to express a subjective viewpoint by abstracting realistic details and contingencies, bringing out the essence of an object, situation or state of mind.

Distorted shapes and lines in set design that counter the sense of balance, heavy shadowing along with theatrical actor movements are practiced in German Expressionism to suggest a warped or perverted perspective of the world. The story world is twisted as a reflection of the storyteller’s emotional state.

Dramatic shadows are seen as an element of the horror story to give off the shady and ominous feel. Shadow plays an important role in the narrative in which the shadow becomes the storyteller by reflecting the actions of the characters. The use of shadow to reveal the character’s action plays with suspense and the audience’s psychology. This in turn elevates the creepy mood and hints on the dark intent of the antagonists. In Nosferatu, Count Orlok’s ability to subdue humans is shown rather implicitly with the gesture of him grasping his hand and the shadow of it casting right onto the position of Ellen’s heart.

“Murnau makes excellent use of shadows and silhouettes in Nosferatu to create the aura of a creature belonging to another world and convey a paranoid sense of evil omnipresence” (Blakeney, 2010).

   On the other hand, Gothic makeup and clothing along with exaggerated movements of the actors are also expressions to the distortion of reality that further suggest ill psychological states.

Expressionist films often employ flat lighting to stress the connection between the character’s and the décor. As the contrast and imbalance in the visual elements suggest, the characters are trapped and ruled by their madness, revolt, self-analysis and primitive, sexual savagery. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes an anti-heroic approach in which the initial protagonist is revealed at the end, to be a madman. The story of Francis becomes a madman’s story, constructed in the realm of his insanity. A sense of revolt is observed in Francis’s attempts to combat the evil Dr. Caligari and the murderous somnambulist Cesare.

   In Nosferatu, the center of all insanity stands Count Orlok, the invincible vampire or Nosferatu with his unstoppable menace and thirst for blood. His uncontrollable desire for Ellen’s blood and beauty drives him to travel in his coffin filled with earth from Transylvania to Wisborg, victimizing the townspeople in an outbreak to his comfort. The madness that consumes him eventually leads to his own downfall when he becomes too occupied with Ellen’s blood to notice the break of dawn. It is imprinted in the count, the beastly, primitive and sexual savagery that directs him to seek pleasure in taking the blood and lives of beautiful women. The lead of the story (Hutter) however, is weak and helpless against the evil for revolt. It was ultimately Ellen, who despite her fears and gender inferiority musters her courage to invite the Nosferatu into her room in order to destroy him.

   The themes and visual style of German Expressionism are later widely used in horror and fantasy stories, crime thrillers, melodramas, social dramas and historical epics to create the sombre mood. American Film Noir which centers on the corrupt underworld of crime was put under the direct influence of German Expressionism.

 References

(2009). The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In S. C. Benyahia, F. Gaffney, & J. White, Film Studies: The

   Essential Introduction (pp. 175-182). Oxon: Routledge.

Blakeney, K. (2010). F.W. Murnau, His Films and their Influence on German Expressionism.

   Retrieved March 2, 2012, from Student Pulse Online Academic Student Journal:

   http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/371/2/fw-murnau-his-films-and-their-influence-on-german

   expressionism

Johnson, M. (2010, September 3). Factoidz. Retrieved March 3, 2012, from German Expressionist

   Cinema: http://popular-culture.factoidz.com/german-expressionist-cinema/



Madgermanexpressionism.blogspot.com. (n.d.). Unique Characteristics of German Expressionism. [online] Available at: http://madgermanexpressionism.blogspot.com/2012/03/unique-characteristics-of-german.html.

          Edward’s Scissorhands (1990) by Tim Burton is about a nearly complete young man named Edward who tries to have a normal life as an ordinary person. The professor who created him died before he helped Edward to change his scissorhands into a human hand. Edward then lives alone at the castle on the hill in the neighborhood. Peg, who is a sales person tries her luck at the castle and find Edward. She brings him home and catches the attention in the neighborhood. Since then, Edward’s scissorhands is so famous with his trimming skill on plants, dogs and hair. He also falls in love with Peg’s daughter, Kim. However, the neighborhood dislikes him after Edward was caught as a culprit in a robbery at James house. At last, Edward is forced to go back to his castle and continue his lonely life.

Edward’s Scissorhands is one of the movies that are influenced by German Expressionism. One of the themes in this movie is self analysis. Edward is a robot that was created by a scientist and lives in the castle till he met Peg. Peg brings him back home. Edward now starts to live a normal life with his Scissorhands. He wears Bill’s clothes and look into the mirror, finding himself as a normal person like others. He helps the neighbors to trim the plants, dogs and even their hair. Later on he actually mixes around with the neighbors. He starts to discover that he can live like a regular human even though he is different from the people in the neighborhood.

Another theme for this movie is madness. We find that there are some characters that portray madness. For example, a girl who plays the organ and keeps shouting to the neighbors that Edward is not from heaven but he is actually the devil. Besides that, Edward also shows a little madness  quality in the film. After he sees Kim having a tender moment with James, he got so mad and frustrated. This was shown when he scratches the wall in the hallway to the bathroom. He faces the mirror in the bathroom and expresses his anger by scratching the wallpaper. This shows madness and the anger of Edward towards the relationship of Kim and James. This demonstrates the theme of madness because Edward has failed to control his emotion and he was not able to think rationally therefore he was throwing a tantrum and taking it out on things around him.

On the other hand, we notice some of the German Expressionism influenced styles appearing in the movie. One of the styles uses in this movie is distortion bodies and shapes. For example, in the castle, the trimmed plants appear bigger than usual. The handle of the doorknob is longer than the usual. Edward’s scissorhands is also a kind of body distortion. As an ordinary person, we use to have human hand instead of scissor hands. All these distortions clearly show the element in the film that was influenced by German Expressionism

Film-studies-3014.blogspot.com. (2012). Films Analysis : Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd. [online] Available at: http://film-studies-3014.blogspot.com/2012/03/films-analysis-edward-scissorhands-and.html.

They help Directors define and achieve the look and mood of a film. 

Production Designers begin work at the very early stages of pre-production. They may be asked to look at scripts to break them down in order to provide budget estimates before a Director is even approached. On first reading a screenplay, they assess the visuals described that will help create atmosphere and bring the story to life. 

After preparing a careful breakdown of the script they meet with the Director to discuss how to shoot the film and work out whether to use sets and/or locations, what should be built and what should be adapted and whether there is a visual theme that recurs throughout the film.

They also consider whether there are design elements that may give more depth to the film and whether CGI (computer generated imagery) should be used.

Production Designers must calculate the budgets and decide how the money and effort will be spent. Then there’s an intense period of research during which they and their Specialist Researchers source ideas from books, photographs, paintings, the internet, etc.

Production Designers deliver their design sketches (showing mood, atmosphere, lighting, composition, colour and texture) to Art Directors who oversee the production of technical drawings and models, which are used by the Construction Department to build the sets and adapt locations. Prop Buyers and Set Decorators source props and organize the manufacture items.

Film Crew. (2018). Art & Design Department. [online] Available at: https://thefilmproduction.wordpress.com/art-design-department/

Throughout his career, Ferretti has worked with many acclaimed directors, both American and Italian, including Pier Paolo Pasolini, Elio Petri, Federico Fellini, Terry Gilliam, Franco Zeffirelli, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Anthony Minghella, and Tim Burton. He frequently collaborates with his wife, set decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo.

Ferretti was a protégé of Federico Fellini, and worked under him for five films. He also had a five-film collaboration with Pier Paolo Pasolini and later developed a very close professional relationship with Martin Scorsese, designing nine of his last eleven movies.

In 2008, he designed the set for Howard Shore's opera The Fly, directed by David Cronenberg, at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris.

Ferretti has won three Academy Awards for Best Art Direction; for The Aviator, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Hugo. He had seven previous nominations. In addition, he was nominated for Best Costume Design for Kundun. He has also won three BAFTA Awards.

En.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Dante Ferretti. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dante_Ferretti.

Others see a functioning human being - working, chatting, socialising with an occasional laugh or smile - but behind closed doors in the personal confines of home nothing could be further from the truth. We mask the all-encompassing darkness that seeps into every anxiety-ridden moment, a private Pandora’s Box that only self-erupts when alone.

Mental illness is a wholly internalised affair, it’s an endless production line of emotional affliction and outright frustration, which can sporadically manifest as painful self-mutilation. Every thought and feeling (not matter how microscopic) is so inwardly bound that interpersonal relationships become unwillingly stifled. Meaningful conversations are diluted to a handful of apathetic words, whilst scathing internal dialogue prevails even louder.

Prozac Nation (based on Elizabeth Wurtzel’s same title memoir) is a tempestuous tale of college survival co-aligned with spiralling clinical depression. Embarking on her first year at Harvard with a coveted scholarship in journalism, Lizzie (Christina Ricci) is a prize winning student who rapidly envelops herself into a party scene of drugs, alcohol and promiscuity. Riding high on her initial success both academically and socially, she suddenly hits an impenetrable stumbling block after an all-night binge of narcotic-fuelled writing.

This volatile teenage autobiography saw Erik Skjoldbjærg (Insomnia) at the helm of the jaded film adaptation, which premiered at Toronto Film Festival back in 2001. It was ultimately limited to a minuscule theatrical release before receiving its US debut on the TV channel Starz (at the time, barely seen) four years later. A pity, because this film has real power.

In it, the free flow ebb of Lizzie’s life quietly judders to a joyless halt, it sees friendships tactlessly fractured and strained parental relationship hit breaking point. It’s a relatable yet arm’s length examination surrounding the ugly side of mental health. Lizzie quotes Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises when detailing the snake-like grip of depression, "Gradually, then suddenly" (referring to Mike Campbell’s character's description of bankruptcy). “That's how depression hits”, she muses, “you wake up one morning, afraid that you're gonna live.”

In the soul scraping depths of desolation, death seems like the only and final solution. Existence is too much a burden, with every moment seeming harder than the last. In contrast, plateauing depression seeks to shield the undesired notion of feeling, in essence neither living nor dying but rather switching off altogether. Wurtzel shrewdly narrates these two rivalling states with excruciating dexterity.

The razor sharp accuracy of Wurtzel’s prose unflinchingly depicts the bare bones reality of mental illness. Lizzie lives through cycles of insomnia, substance abuse and suicidal tendencies, but behind all the agony is a narcissistic protagonist that flouts the convention of sympathy. This rapid level of egotism sits aside depression but simultaneously forces watchers to confront their own behaviours. Lizzie rages and rants at her overbearing, chain smoking mother (Jessica Lange) who through hell and high water has been her daughter’s greatest advocate. Belittling and humiliating her most caring relative at every given opportunity was hard to stomach, but then it dawned on me that I in some way was Lizzie too, albeit a watered down PG version.

I had always apologized and made up for my outbursts, and I never enjoyed fighting, in fact quite the opposite. It always stemmed from a bottled up repression of emotion, like a well shaken soda can ready to pop. There was an unspoken correlation between the increase in irritable upsurges and my deteriorating mental health.

However, observing full blown arguments from an outsider’s perspective felt utterly monstrous. Witnessing this stone cold revelation reinforced my ideal of complete worthlessness. I felt wholly despicable and unworthy of love.

During therapy Lizzie begrudgingly tells her unwanted therapist Dr Sterling (Anne Heche) “I just keep thinking that if I could just be normal, if I could just get out of bed in the morning, everything would be okay.”

That line sticks with me, there are many times I still can’t get out of bed and just a trip to the bathroom seems the equivalent to climbing Mount Everest.

Prozac Nation’s dark and at times emotionally brutal narrative is refreshingly honest in its character flawed portrayal of mental health, which imparts a candidly humanistic depiction of blemished reality. And I think we should champion the films that have the courage to directly address this.

Den of Geek. (2017). Prozac Nation: a film breaking down a mental health boundary. [online] Available at: https://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/prozac-nation/49327/prozac-nation-a-film-breaking-down-a-mental-health-boundary.

And it's a film that means an awful lot to me. Its language hit home at a very difficult point in my life. And I need to go personal to explain why.

Depression silently seeps into everyday life with a minimalist trickle, methodically repossessing every discernible source of joy until it sucks your very life-force to a perilous tipping point. This hazy yet crushing realm of emotional torment is devoid of any empathy or self-care. It’s openly barred, the very thought of personally imposed kindness is utterly shameful and unjustified. Any form of social connection gradually dissipates, allowing your mind’s parasitic tendencies to turbo charge into full destructive mode. It’s the ultimate self-sabotaging companion.

During my most isolated, death wishing moments I craved for belonging; I wanted to know that despite the pain that consumed me, I could somehow crawl back from the labyrinth of endless despair to a plane of authentic understanding. Since I had chosen self-imposed seclusion my source of comfort came from movies, privately devouring these respites of assurance. They slowly chipped away at my crippling sense of loneliness and began to gently encourage a sense of community and camaraderie (even if it was only fictional).

Girl, Interrupted was the first film that truly resonated for me on a personal level when it came to dealing with mental health issues. I had several epiphanies throughout Kaysen’s cinematically transcribed memoir, which recounts her turbulent two year stay at a psychiatric hospital in the late 60s. I have never been institutionalised during my near decade battle with anxiety, depression and Body Dysmorphic Disorder. However, the universal servitude of emotional suffering defies any physical location, and is inherently empathetic no matter the narrative.

It was one line that really, really got me. “I know what it's like to want to die. How it hurts to smile. How you try to fit in but you can't. You hurt yourself on the outside to try to kill the thing on the inside.”

Time almost seemed to stop when I initially heard these words; the profundity of this statement sent a wave of solidarity to every atom in my body. The very feelings I couldn’t intelligibly define or rationally connect with had been penned well over 40 years prior, it was a life changing moment that hammered home the significance of brutal candidness when tackling mental illness.

Girl, Interrupted confronts a diverse range of diagnoses that array from Borderline Personality Disorder through to OCD and schizophrenia. Despite the varying symptoms and medications the uniting theme of pain is agonisingly evident between the co-habiting patients. In the face of chaos and turmoil humour is still found even in the bleakest hour. On a trip to the local ice-cream parlour Susanna (Ryder) retorts “You know, taking us for ice creams in a blizzard, makes you wonder who the real whack jobs are.” This vital flash of normalcy is paramount to recovery, slowly facilitating an emotionally stable reality in which to build upon healthy coping techniques.

The rawness of dialogue in Girl, Interrupted is alarmingly harrowing at times, too. “When you don't want to feel, death can seem like a dream. But seeing death, really seeing it, makes dreaming about it fucking ridiculous”, for instance. However, it is key in breaking down stigma both personally and publically. It signals that there should be no shame in reaching the seemingly inescapable boggy marshes of rock bottom. Watching others in similar predicaments to myself was wholly alien at first, but rapidly became of fuzzy safety blanket of timid acceptance. It felt as though someone had peered into my broken soul and replaced the puzzle pieces into a somewhat legible pattern.

“Crazy isn't being broken, or swallowing a dark secret. It's you, or me, amplified” eulogies Susanna during the final stages of treatment, and it suddenly struck me that my illness was a crosswire of biology and wasn’t my fault as I so vehemently believed. This dawning revelation started a slow but sure filtering of emotive openness I that had fervently repressed before, too proud and scared to bare the true extent of my distress.

Girl, Interrupted maybe a Hollywoodized ideal of psychiatric care with several glaring flaws, but I’ll be forever be grateful for its mainstream accessibility which enabled me to begin fighting against the oppressive storm of my own mental health.

Den of Geek. (2017). Girl Interrupted and One Profound Line of Dialogue. [online] Available at: https://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/girl-interrupted/264439/girl-interrupted-and-one-profound-line-of-dialogue.

The movie is shot beautifully and shows us how the production slowly destroys the good, obedient girl Nina as she starts suffering from OCD, anorexia(seen when she stares at a grapefruit and turns away the slice of cake her mother gives her in order to celebrate her getting the role), bulimia( seen as she keeps ruuning to the washroom to throw up) and falls under the pressure and stress to be perfect.  Nina’s portrayal as the Black Swan destroys her. It is metaphorical in a way that the character achieves artistic perfection because of the psychological and physical challenges one might encounter. In director, Darren Aronofsky’s words “the film can be perceived as a poetic metaphor for the birth of an artist, that is, as a visual representation of Nina’s psychic odyssey toward achieving artistic perfection and of the price to be paid for it.”

That process of Nina being told to study Lily to obtain the seduction, passion and aggression  unhinges Nina in a series of terrifying and depressing scenes that keep shifting between reality and Nina’s psychosis. Her previously controlled and co-dependent relationship with her mother, a typical former-ballerina-turned-stage-mom which is brilliantly portrayed by Barabara Hershey, explodes into one with aggressive fights, disobedience( Since Nina used to be an obedient daughter) and violence. The film shows Nina compulsively harming herself to become the Black Swan she is trying so desperately to perfect. She keeps pulling at extra skin near her finger nail until she tears away at her skin and bleeds. Scenes such as the one where she scratches her back until she gets the swan shaped ruptures of the black swan, thrilled the audience and kept them deeply engrossed in the movie.

The character of Nina points towards her mental disorder which on close observation can be revealed to be schizophrenia. Nina seems to develop the illness due to the comptetion she faces from her mother, her feelings of inferiority from Lily and her director’s sexual advances towards her alongside her eating disorders and anxiety. Nina’s hallucinations, constantly hearing voices point towards her psychosis which ultimately lead to her end. As the movie progresses, especially towards the end, we see Nina( basically, her hallucinations) as she slowly develops webbed feet and feathers and turns into the swan. She sheds away her sweet, good girl side to embrace her darker side in order to please her demanding, sexually aggressive director. Her hallucinations are so real that it is difficult to differ between what we are watching is her imagination or reality. The scenes were disturbing, fascinating and mysterious in a way that it was tough to interpret reality.

The movie, overall, is a beautiful yet frightening depiction of disorders like Ocd, self harm, bulimia, anorexia and schrizophenia.

Movierdo. (2010). Black Swan : A Psychological Analysis | Movierdo. [online] Available at: https://movierdo.com/black-swan-psychological-analysis/.

 Abusive Relationships - Short Film EDHS. (2015). [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=7&v=oS1zLD0rAIQ