Dr. Touponce showed our class _Metropolis_ as an example of a German
expressionist film.  What keeps it out of the definition?
 
Scott
 
 
 
On Tue, 30 Jun 1998, Horak, Chris wrote:
 
>      In a narrow definition of ther term, DIE BUECHSE DER PANDORA is not
> a German expressionist film. Ony about six films actually qualify as
> real expressionist films, utilizing the style of expressionist art and
> theatre in their set design and acting: CALIGARI, VON MORGENS BIS
> MITTERNACHT, GENUINE, ALGOL, ROSKOLNIKOV, and WAXWORKS. All of them were
> made between 1919 and 1923.
>
>      Due to a misreading of Lotte Eisner's The Haunted Screen, many
> Anglo-American and French critics have defined German expressionism much
> more broadly, identifying virtually every German film from the 1920s as
> belonging. This is simply not true. Expressionist cinema is "art
> cinema". Literarlly thousands of German films were produced in the 1920s
> as genre films, whether comedies, or historical epics or "Heimat films".
>
>      PANDORA'S BOX is for the most part a realistic film. Its editing
> structure (invisible cuts on movement) certainly qualify it as
> realistic, as well as most of the acting. There are moments in the film,
> when Pabst resorts to expressionistic lighting and camera angles, and
> one might possibly argue that the narrative itself is expressionistic.
> But it borrows from expressionism the way later AMerican film noirs
> borrowed from expressionism. A closer  reading of Eisner will confirm
> that she does not characterize the film as expressionist, but rather
> highlights Pabst's realism.
>
>
> Chris
>
> Jan-Christopher Horak
> Director
> Archives & Collections
> Universal Studios
>
>
>
> > ----------
> > From:         gloria monti[SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Reply To:     Film and TV Studies Discussion List
> > Sent:         Monday, June 29, 1998 9:16 PM
> > To:   [log in to unmask]
> > Subject:      a query
> >
> >         Can an argument be made for *Pandora's Box* as a German
> > Expressionism film?
> >
> >         Gloria Monti
> >
> > ______________________________
> >
> > gloria monti
> > lecturer & director of undergraduate studies
> > film studies program, yale university
> > 53 wall st., #116, new haven, CT 06510
> > voice mail: 203-432-0152
> > fax: 203-776-1928
> > e-mail: [log in to unmask]
> > http://pantheon.cis.yale.edu/~godard/index.html
> >
> > "Ou est donc la verite?  De face ou de profil?"
> >                Jean-Luc Godard
> >
> > ----
> > Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
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> >
>
> ----
> Online resources for film/TV studies may be found at ScreenSite
> http://www.tcf.ua.edu/screensite
>
 
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