GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM-ART

    The expressionism movement appeared during the mid 1900s in Dresden and Munich paralleling the beginning of expressionism in France. One of its main influences was Van Gogh’s pioneering expressionist paintings. Unlike impressionists, who were all about imitating nature, the expressionist painters ‘typically distorted color, scale and space to convey their subjective feelings about what they saw’(Wilette).  Later on the war( World War 1), sacred most of the artists for good. So starting from 1915, German expressionism started becoming a protests movement, as well as it started becoming a style of ‘modern art’.

   Although expressionist painting is said to have originated with the British painterJMW Turner in 1755, it actually originated in Paris. In Autumn a group held an exhibition which was talked about across all Europe. Thus was the name Fauvism born.

   Simultaneously; a few German architecture students ,who are at the same time artists,  formed a group called Die Brucke, meaning the bridge. They looked at the same models for inspiration as Feuves namely: Van Gough, Paul Gaugin and Georges Seurant. “Die Brucke early embodied the aesthetics of, German Expressionism, a movement which would reshape abstract as well as representational art”(Wilette).

    As it’s recently stated, Die Brucke consisted four architecture students: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff , Fritz Bleyl and Erich Heckel. They aimed to attract all the revolutionary and innovative in order to win the freedom to create, for the next gerenation.

Their subjects were taken from their everyday surroundings and their works were representing their daily life. Their paintings were directly painted with life and experience itself. Their artistic point of view directly came from the exhibitions which traveled around Europe and consisted many works of Van Gogh. “What was at first intuitively transformed into art, was refined into a powerfully expressive art composed of a simplified tracery of lines, composition over large surfaces and pure color”(Wilette). Landscape, the nude, the nude in a landscape were important themes for Die Brucke.

Standing Child- Eric Heckel:

Naturalness and exaggeration offered possibilities of overcoming traditional boundaries. The artists wanted to depict universality and objectivity, that’s why color was made independent.

In this drawing, the pose of the girl indicates that she is not ashamed of her nakedness. Her skinny immature body, provides a visual analog for the artist’s angularity and simplification form.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880):

This is a piece where freedom is stated with the use of color. And again nudity is visible. There is not much contrast in Kirchner’s work yet the use of bold and bright colors, is the main idea of this painting. Her comfortable position again represents lack of shame because of nudity. Plus the existence of the mirror strengthens this meaning by representing that she is comfortable by observing her naked body.

 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner-At The Café Terrace:

This is most likely drawn close to the year 1915. That’s because, it represents the darkness and obscurity, which are all about the Great War. The color use (black and white) illustrates the contrast of the society or maybe even the challenges of the artist’s inwardness. Additionally, it’s possible to observe the sharp edges of the women’s clothing, which contributes to the idea of contrast.

Max Pechstein- Killing of the Banquet Roast:

The human figure with the sharp edges of its body, plus the tree figure with its unfamiliar illustration demonstrates innovation and modernism. This is another painting with striking, bold colors. The green, yellow and flesh-color are used to illustrate naturalism and freedom. While the contrast of colors attract attention, the use of black in the background but especially in the tree’s roots depict depression.

 The article written by Jeanne Wilette is a secondary source, which consist all this information about art and German expressionism. This is obviously written to inform the reader about the German Expressionism, how it formed and further information of the things that came with it. Personally I found this article quite beneficial, for the reason that it provides the necessary information about German Expressionism and arts.

                                                                        Work Cited

       Derain., By French Fauvist Andre. "History of Expressionist Painting (1880-1930)." History of Expressionist Painting. Encyclopedia of Arts and History, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016. <http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/expressionist-painting-origins.htm>.

      Christina.tsevis. "The Bridge to Utopia: Die Brücke's Wild Expressionism." Visual News. Visual News, 03 Mar. 2016. Web. 09 Oct. 2016. <https://www.visualnews.com/2012/06/04/bridge-utopia-expressionist-group-die-brcke-early-20th-century/>.

      "German Expressionism." MoMA. Moma, n.d. Web. 09 Oct. 2016. <https://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/themes/index>.

      

City Lights

Buket Gök

188/IB TM

Ece Demircioğlu/ Film

27.09.2016

                                                                       City Lights

    The film “City Lights” was shot in 1931, directed, written, produced and starred by Charlie Chaplin. As a silent (non dialogue ) film, it is a classic romantic comedy and also contains pieces of drama in it’s plot. The music in the background of the non dialogue film, is written by Arthur Johnston and Charlie Chaplin. Although Chaplin preferred live music in theatres, the music of City Lights was composed by Chaplin and recorded. This film is about a tramp(Chaplin)  falling in love with a blind women. He is ignored and abused most of the time but tries to keep being hopeful.  The film starts with an ordinary speech of the mayor and continues with the scene where  Chaplin sleeps on a statue which is a monument. Right at that point, it’s clear to the audience that the protagonist is a tramp. Later on that day, Tramp meets a flower girl and watches her adoringly. Simultaneously, he understands that she is blind. That evening, he runs into a drunken millionaire who is trying to commit suicide and prevents this act from happening. The next thing is that he finds himself in a fancy restaurant because the millionaire tries to thank him. Later on he takes him to his mansion and gives him new clothes and an amount of money. With that money the tramp buys all the flowers of the women. Also with the car of the wealthy man, the tramp drives the flower lady home.  Later on he continues going back and forth to the mansion yet when the wealthy man gets sober, he doesn’t remember him and does not treat him nicely. The tramp knows that he can cure the flower lady’s blindness with money and he knows that she is not able to pay the rent of her house. So he works to earn money and gets fired, fights to earn money and looses. As the last thing, he visits the millionaire and asks for money. Just when he is about to be caught by the police because of a misunderstanding, he runs away and gives the money to the lady. Then the police catches him and puts him into jail. After serving his time, while walking on the street; he finds himself tormented by the news paper boys.  As he turns to leave, he finds himself staring at the flower lady through the window. The lady doesn’t recognize him and try to give him some money and a flower. Later on when she touches his hand, she understands that it’s him. Surprised by the fact that her love is a short men with a weird mustache. “You?” she asks, he nods and says “You can see now?” . She replies tearfully, “Yes, I can see now.”

    “Where the words leave off, gesture begin”  (Essance of Chaplin). With a non dialogue film, he actually revealed  how unnecessary the words are. He created his own music to reflect the emotions of the characters, and that was enough. Although “Bronlow told that Chaplin never referred to his early shooting methods in his published writings on his career, because the truth is that he is embarrassed of not knowing what he was doing.” (Essance of Chaplin), his shooting methods are described as keystone.

                    Wide Shot                                Full Shot                                             Mid Shot

(The setting, outside of the                     (The whole character and              (The mayor speaking)

blind girl’s house) (By looking at             the house of the millionaire

the setting, it’s easy to say that this      on the background.)(Comparing

is a poor person’s neighborhood.)        the two houses, even the door of

                                                                     this house reveals that it’s owner

                                                                     is rich.)

Medium Close Up                                Over the shoulder                                  Medium Two Shot

                                                                  (The flower lady and the tramp         (The millionaire and the servant

                                                           having a conversation.)                       having a conversation.)                                                                                                                             

Long Two Shot                                                                Reverse Shot(Characters are emotionally in 

(Again it is the rich neighborhood                              conflict here. The grandma doesn’t think 

full of  flowers . )                                                        like her optimistic granddaughter  about the tramp.)

    In this romantic comedy, Chaplin comments upon the saying which is “it’s just business”. The tramp earns money by doing nothing. When the Tramp meets the millionaire when he’s drunk, he gets to be treated as a good friend. On the other hand, when the millionaire is sober, the class difference reappears and the millionaire does not even communicate with him. Also, in the first scene of the movie; all the well dressed people and the mayor try to catch and shoo the tramp. These both  demonstrate the class difference and hierarchy.   

 Low Angle- This character is not significant to the movie yet he is important in the way that he represents hierarchy. He is the mayor (an important person in the society), that’s why he is shot with a low angle.

The challenge to find money also reflects fragments of the Great Depression. During the time when Chaplin started shooting the film, sound was starting to be implemented in film. To prove that silent comedy and pantomime still had a place in the world of cinema, Chaplin shot this film in the way it is now. 

    Since the technology was not developed enough, it’s hard to observe clear shooting angles or camera movement.  However , panning is sometimes visible.

  

                                                                          Pan

     “It’s a tale of loners, who find each other, loose each other and find each other again.” Mr. Whiplash says on the Imdb review. And the journey of this saying is actually what makes the story and the film enjoyable.  Although it’s hard to focus on a black& white film in a century full of Hollywood movies, Chaplin makes it entertaining even without the dialogues.  As we are used to watching movies which change scenes in seconds, events progress in every minute; Chaplin succeeds in entertaining the audience with the main character Tramp, touching the hearts of the audience with the love between him and the flower lady, also teaching people that dedication is the key(in the end the tramp finds the money and cures the eyes of the women that he loves) . This film being non dialogue does not lessen anything from the context of the story; it strengthens the gestures, the looks, the music and all the movements. Without any conversation going on, the audience focuses on the visual; just like a blind girl being able to focus on the other senses such as hearing or touching. 

   A lot of films which are shot in the past feel outdated because of the old language,  it’s genre or topic. With it’s music and universal theme, the only thing that this Chaplin made film represent is timelessness.

References

    Arwan, Andrew. "Silence Is Golden:Chaplin." Andrew Arvan. Jeane Wilette, 06 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

    Elbert, Roger. "Movie Review." Rogerrebert. N.p., 21 Dec. 1997. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.

    N.p., n.d. Web. <http://unutulmazfilmler.co/city-lights.html>.