The New Objectivity in German Art

The New objectivity in German art was a reaction against the colder and more extravagant Expressionism. The new approach is evident in G. W. Pabst's silent film Die Liebe der Jeanne Ney (1927), a romantic film which has a strong sense of social realities and contrasts and which draws on the Soviet cinema of the time for inspiration. Pabst here intermixes the montage of the Russian filmmakers with camera movement and extended tracking in a realistic vision of the different social strata of the time. This approach differs from that of Expressionism, which was more rhythmic and expressive of internal states, while the new objectivity is precisely that--objective and so standing outside the object to observe and record.

The power of German Expressionism is evident in the images that persist from films of the 1920s and 1930s first from Germany and then from Hollywood as more and more German directors and technicians fled Hitler's Germany and changed the way films were made in Hollywood. German Expressionism was an aesthetic that combined with images of the machine age and a certain sense of social criticism to forge images of human beings moving through a menacing landscape, surrounded by deep shadows, architectural angles, and a pervasive and oppressive psychology. One or another of these elements might dominate in any given instance, but the films making use of this aesthetic are clearly recognizable as doing so. In Germany in the 1920s, a film like The Cabinet of Dr. Cali

Related Essays

The New objectivity in German art The New objectivity in German art was a reaction against the colder and more extravagant Expressionism. The .... approach is evident .... (1376 6 )

Creations of .... These and other German Expressionists had already delineated the .... is a perfect expression of this .... cynicism. .... Thus there cannot be the same objectivity as in .... (3147 13 )

Vasily Kandinsky .... He did not offer non-objectivity as a logical .... "Kandinsky and the Birth of Abstraction." .... Criterion 13 (March .... "The Idea of Abstraction in German Theories of .... (2947 12 )

Triumph of the Will .... constructs reality so masterfully that objectivity disappears .... national pride that would rule German society during .... depression and deliver them a .... life filled .... (2923 12 )

Bauhaus Designs & Mies van der Rohe Design .... The array of .... demands being placed on .... .... to the classrooms--resembled handsome German factories .... openness of the building encouraged objectivity, an openness .... (3874 15 )

spread on the floor, the cigarettes on the table, and eventually the face of the man himself. The camera thus connects the man and the milieu, and in the next shot the exterior of the hotel and its neighborhood lead in the other direction, from the milieu to those who inhabit it with the Russian officers who are drinking and carousing. The theme of social decadence is brought out in this scene and linked to a specific time and place through an objective recording of the locale and the people in it. Khalibiev is linked with this debauchery, and he is brought face to face with the heroic Andrey, who stands out among the revelry by his black clothing and his different demeanor. Jeanne Ney becomes the object of both men, and Khalibiev is a key player in much that happens after this, from selling information to the French to the murder of Raymond Ney to the constant pursuit of Jeanne. The introduction of Jeanne's father is also conducted in an objective manner while associating the individual with the society in which he lives and works. There is a relationship between the degenerate world of the soldiers on leave and the dissolute world of Ney, who keeps eating escargots, who dances with his arms wrapped around the money in his

Category: Arts - T