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. Caligari sought to use the means of expression to create an external vision of the internal psychology of the characters. German Expressionism emerged in a world of psychological horror in films like Caligari and Nosferatu. Expressionism is thus clearly related to romantic literature, but in film it also has a social element, as Elsaesser notes (Elsaesser 117-125).
The movement that was a reaction to this was called Neue Sachlichkeit, or the New Objectivity, ...