"Black" and "white" in German Expressionist Films

Popova Liana Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0002-9766-7535 PhD in Cultural Studies Senior lecturer, State University of Management 109542, Russia, Moscow, Ryazan Avenue, 99, office U-404 pliana@mail.ru Other publications by this author

In Russian science in Soviet times, the work of German expressionists was not given sufficient attention. Currently, Russian researchers are beginning to awaken interest in the work of expressionists in cinema. Monographs are being published, the most interesting and significant of which is "Soviet Expressionism: from Caligari to Stalin" ^[1], created by a team of famous film researchers. The research of Russian scientists such as E.V. Salnikova is published ^[2],[3]. Among foreign authors, the studies of Z. Krakauer ^[4], L. Eisner ^[5],[6], R. Kurtz ^[7] remain significant. The origins of expressionism have been studied by such authors as S. Barron and Wolf-Dieter Dube ^[8], D. Peng ^[9], R. Giesen ^[10]. The influence of Expressionists on the formation of modern cinema is the subject of research by authors such as P. Kout ^[11], as well as collective monographs ^[12],[13]. S. Brockmann's research ^[14] is devoted to the study of the aesthetic aspect.

The German Expressionists, with their discoveries in the field of light and shadow, influenced the entire world cinema, which was appreciated by directors and cameramen. In turn, the German expressionists were influenced by Russian editing. This study is devoted to the study of these aspects. Cinema is a moving photograph. The study of the spatial composition of the frame, as well as the study of light and shadow, as one of its main components, will never lose its relevance.

Light and Shadow in German Expressionist films

Leonardo da Vinci also determined that "shadow is the absence of light" ^{[15, p. 129]}. At the same time, he noted: "The shadow has the nature of darkness, and illumination has the nature of light, one hides, the other shows; and they are always inseparable and connected with the body. Shadow has more power than light, because shadow hinders light and completely deprives the body of light, and light can never completely expel shadow from bodies, that is, dense bodies" ^{[15, p. 129]}. According to Vittorio Storaro, one of the most outstanding operators of our time, the task of the operator is "to convey to the viewer the meaning of the relationship of light and shadow with the help of the camera" ^{[16, Electronic resource]}.

 With the help of the play of light and shadow, a photograph was obtained, then a moving photograph and, finally, the first film. The German Expressionists contrasted light with shadow with special force. It is impossible not to agree with V. Storaro that "expressionism has changed our attitude to light" 16, Electronic resource].  Expressionists attached special importance to the night as time, as duration, as well as to the image of the shadow ^{[17, p. 95]}.

Expressionism, as you know, is a trend in the art of the first third of the XX century, formed mainly in Germany in anticipation of the First World War, as a reaction to the destruction of the values of Western European culture. The Expressionists were characterized by pessimism and a penchant for mysticism, and the artistic palette was characterized by drama and expressiveness. Hence the name of the artistic movement, which means "expressiveness". The artists considered the post-Impressionists to be their predecessors, in particular  Vincent van Gogh, with his special technique, Edmund Munch with his "flashy" palette, as well as James Ensor. The expressionists include Paul Klee, Alfred Kubin, Oscar Kokoshka, representatives of the associations "Bridge" and "Blue Rider". Another source for Expressionists remained German Romanticism and Pre-Romanticism. Gradually expressionism penetrates into cinema.

Robert Vinet's film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", shot in 1919, was truly expressionistic, telling about the director of a mental hospital who, with the help of hypnosis, forces his somnambulist patient Cesare to commit murders in order to keep the city at bay. The co-author of the script was the leading German playwright Karl Mayer (sovm. with Hans Janowitz).  The film was distinguished by bright decorations created by expressionist artists, and especially colorful somnambulist makeup. The city in the daytime, as well as the fairground, are depicted in bright colors using yellow. The night is given, by contrast, in black-white and blue tones. At night, the city is empty, deserted, scary, only the shadow of the killer clearly appears on the wall. The night city is shown very conditionally: deserted streets, lanterns. The night is full of secrets and riddles. Night is the time of doppelgangers: while a somnambulist commits murder, his doll "sleeps" in a fairground box. And a somnambulist sleeps during the day, like a vampire in a coffin ^{[17, p. 95]}.

The sleeping somnambulist symbolized Germany during the years of severe depression. Therefore, it was not for nothing that the interest of expressionists was aroused by Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" in 1897, which tended to the tradition of neo-Romanticism, to the Gothic novel. The first film adaptation of "Dracula" was made in 1921 by Hungarian cinematographers, but only a few frames have been preserved. The film is considered lost. Director F. V. Murnau wanted to film Dracula, but the film studio could not acquire the right to film it. Murnau directed the film Nosferatu. Symphony of Horror", where the names and plot were changed. The film retains the main characters Jonathan and Mina Harker, Count Dracula and some others, but they are renamed in the film. The action was transferred from England to Germany. Dracula becomes Count Orlok, Harker becomes Hutter, Mina becomes Ellen.  According to the plot of the film, Thomas Hutter, a real estate agent, learns that Count Orlok, who lives in Transylvania, wants to buy a house in Germany. Hutter goes to Romania, where, after spending a night in Count Orloc's castle, he discovers bites on his neck. The count loads the coffins at night and sails away on a ship, hiding in one of the coffins. Sailors are dying on the ship one by one. Hutter returns to Ellen. The vampire settles in the purchased house and comes to Ellen at night to drink blood. People are dying in the city, people think that the plague is raging in the city. This is how the atmosphere of fear and horror is being whipped up. Ellen finds a book about vampires from Thomas, where she learns that a vampire can be defeated if a woman intoxicates him with blood, so that he does not notice the sunrise.  So Ellen sacrifices herself. In the film, Orlok, unlike Dracula, does not turn his victims into vampires, but kills them so that they think there is a plague in the city. In the novel by B. Stoker, the count dies from a hunting knife that is stabbed into his heart, in the film he dies from sunlight. Light overcomes darkness, but fear and terror remain.

Murnau's film uses colored light filters, a game of chiaroscuro. Especially noteworthy is the frame with the image of the shadow of a vampire on the wall. The game of chiaroscuro is also used in the image of the night city: the roofs of houses cast shadows on the asphalt. This is how the atmosphere of fear and horror is being whipped up.

Zh. Deleuze, describing the work of the German expressionists, noted that light "opposes darkness precisely in order to manifest itself" ^{[18, p. 97]}. In his opinion, this opposition appears even in J.V. Goethe and the Romantics. Indeed, in Goethe's Faust:

"This light is a product of the darkness of the night!

And took the place away from her...".

Goethe formed his theory of color ^[19], echoes of which are seen in the German Expressionists. Blue is "the lightening of black, yellow is the darkening of white" ^{[18, p. 101]}. The intensification from two sides, blue and yellow, reaches the culmination of red: "This is the fiery circle in the scenes of Wegener's summoning to the demon in Golem and Murnau in Faust.Such is the bonfire of Faust. Such is the “phosphorescent head of a demon with sad and empty eyes” in Wegener. Such are the flaming heads of Mabuse and Mephistopheles" ^{[18, p. 102]}. Murnau has a Nosferatu, as Zh. rightly pointed out. Deleuze, we meet not only "all shades of chiaroscuro, contour and inorganic life of shadows, not only all the moments through which the reddish reflection passes, but also the culmination when a powerful light (unalloyed red) separates this reflection from the twilight background, brings it out of an even more clearly marked abyss and endows it with a semblance of omnipotence, surpassing its ordinary form" ^{[18, p. 102]}. At the same time, Goethe's red color is not only terrible, burning us, but also a noble color, meaning that the soul returns to the light. According to J. Deleuze, the "flaming" becomes "supernatural and supersensible, like, for example, Ellen's sacrifice in Nosferatu, or the sacrifice in Faust, or even Indra's sacrifice in Sunrise" ^{[18, p. 103]}.

According to L. Eisner, P. Wegener in "Golem" uses all the lighting effects invented by his teacher, theater director Max Reinhardt ^{[5, p. 33]}: "This sudden change of light and shadow was possible thanks to the rotating stage in the German Theater and the spacious arena of the Bolshoi Drama Theater in Berlin" ^{[5, p. 33]}. 30]. The scene of the spirit spell, according to L. Eisner, is stronger than a similar scene in Murnau's Faust: "The glowing image of a demon with sad empty eyes dissolves into thin air and suddenly turns into a giant mask of an Asian at the very edge of the screen. The viewer is transfixed by the horror of an unexpected threat. The power of artistic influence is brought to its limit here" ^{[5, p. 30]}. F. V. Murnau was also a student of M. Reinhardt.

The Expressionists perfected the play of light and shadow. Back in 1915, directors Hendrik Galeen and Paul Wegener created the film "Golem" based on the Jewish legend of the animated clay statue. This film, according to many researchers, is considered lost. Paul Wegener turns to this plot again in 1920 with a new version of the film, shot jointly with Karl Beze, whose full title is "The Golem, how he came into the World". "Golem" in Hebrew means "clay". This is a character in Jewish mythology, animated by Kabbalists, just as God created Adam from clay. The film takes place in Prague. Rabbi Lev, watching the stars, sees signs foreshadowing disasters. The Emperor issues a decree: expel Jews from the Prague ghetto due to their use of black magic. Rabbi Lev refers to ancient manuscripts telling about the possible salvation of Jews with the help of a clay statue. He creates a clay sculpture according to drawings. To revive a clay statue, you have to turn to magic, summon a spirit that communicates the words necessary for the spell. The golem is revived with an amulet in the form of a star. He becomes Rabbi Lev's domestic servant. Gradually, the idol awakens human feelings: love for the owner's daughter Miriam. One day the Golem gets angry, Rabbi Lev pulls the amulet out of his chest, the idol becomes motionless. Golem and Rabbi Lev go to the emperor's reception to demonstrate the miracle. A necessary condition: there must be silence in the palace. Rabbi Lev shows scenes from the book of Exodus on the wall. The court jester breaks the silence, the walls of the palace begin to collapse. Golem holds them with his hands, the emperor repeals the law concerning the expulsion of Jews. Rabbi Lev returns victoriously to the ghetto. The golem has completed its mission, Rabbi Lev wants to destroy it, but he is distracted by his assistant Famulus, who is also in love with Rabbi Lev's daughter. Finding her with her lover, he revives the Golem, which throws Miriam's lover off the roof and sets a fire. Rabbi Lev manages to save his daughter. The golem goes outside the ghetto and meets the children. One of the girls takes the amulet out of his chest, the Golem turns to stone. The statue is returned to the ghetto, never to be revived.

The motif of animating statues is also present in Paul Leni's film "The Cabinet of Wax Figures", filmed in 1924, but this does not happen in reality, but in a dream. The poet visits the fair, gets into the wax figures office, the owner of which offers him to invent and write down three stories: about the eastern despot Harun-al-Rashid, about the "most terrible" Russian tsar Ivan the Terrible and the murderer Jack the Ripper. The poet falls asleep, and sees  in a dream, all three stories. He wakes up at the moment when he sees how he and the daughter of the owner of the panopticon are being persecuted by Jack the Ripper. Everything ends well, the poet finds his happiness in the person of Eva, the daughter of the owner of the wax figures. The dream is one of the cinematic realities created by the Expressionists.

According to L.Eisner, the influence on the "Cabinet of Wax Figures" by P. Leni was exerted by the "Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" by R. Vinet ^{[5, p. 63]}, where blue and yellow color filters are also used.

Expressionists influenced the entire world cinema with their artistic discoveries and camerawork techniques. The collective monograph of our compatriots "Soviet Expressionism: from Caligari to Stalin", published in 2019, is devoted to the influence of expressionists on Soviet cinema ^[1]. It is impossible not to agree with O. Kovalov's statement about the influence of Paul Leni's "Cabinet of Wax Figures" on the formation of the style of "Ivan Gorozny" by S. Eisenstein ^{[1, p. 322]}. S. Eisenstein himself believed that expressionism entered the history of the formation of our cinema as "the strongest factor ... of repulsion" ^{[20, p. 15]}. Expressionists influenced the formation of the art of cinematography all over the world. In turn, Soviet directors also influenced the world cinema with their discoveries in the field of editing, including the work of German expressionist directors. Z. Krakauer also wrote about the "Russian fashion" that arose after S. Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" and V. Pudovkin's "Mother", which had a dizzying success in Germany ^{[4, p. 176]}. The influence of Eisenstein and Pudovkin, according to Z. Krakauer, is especially strong on G. V. Pabst ^{[4, p. 180]}. According to L. Eisner, the gray color of the Carpathian mountains in F. V. Murnau's Nosferatu is reminiscent of "documentary filming in Dovzhenko's films" ^{[5, p. 54]}. In addition, one should not forget about the influence of D. Vertov on V. Ruttman and his "Symphony of the Big City" ^{[21, p. 78]}.

The influence of the "Russian montage" is most clearly seen in F. Lang's 1927 film Metropolis. According to L. Eisner, F. Lang, when creating the image of the city, relied on "his impressions of the skyscrapers of New York" ^{[5, p. 118]}. The city was created with the help of Shufftan's mirror technique, thanks to which "threatening huge barracks of the underground city grow out of the ground, in fact unfinished" ^{[5, p. 118]}. The film "Metropolis" has not been completely preserved, after the premiere it was greatly reduced and changed. A quarter of the film was considered lost. In 2008, an almost complete copy was found in Buenos Aires, but it was also severely damaged and cut down when copied onto 16 mm film. In some places, the original titles have been preserved, in which the influence of D. Vertov, whose work was well known in Europe, can be traced. In his film "Kino-eye", shot in 1924, the credits are still used. According to L. Roshal, in this film D. Vertov solved a new task — "he achieved the ultimate editing fusion of inscriptions with frames" ^{[22, p. 136]}. Of particular importance are the inscriptions in the film "The Sixth Part of the World", filmed in 1926. The inscriptions here, according to D. Vertov himself, "seem to be taken out of the picture brackets and highlighted in a contrapuntically constructed word-radio theme" ^{[23, p. 156]}. The author directly addresses the peoples of Russia: Tatars, Buryats, Uzbeks, Kalmyks, Khakas, mountaineers of the Caucasus, Komi: "You are // all // masters // Soviet // Land // In your // hands // THE SIXTH // PART // OF THE WORLD". Russia is opposed to the world of Western capitalism. In the countries of capitalism we see people having fun, dancing, foxtrot, gold, furs, later we learn that these furs were delivered from Soviet Russia. In parallel, scenes from the life of workers with a pickaxe, colonies, slaves on plantations and, at the same time, black musicians, dances of black women entertaining Europeans are mounted. The verdict on the world of capital is harsh: "On the edge of // its// historical// DEATH // CAPITAL IS AMUSED // ^{[24, p. 27]}. The pictures of Soviet Russia look completely different: people bathing sheep in the surf and in the stream; people harnessing deer in the Far North; a man making a notch in a tree so as not to get lost in the taiga; people in boats on the Pechora River and in the ocean; villages of Dagestan. In the "Sixth Part of the World", the inscriptions are embedded in the "word-radio-theme", the next film "The Eleventh", shot in 1928, is "an apparently audible movie thing, that is, mounted not only visually, but also in noise, in terms of sound" ^{[22, p. 146]}. "A man with a movie camera", shot in 1929, does not contain inscriptions, this film is, according to the director himself, "an experience of complete separation of the language of cinema from the language of theater and literature" ^{[22, p. 149]}. D. Vertov's creative work is gradually evolving towards sound cinematography. In 1930, he created the first sound documentary "Symphony of Donbass" ("Enthusiasm"), where the sound was written in a real setting using outdoor photography ^{[21, p. 79]}. If D. Vertov opposes Soviet Russia and the world of Western capital, then F. Lang's "Metropolis" opposes each other the "lower" and "upper" city, Hell and Paradise. This contrast is achieved not only with the help of a light solution, where Heaven is given in white luminous tones, and Hell in dark, black, the titles also indicate the separation. The title, which tells how "the city of workers lies deep underground, and high above it is a complex of buildings called the "Club of Sons" with its classrooms and libraries, theaters and stadiums," is built in the form of a pyramid. The city is ruled by one man, like the Pharaoh of Egypt, Yo Fredersen, the rest are his slaves. From the first frames of the film, we see rotating machine parts, a huge factory, a clock with a rotating arrow. All this is reminiscent of footage from S. Eisenstein's "Strike" and footage from D. Vertov's chronicles. The movement of workers to work resembles a walk of prisoners who get into a "meat grinder": bars rise and fall, people enter the premises. Workers move in two streams: to work and from work. Workers who have finished their shift resemble robots. In the upper town, everything is different: young people have fun and arrange competitions. Fredder, the son of Jo Fredersen, spends his time here. Those workers who have achieved high performance can give their children "Eternal Gardens" with exotic trees, peacocks, fountains. Maria, a girl from the lower town, brings the children of the workers here to show them the prospect of possible development, but the servants expel them. Meeting with Maria prompts Fred to learn a different life, and he flees to the city of workers. People move like gears, they are an attachment to machines, a kind of "cogs". If one screw falls out, the car breaks down. One worker cannot withstand the load and falls senseless, the boiling point of the unit is off the scale. Explosion! To Fred, this giant machine seems like a Moloch, opening and closing its mouth and absorbing people. Is it a vision or a reality? Here, clearly, the influence of P. Leni's "Cabinet of Wax Figures" with the poet's visions affects.

Jo Fredersen, the owner of Metropolis, is a kind of human machine, making complex calculations in his mind that an ordinary person cannot cope with. His alter ego, the inventor Rotwang, is also a machine man, a fanatic of his business. He has an iron hand, but he believes: "It's worth losing a hand to create a man of the future." Rotwang was in love with Hel, the wife of Jo Fredersen. He creates a monument to her and invents a mechanical doll in memory of her. The image of a mechanical doll is found even in E.T.A. Hoffman in "The Sandman" (Olympia, which misleads the main character).

 Jo Fredersen and Rotwang enter the catacombs, where Maria tells the workers a story about the construction of a Tower, the prototype of which is the Tower of Babel. It should be noted that in the films of the German expressionists there is often a different text, that is, "intertext" ^[25]. In "Golem" there is a book with a legend about a clay statue, in "Dr. Caligare's Office" there is a book with a legend about Dr. Caligari, which is adopted by the director of the hospital, in "Metropolis" there is the "Book of Books" itself, that is, the Bible. According to the legend about the construction of the Tower, it should be a tower to the heavens, which was supposed to glorify the greatness of man. The tower was conceived by great Minds, but they themselves could not carry out the plan and hired workers. Thus, the Hands that built the Tower did not know anything about the Head from which the idea came. What was a blessing for the Head turned out to be an unbearable burden for the Hands, and the Tower was never built. The Head and Hands spoke the same language, but did not understand each other. They need a Mediator-the Heart, which is about to come. Meanwhile, the workers are ready to rebel and destroy the city, only faith in the Mediator restrains them. Maria sees an Intermediary in Freder. Jo Fredersen suggests that Rotwang give the mechanical doll the appearance of Maria in order to undermine the workers' trust in her. Rotwang agrees, but he has his own plans. The false Maria must destroy Yo Fredersen, his son and his city.

In addition to the legend of the Tower of Babel, the film contains a text from The Revelation of John the Theologian. At a dinner party, the False Mary appears in the image of a Babylonian harlot, sitting on a beast with "seven heads and ten horns" (Rev. 17:3). She performs a dance that drives men into a frenzy, provoking fights, duels, suicides. According to L. Eisner, in the expressionist theater, "the word helped to maintain the unity of style" ^{[5, p. 26]}. In cinema, the expressionist style could only be expressed through "poses, facial expressions and gestures": "Accordingly, if in silent films we replace the word with a gesture, an actor's facial expressions, then the result is just those incoherent, sharp gestures, movements and facial expressions that seem to be split into pieces and are the main props of expressionist acting.... An actor of the highest class, such as Feidt, who played the role of Cesare and passed the long-term school of expressionist theater, still managed to complete these fragmentary gestures" ^{[5, p. 77]}. L. Eisner also notes that the Homunculus created in the laboratory "demonstrated the same convulsive facial expressions, and his hands at the same time performed exactly the same the same nervous and fussy gestures" ^{[5, p. 178]}. "Therefore, it is not surprising," L. Eisner believes, "that even in 1926, when the era of cinema expressionism was declining, Rudolf Klein—Rogge endowed his character — the magician-inventor in Lang's Metropolis — with jerky movements of a puppet. This is not done at all in order to visually convey the madness of an exalted character. After all, Brigitte Helm in the role of the real Maria also turns around impulsively, abruptly changes her facial expression to the exact opposite, acts and moves exactly the same way as she does in the role of the fake Maria — a human robot. Similarly, workers who are incited to revolt against the oppressors grimace. Their faces are stretched into wild grimaces, their mouths gape open on frozen masks devoid of any naturalness" ^{[5, p. 178]}.

The false Maria speaks to the workers, calling them to revolt in order to destroy faith in the Mediator, calls for the destruction of machines. The situation is saved by the senior foreman Grot, who reminds them that they will all die if they destroy the cars, the city will be flooded with water. The fake Maria turns on the generator, the cars begin to collapse. The real Maria raises the alarm and, trying to save the children, takes them to the "Eternal Gardens". The workers go in pursuit of the False Maria and sentence her to be burned. All that remains of it is a steel frame. The distraught Rotwang takes Maria for a False Maria, tries to throw her off the bell tower of the Cathedral. Fredder manages to save her, he throws Rotwang down. Jo Fredersen (Head) and Grot (Hands) are ready to reconcile, but they are hampered by prejudice. Freder (Heart) joins their hands. Is this reconciliation possible in reality? Perhaps it is worth agreeing with Z. Krakauer that the clever tycoon is deceiving his son around his finger: "The concession he makes to the workers not only prevents them from continuing the struggle, but helps the tycoon to hold the reins of government even tighter" ^{[4, p. 166]}. According to Z. Krakauer, Maria's demand that "the heart should mediate between action and thought could have been put forward by Goebbels. He also appealed to the hearts of the people, but in the name of totalitarian propaganda. The pictorial solution of the final episode confirms the analogy between the industrial magnate and Goebbels.... The composition of the frame seems to indicate that the industrialist pays tribute to the people's heart, because he wants to manage it; and that he is not only going to resign supreme powers, but wants to expand them in a new area — the collective soul. Freder's revolt ends with the establishment of totalitarian power, but he counts this finale among his victories" ^{[4, pp. 166-167]}.

The film "Metropolis" in terms of light was the culmination and culminating point of the development of expressionism. The contrast of black and white, light and shadow, Hell and Heaven, rich and poor are brought to perfection here.

From Expressionists to modernity

As already noted, the work of the German expressionists is closely connected with the German cultural romantic tradition. The interest in the irrational, hidden, uncontrolled beginning intensified during the Great Depression, the global economic crisis that engulfed the United States, Canada, Germany, France from 1929 to 1939. Why was it in Germany that there was a great interest in Dracula, vampires? The fact is that in German culture the traditions of "macabre" are strong - the "dance of death", an ancient allegorical plot of the Middle Ages. In painting, the most prominent exponents of "macabre" were Hans Holbein Jr., Albrecht Durer. In literature, in addition to medieval legends, it is worth remembering the ballad "The Dance of Death" by I.V. Goethe in 1815, this topic was addressed by R.M. Rilke, S. Baudelaire, A. Strinberg, B. Brecht, V. Bryusov, A. Bely, as well as K. Somov ("Harlequin and Death") in painting.

A painting depicting Death is present in K. T Dreyer's 1932 film The Vampire: The Dream of Allen Gray, shot in the tradition of German expressionism in France. Dreyer refers to an earlier source, on which B. Stoker also relied ? Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's novella "Carmilla" and his collection "Through a Cloudy Glass" in 1872. Dreyer speaks in symbols. From the very first shots we see the signboard of the hotel, where an angel with wings is depicted holding a branch in one hand and a wreath in the other. The hotel is a vampire's habitat. A man with a scythe appears on the shore and rings a bell. The man symbolizes Death, and the ferryman by the river is Charon, transporting the souls of the dead. According to M. Yampolsky, the angel branch "is associated with the golden branch of Aeneas from Virgil's Aeneid" ^{[25, p. 64]}, which "was necessary for Aeneas to cross the Styx, plunge into the realm of shadows and return alive" ^{[25, p. 64]}. Among the heroes of the film are an old man, a hotel owner, and his two daughters ? Giselle and Leon, a doctor. The old man is killed at night, he left Allen a package with the inscription: "Open after my death", where there is a book about vampires. Leon behaves like a somnambulist, but Allen notices bites on her neck and realizes that she is a victim of a vampire. The doctor says that a blood transfusion can save her. Allen offers his blood. While Allen is recovering from the transfusion, he sees poison in the doctor's hand and realizes that the doctor is a vampire's servant. Allen falls asleep and sees himself in a coffin, like a vampire. The butler finds a book where it says that a vampire should be pierced with an iron rod. She and Allen find the grave of the old vampire Margarita Chopin and perform the rite. Allen, like Aeneas, takes Giselle, the other daughter of the owner, by boat from the "house of Death". Dreyer develops techniques used by expressionists, in particular, sleep.

A year earlier, K. Dreyer's film in the United States released its own version of "Dracula", directed by Tod Browning. The film is based on a novel by B. Stoker, but the film has little in common with the original source. In terms of effects, the film is in many ways inferior to Murnau's films, and in terms of the philosophical component, Dreyer's film. The most striking effect is, perhaps, the illumination of the eyes of Count Dracula, whose role was played by Bela Lugosi, who had previously participated in the stage production of "Dracula". Bela Lugosi played the role quite theatrically. Three "brides of Dracula" also appear in this production. Dracula is killed, as in the novel, with a wooden stake that was stabbed into his heart. The film ends with a "happy ending". Mina Harker is alive and free. There are no fangs of Dracula in the film, he does not commit a single bite, nevertheless, the film has gained great popularity and has generated many interpretations: "Dracula's Daughter" 1936, "Dracula's Son" 1943, etc.

In 1967, a comic version about vampires appeared "Vampire Ball" by R. Polansky ("Fearless Vampire Killers, or Sorry, but your teeth dug into my neck" at the American box office). An eccentric professor from Konigsberg, Abronzius, together with a student, Alfred, go to Transylvania to check rumors about vampires. Alfred falls in love with the innkeeper's daughter, but she is kidnapped by the vampire Count Von Krolock. They manage to free her from the count's castle, but she has already become a vampire. Ambronsius and Alfred don't know about it. Trying to eradicate evil, they spread it from Transylvania all over the world.

In the spirit of German expressionism, a remake of F. V. Murnau's film Nosferatu was performed. Symphony of Horror", shot by Werner Herzog under the title "Nosferatu ? the Ghost of the Night" in 1979. Herzog reproduces the makeup of a vampire following the example of the 1922 film, although he rather resembles Fantomas than Count Orlok. The role of the vampire was played by Klaus Kinski. The plot repeats itself, only in this version Harker's real estate agent's wife is called Lucy (her role is played by Isabel Adjani), and not Mina. It is Lucy who sacrifices herself to detain the vampire until dawn, after which Dr. Van Helsing kills him by stabbing him in the heart, but Van Helsing is arrested, and Harker becomes a vampire. The unexpected ending detracts from the aesthetic dignity of the film. After all, catharsis is also connected with the ethical law. It is impossible not to agree with N. Marievskaya that catharsis is built "on the exact distinction of where the light is and where the darkness is" ^{[26, p. 289]}, the viewer becomes "involved in the highest truth, the ethical law" ^{[26, p. 289]}. The victory of evil leads in this case to a decrease in catharsis. It's another matter if the plot is comic, like R. Polansky's.

Close to the novel by B. Stoker, though with some changes, we can consider the production of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" by Francis Ford Coppola in 1992. The medieval legend of Vlad the Impaler, the prototype of the novel, is also used in the film. The role of Dracula was played by Gary Oldman.  This movie is not the latest version of Dracula. The story of Dracula is loosely interpreted in the film "Van Helsing" 2004. New versions are being released to the present.

There are new plots, including the film "Twilight" (dir. Catherine Hardwicke, based on the novel by Stephanie Mayer), but the origins of the imagery of mysterious creatures should be sought in German expressionism, as well as in earlier sources. German Impressionism influenced both the formation of American horror film and film noir. This is due to the fact that many expressionists, primarily F. Lang, in 1933, after Hitler came to power, they moved to Hollywood. The film "M" ("The City is looking for a murderer") by F. Lang had a great influence on the masters of Hollywood. The beginning of the film noir is considered to be John Huston's painting "The Maltese Falcon" in 1941. The film noir is characterized by the presence of a detective story, a "cool" detective, femme fatales. The pictorial series represents the presence of dense shadows and light contrasts. The apogee of noir can be considered the film "The Seal of Evil" in 1958 Directed by Orson Welles, after which noir goes to "no".

The influence of the German Expressionists was experienced by Alfred Hitchcock. His work echoes noir, as in the 1940 film Rebecca, where a "Gothic" atmosphere is created. In the 1960 film Psycho, Hitchcock, like the German Impressionists, creates the image of a psychopathic killer suffering from a split personality. The hotel in "Psycho" is a "house of Death", similar to the hotel in the film K. Dreyer. This is also indicated by the stuffed dead birds in the lobby ^{[17, p. 100]}.

The psychopathic killer, like the director of the hospital in "Dr. Caligari's Office", appears in Fritz Lang's film "Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler" in 1922. Fritz Lang was supposed to become the director of "Caligari", but was engaged in another project. Dr. Mabuse is the head of the criminal world, a doctor of psychology who uses hypnosis to control the minds of other people. As a result, Mabuse goes crazy, becomes a patient of a mental hospital himself, but from there he continues to control the criminal world ("The Testament of Dr. Mabuse", 1933). He continues to control it after his death, as in "A Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse" 1960, the last part of the trilogy.

Pays tribute to German expressionism and Woody Allen in the film "Shadows and Fog" 1991 According to the plot, a maniac killer "Strangler" is operating in the city, like Jack the Ripper from G. V. Pabst's Pandora's Box. The whole city goes out in search of the killer. The eccentric clerk Kleinman, played by Woody Allen, is raised in the middle of the night to search for the killer. The city is immersed in fog. There are many different adventures with Kleinman in the fog, as a result he becomes a suspect, he is threatened with lynching.  Fleeing, Kleinman meets a magician who hypnotized the killer with a mirror. Kleinman and the magician chain him, but he seems to disappear into the mirror. The picturesque solution of the film is interesting. From the city immersed in fog, the "shadows" ? the figures of the heroes - begin to appear clearly. This is the merit of the operator Carlo di Palma.

The brightest color scheme in the spirit of German expressionism is present in the film "Dick Tracy" in 1990, where Warren Beatty directed, he also played the main role, but the main merit belongs, of course, to the outstanding cameraman Vittorio Storaro. The literary basis was comics by Chester Gould. The plot is based on the confrontation between the tough cop Dick Tracy and a gangster named "Big Boy Caprice" performed by A. Pacino. The gang of the "Big One" keeps the whole city in fear. The conflict of the heroes was reflected in the color solution thanks to V. Storaro, his own theory of color ^{[16, Electronic resource]}, similar to the theory of color in Goethe and the Expressionists. Red, according to V. Storaro, is the color of vital activity. This color in the film is endowed with a Baby, a homeless child, Tracy's assistant.  The "Big Boy Caprice" also appears in red. Orange is the color of warm family relationships. This is the color of Dick Tracy's girlfriend ? Tess Truhard. The yellow color symbolizes the awareness of oneself as a person, this is the color of Tracy. Blue, in V. Storaro's system, can mean both reason and intuition, in this case, intuition. Purple, blue-violet, in this case, is associated with an irrational beginning, symbolizes what is called evil. The night city, where the forces of evil rule, is painted in this color. Green is the color of knowledge. Tracy appears in green tones, the Baby is sometimes dressed in green clothes, which combines "the innocence of youth with the knowledge of maturity" ^{[16, Electronic resource]}. Black color means everything unconscious, secret ^{[16, Electronic resource]}. In black clothes and black tones, a Mahoney cabaret singer appears, performed by Madonna, who puts on the mask of the Unknown and tries to displace the "Big One", but she herself dies. The film also uses a special bright grimm worn by gangsters, which also speaks about the traditions of expressionism.

Many directions of modern cinema, one way or another, have something in common with German expressionism. Since 2005, "Sin City" by R. Rodriguez, a crime thriller in the noir style, has been released, and then its sequel. Macabre elements are used by Tim Burton. There are new vampire sagas.

Conclusion

Thus, expressionism, as we can see, was a striking phenomenon not only in painting, literature, but also in cinema. He laid the foundation for new genres: horror films, film noir, vampire sagas. He changed the attitude to time in the cinema. Night becomes not only time, but also a metaphor.  Expressionists introduce a new reality into the narrative ? a dream. The opposition of good and evil, light and darkness are achieved by new technical means. The German expressionists absorbed all the innovations of their time, including the achievements of Russian editing and influenced the entire world cinema. Many modern representatives of the author's and commercial cinema have turned to them and are turning to them for inspiration. Films performed in the tradition of Expressionists often have commercial success.