Katarzyna Taras
Alchemy. About the Art of Cinematography
Production designers' cinema... Cinematographers' cinema...
In the last draft the term “cinematographers' cinema" has emerged as a synonym of “direct cinema". It appears that this denomination can be used not only with reference to the trend characteristic to the 60s.

The importance of German expressionism, both for the cinematographer's profession and the art of cinematography, is not as much without significance as it cannot be overrated. It is then, when manipulations of spotlights and camera gave birth to art; to be more precise - art has been created out of light handling, and even more precisely - shadow handling has been turned into mastery. If we become aware of the film reel speed, which cinematographers of those days had to deal with, the stories of filmmakers who sold their souls to the devil in order to achieve the desired effect present themselves in a completely different light... And comparing a cinematographer to an alchemist should not be at all surprising. (Allegedly, it was especially difficult for Murnau's cinematohraphers, which was beautifully and funnily depicted by E. Elias Merhige in “Shadow of the Vampire", a film with its world premiere during the Łódź edition of the festival of the art of cinematography, then called Camerimage. And one more thing, German films of those days would not look as they do if it wasn't for Max Reinhardt, an artist who received the title of the first stage producer in the history of the theatre. It was his staging, and not only performances, which inspired the visual side of productions of the time. It is worth checking out the canonical study of German expressionism, namely “The Haunted Screen" by Lotte H. Eisner; and also the book “Modern Drama in Theory and Practice" by J.L. Styan.)

Still from "The Blue Angel"
Whoever is not convinced about those cinematographers' skills in shadow and light handling, should remember the decorations in “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" (1919), which became a rightful character of the story, one which was revived by means of light. Even though these decorations were made not by some accidental people but by the painters from the expressionistic group Der Sturm: Herman Warm, Walter Rohrig and Walter Reimann (see: A. Helman, “German film expressionism" in “German film expressionism", ed. A. Helman and A. Madej, Katowice 1985), they were still only painted. If one still does not believe, then, for the sake of contrast, let us mention a decadent masterpiece of the trend (and thus counted among the works of German expressionism by some scholars while included into Kammerspiel movement by others), “Pandora's Box" (1928) by G. W. Pabst. This film is a register of what could be done at that time with light. In the film with phenomenal Louise Brooks (whoever hasn't seen her, knows little about film eroticism) we've got, among others, characteristic of expressionism handling more of shadow than of light - particularly in the sequence with Jack the Ripper. And “quoting" the frivolous play with light typical of French impressionistic films - the sequence on a ship. And also exposing disturbing details and reflections, which would soon become a feature of film noir, yet which so far had been making a fetish of the heroine, portraying her as a precious trophy. Finally, such graceful “catch lights". That is sparks, “stars" in Lulu's eyes. The perfection of this precise jigsaw with the preservation of the noticeable autonomy of the elements is a result of the Dream Team's ideal agreement: the director, the stage designer - Andrej Andrejew (in 1931 they will make together “The Threepenny Opera") and cinematographer - Gunther Krampf.

Still from "The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari"
Exactly, the agreement among a director, a cinematographer and a production designer. Something that constitutes a standard nowadays, appears to be a method worked out during the period of German expressionism, at that time treated as an indication of eccentricity by representatives of other cinematic traditions. “One of the sources of classical German film's success - as Eisner writes - is the cooperation of the whole technical crew, the agreement reached through long discussions about the shape of a film-to-be (Regiesitzungen), lasting even two or more months before the first shot, during which the director consults all people engaged in the work on a film, from the first decorator and cinematographer to lighting men. When later some British decorator expresses his surprise that the cinematographer, Gunther Krampf, before shooting in the London studio, craved for seeing the draft of decorations (>>an unusual thing in our country<<), so that he could analyze them thoroughly in order to establish the position of the camera and the character of lighting - we do realize that such approach is nothing unusual for those who know the rules of work in old-time German atelier."

Alicja Helman, in the abovementioned draft, defines German film expressionism - most properly if we recall the achievements of the “decorators" of those days, as they were called - as “the production designers' cinema". And if we, perversely, take a close look at this trend as “the cinematographers' cinema"? After all, they co-created it (of course, among others, what I present below is again a very personal rating):

Guido Seeber - described by Lotte Eisner as “the best cinematographer of those times", the author of cinematography for “The Student of Prague" (1913), regarded by some cinema historians as the first expressionistic film (at least this production was listed on the first position, with regard to chronology, in Eisner's filmography); the co-creator of “The Golem" (1914) by Paul Wegener and Henrik Galeen, “New Year's Eve" (1923) by Lupu Pick, and also, together with Karl Oertel and Robert Lach“The Joyless Street" (1925) by Pabst, in which Asta Nielsen and Greta Garbo met on the set;

Still from "The Student of Prague"
Willy Hameister - the one who revived the paintings in the first masterpiece (here the scholars agree) of the trend, that is “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari" by Robert Wiene;

Fritz Arno Wagner - who on the set of “Nosferatu. A Symphony of Horror" (1922) had to face both the hardships of shooting on location and Murnau, who preferred the shadow handling on the verge of orthodoxy to the manipulation of light. In any case, what isn't there in this film. There is turning, inserted fragment of a negative, stop-motion pictures. (While being in Zakopane it is worth visiting “The Orlok's castle", that is a Slovakian castle Orlovsky Hrad located near Chochołów. It is also recommended to read an excellent analysis of the film's visual side conducted by Piotr Szczepański in “Ponadczasowość obrazu w filmie Nosferatu. Symfonia grozy W. F. Murnaua", in: "Kwartalnik filmowy" 31-32/2000). The artist co-created also “Destiny" (1921), “M" (1931) and “The Testament of Dr. Mabuse" (1933) by Lang, as well as “The Love of Jeanne Ney" (1927) and “The Threepenny Opera" by Pabst;

Karl Freund - the Oscar winner for “The Good Earth" by Franklin (1938), in 1955 awarded by the Academy for the improvement of the exposure meter (see entry “Karl Freund", study by B. Kosecka, in “The Encyclopaedia of Cinema", ed. T. Lubelski, Cracow 2003), but most importantly the author of cinematography to “The Last Laugh" (1924) by Murnau. He then “set free" the camera locating it on a belly, a bike, a pram, and how wittily he played with bringing subjectivity to the pictures - let us at least mention the motif of trumpeters or the faces of gossips from tenement houses. Also a co-creator of: “The Golem" (1920) by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese, “Tartuffe" (1925) by Murnau, “Metropolis" (1926) by Fritz Lang and “Berlin. Symphony of a Great City" (1927) by Walter Ruttmann.

Gunther Krampf - he started with “Nosferatu" (see entry “Gunther Krampf", study by A. Garbicz, in “Encyclopaedia of Cinema", quoted above), but most importantly we owe him Lulu, that is the image of Louise Brooks. Pabst and Krampf have then established the standard of photographing - attention, big word - timeless eroticism. Allegedly, when Liza Minelli was preparing for the role of Sally Bowles, she asked her father whether she should watch films with Marlena Dietrich. He recommended her instead to get acquainted with the output of Pabst's actress.

Still from "Nosferatu "
Finally Gunther Rittau and Hans Schneeberger, thanks to whom (certainly with a significant participation of Joseph von Sternberg) we have got Lola Lola, that is Marlena Dietrich in her best and most interesting impersonation. (A person who said about her that she played in “The Blue Angel" a “vulgar, decadent whore with gorgeous legs", was right). The first one was Lang's co-worker at “Die Nibelungen". The second one - Arnold Fanck's associate, the author of mountain films, the second export product of German cinematography of those times, the creator of, among others, “The White Hell of Pitz Palu" with Leni Riefenstahl (1929). What is interesting, Schneeberger also did cinematography for the film directed by Riefenstahl herself, namely “The Blue Light" (1932), which, reportedly, was supposed to constitute an answer to <b.“The Blue Angel".

During one of the interviews I called my interlocutor - most deservedly - “an ideal associate for Murnau", because it turned out that He also prefers shadow to light. It was taken as I wished - as a compliment. And how is it possible not to see “cinematographers' cinema" in German expressionism?