German Expressionism and Its Influence in Film

Before cinema was invented, there were many other forms of entertainment such as circuses, theatre and Dioramas which were productions with painted backdrops and actors that illustrated historical events. In some countries such as the United States, there were numerous touring theatre productions which would perform in opera houses and theatres. It was no easy task heaving the whole production from town to town so it is easy to understand why cinema was invented. It was a simpler and easier way of providing entertainment, but it wasn't just that, cinema was also a new artistic expression.

Cinema came about in the 1890's in the aftermath of the industrial revolution and it was a new artistic medium. Film is the youngest art form, following theatre, storytelling, literature and music. It consists of many of the older art forms, using literature to create the storylines, theatre to act it, storytelling to narrate the film and music to create the scenes. There are four main types of film: Non-fictional documentary film, Fictional Narrative film, animated film and experimental film.

Film was a machine that recorded live images and combined them to make a continuous action. It was said to be invented by Louis Lumiere but in fact there were several others inventing similar motion picture cameras at the same time. What Louis Lumiere did invent was a machine called the cinematographe, a device that could capture motion pictures, process the film and project it all in one. The first footage the cinematographe captured was on the 19th of March 1895, it recorded workers leaving the Lumiere factory. This First movie was 46 seconds long. It is said by many that Lumiere's cinematographe began the motion picture era, the age of cinema. It was in 1895 that The Lumiere Brothers presented their first motion picture to a paying audience.

It was at this Lumiere screening that a stage musician and illusionist by the name of Georges Méliès noticed how the Lumiere brothers had changed the history of entertainment. He first tried, unsuccessfully to buy the Lumieres' cinematographe. He then managed to acquire a projector from Robert Paul, an English film enthusiast who created his own motion picture equipment, in 1896. After converting the projector into a camera he recorded his first film on the 10th of June 1896 . After years of working on motion pictures and experimenting with film he released a movie on the 4th of October 1902 called ‘Le Voyage Dans La Lune'. It was a black and white, silent, science fiction motion picture. This was the first science fiction film. Méliès believed motion pictures could be used as story telling rather than documentaries and ‘gimmick films'. Some historians now say that although the film was among the most technically innovative