Dark City

Introduction:

Today, I would like to discuss German Expressionism. The film I watched is Dark City which is published on 27 February 1998 directed by Alex Proyas. It is distributed by New Line Cinema and it also an American-Australian neo-noir science fiction film.

Theory Discussion:

The art movement such as painting, literature, theater, architecture, and cinema was applied into German Expressionism which emerged in Germany during the early twentieth century (Hayward, 2013. p.190). German Expressionism emerged from 1919 to 1926 in Germany. Besides, German Expressionism is an artistic film that emphasizes the inner thought and emotions of the characters instead of the conventional presentation of reality. After German defeat during World War 1, the film movement has changed to political stage as an eloquent form to show their negative energies.

Therefore, German Expressionism film becomes more to the gloominess theme of horror, death, madness, revolt or insanity that presented in the mise-en-scene and the narrative of the film. Sexual savagery is also mentioned in the German expressionism where sexuality and nudity involved. The styles included in German Expressionism are oblique camera angles, distorted bodies, and shapes, bizarre and incongruous settings that are usually gothic in look and framing, a high contrast which means low-key lighting to create dramatic shadows and the contents are usually surreal and gothic, about unnatural acts or realities. Especially the high contrast lighting, it is often applied to gloomy, adventurous, or mysterious scenes. Probably, the story is a place of constructed reality where the characters live in an unrealistic world, to express the abstracting realistic detail and contingencies that bring out the situation or the state of mind. 

Synopsis:

John Murdoch awake in a strange room with a dead naked woman lying on the floor and he realizes himself lost all memories and involved in a series of murders. He trying to figure out what has happened, and then he discovered a group of unknown beings called The Strangers controlling the city by possessing the ability to swap memories when they make the people into sleep. Murdoch was the only one awake during the process of replacing memories and has the ability that The Strangers do, which is called Tune. Due to his ability and his immunity to the Strangers’ powers, he is the only hope for the people of the city to break through from the control of The Strangers.

Film Analysis:

There are several elements of German Expressionism used in this film. At first, the overall visual in the film was set in very dark by using a lot of high contrast lighting. Base on the storyline requires, there is no sunlight in the film because it is used to creates the mysterious mood for the audiences to be truly involved. Besides that, high contrast lighting creates very sharp shadows that resulted in a more serious cinematographic feel.

Furthermore, primitive sexual savagery element is also found in this film upon the group of 'Strangers'. Their characteristics are they enjoy in killing especially the little child would carve circular lines with a knife on the naked prostitute’s dead bodies. They also sliced off the police chief’s throat when they realize Murdoch has already escaped from the ward.

Moreover, the revolt element that is also shown in this film upon Murdoch. He portrays as anarchy when he revolts against the police and obviously The Strangers control both parties in the city. Murdoch, not the only one who shows revolting against the authorities, the doctor who is in charge of the memory transplants which Dr. Schreber are also showing the revolt element. He telling Murdoch that he has lost his memories in the first and helped Murdoch in fighting The Strangers by using the ability that The Strangers possessed as well.

Other than that, the distorted setting can be found in this film when the tuning starts. The strangers used tuning to force every citizen to fall into sleep then swapping their memories and change the structure of the city. The building is spinning and changing which create a distorted setting.

Lastly, self-analysis is also another theme of German Expressionism that found in this film. What Murdoch has constantly done in the film is to figure out his own identity and this action is self-analysis. He keeps looking for his identity with the limited scattered memories. Emma which is Murdoch’s wife is the one who carried the theme of self-analysis. She told Murdoch that she feels him so strange like they never meet before but she clearly remembers that she is his wife, memories of married, and she still loves him.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, we can identify the institution of German Expressionist traits in contemporary films. Those traits are commonly used as the technique being practiced by the filmmaker to generate the certain sense of the story. Besides, filmmakers or film practitioners have to understand and analyze the institution of others film’s theory in order to learn more about the element of the film.