ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the long-lasting legacy of early German cinema, especially its development of supernatural narrative cinema and of shooting techniques that would become staples of the Gothic on screen, such as chiaroscuro lighting and the framing of the monster, in films like Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920), Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (The Golem: How He Came into the World, 1920) and Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, 1922). The chapter first considers the role of the doppelgänger, a significant figure of German Romanticism, in early films like Der Student von Prag (The Student of Prague, 1913) before turning to expressionism, an artistic movement that normally dominates discussions of the 1920s. The chapter also traces the influence of expressionism on other films from Europe and America, such as the Hungarian-Austrian Drakula halála (Dracula’s Death, 1921), Poe adaptations like The Fall of the House of Usher (1928) and the Mexican Dos monjes (Two Monks, 1934).
