German Expressionist Film vs Soviet Montage

ドイツ表現主義映画 / ソビエト・モンタージュ

Both sit in Cinematic Visual Styles, so the question is not what they belong to but how they behave. One is style and the other technique. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

German Expressionist Film

German Expressionist Film — 『カリガリ博士』スチル 1920 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainGerman Expressionist Film — 『カリガリ博士』ポスター 1920 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainGerman Expressionist Film — 『カリガリ博士』スチル 1920 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Warped sets, painted shadows and extreme contrast turned a character's inner state directly into landscape, bringing a scenery of the mind into cinema.

Soviet Montage

Soviet Montage — 『戦艦ポチョムキン』オデッサの階段 1925 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSoviet Montage — 『戦艦ポチョムキン』より — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainSoviet Montage — 『戦艦ポチョムキン』オデッサの階段 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

An editing theory that generates meaning from the collision of opposing shots. Meaning lives not in the single image but in the gap between two.

German Expressionist FilmSoviet Montage
Era1919–19271924–1930s
FamilyCinematic Visual StylesCinematic Visual Styles
KindStyleTechnique
CuesWarped sets / Painted-on shadows / Oblique compositions / Extreme chiaroscuroColliding shots / Rhythmic cutting / Crowds against details / Inserted symbols
Best used forTelling a character's dread through warped space rather than dialogue · Horror and thriller teasers that establish fear with light and shadow aloneDocumentary that argues by colliding two images instead of listing facts · Cutting between crowd and individual so a mass event is felt
TypeSharpen the lettering too, break verticals to match the buildingsCut titles to the length of a shout, on the same beat
CompositionAbandon the horizon, cut the frame obliquely, press ceilings toward the figurePlace shots of far apart sizes together, clash the eyelines deliberately
MaterialPaint the shadows into the set, push tones toward two polesBuild rhythm by shortening durations, accelerate with cut spacing before sound
CautionTilting the set alone does not produce interiority, the distortion becomes background decoration, and the frame stops having anything to do with the character.When speed becomes the goal, the collisions stop producing meaning, the sequence is merely hectic, and no viewer can say what was being contrasted.

Put these two together

Cinematic Visual Styles

IndexStyle