German Expressionism and Poetic Realism in The Last Laugh and Le Jour Se Lève

German Expressionism and Poetic Realism in “The Last Laugh” and “Le jour se lève.”

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German Expressionism and Poetic Realism

German expressionism and poetic realism are techniques that revolutionized the film industry respectively emphasizing key themes through exaggeration of features and creating a form of realness in the film setting and actions. The film, The Last Laugh, by Murnau, film director, highly capitalized on the techniques of German Expressionism in order to present emotionally intense content to the audience. The film director did not use the then conventional methods of achieving expressionistic distortions such as filming painted expressionist sets but instead capitalized on the expressive capabilities of the tools used in cinema. These capabilities include exuberant movement of the cameras, tilting effects, as well as extreme camera angles. The film particularly demonstrates an emotional or psychological teardown of an aging doorman referred to as Emil Jannings who works for a luxurious hotel suite located in a vibrant city. The emotional deterioration being portrayed by the film is a result of the doorman’s demotion from a proud position at the hotel’s entrance to being sent to another role in the basement as a lavatory attendant (The Last Laugh, 18:48 - 20:14). The demotion comes after the hotel’s manager notices that the doorman is no longer fit for the job of lifting the patron’s heavy trunk. Due to this, the aging doorman experiences episodes of low self-esteem because he is no longer an idol of his proletariat neighbors without the impressive uniform he used to wear as a doorman. The loss of a prestigious uniform turns the doorman into an object of scorn and mockery. The director of the film uses photographic techniques such as distorting deep shadows, camera angle, close-ups, superimpositions, and moving camera to portray the inner state of mind as experienced by the doorman.

The director of the film understood that camera angles and distortions are pivotal in the conveyance of inherent feelings. Murnau understood that when a camera shoots from above, the subject looks diminished or humbled, and while the camera shoots from below and the subject is seen from that angle, the character is seen as confident and imposing. As the film begins, the doorman is filmed slightly from below and at close-up thus reinforcing his feelings of self-importance and pride. While contemplating to unload the heavy trunk, the doorman is filmed from a high angle and appears looking up upon the intimidating trunk thus demonstrating the feelings of diminishment. The film again shows the trunk from a low angle thus demonstrating how burdensome it is for the doorman (The Last Laugh, 3:33 - 3:47). Ultimately, the camera angle techniques are able to emphasize the struggles of the doorman when it comes to lifting the trunk of the carriage. The film director portrays the situation through the perception of the doorman who is influenced by his restless mental state. As the doorman is on his way home after the demotion, there is a precarious swing of a building that seems like it is about to go down and kill him (The Last Laugh, 33:40 – 34:20). This distortion portrays the inner feelings of being crushed that the doorman is experiencing as a result of job loss and diminished status in society. To protect his societal status, the doorman steals the uniforms of the previously held position i