Kammerspiel

Kammerspiel 

Kammerspiel
1)A third German trend of the early 1920s had less international influence than the historical
   spectacles and the Expressionist works but produced a number of important films.
2)This was the Kammerspiel, or “chamber-drama” film.
3)The name derives from a theater, the Kammerspiele, opened in 1906 by the major stage
   director Max Reinhardt to put on intimate dramas for small audiences.
4)Few Kammerspiel films were made, but nearly all are classics:
   a)Lupu Pick’s Shattered (1921) and
   b)Sylvester (aka New Year’s Eve or St. Sylvester’s Eve, 1923),
   c)Leopold Jessner’s Backstairs (1921) and
   d)Erdgeist (1923),
   e)Murnau’s The Last Laugh (1924), and
   f)Carl Dreyer’s Michael (1924). 

Carly Mayer
1)Remarkably, all these films except Michael were scripted by the important scenarist
   Carl Mayer,
2)who also coscripted The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and wrote other films,
3)both Expressionist and non-Expressionist.
4)Mayer is considered the main force behind the Kammerspiel genre.

Kammerspiel contrasts with Expressionist Drama
1)These films contrasted sharply with Expressionist drama.
2)A Kammerspiel film concentrated on a few characters,
   exploring a crisis in their lives in depth.
3)The emphasis was on slow, evocative acting and telling details,
   rather than extreme expressions of emotion.
4)The chamber-drama atmosphere came from the use of a small number of settings and
5)a concentration on character psychology rather than spectacle.
6)Some Expressionist-style distortion might appear in the set,
  but it typically suggested dreary surroundings rather than
  the fantasy or subjectivity of Expressionist films.
7)The Kammerspiel avoided the fantasy and legendary elements so common in
   Expressionism;
8)these were films set in everyday, contemporary surroundings, and
9)they often covered a short span of time.

Sylvester
1) Sylvester takes place during a single evening in the life of a café owner.
2) His mother visits his family for a New Year’s Eve celebration.
3) Jealousies and conflicts between the mother and the wife intensify until,
    as midnight strikes, the man commits suicide.
4)Brief scenes of people celebrating in hotels and in the streets create an ironic contrast
    with the tensions of these three characters,
5)but most of the action occurs in the small apartment.
6)As with other major Kammerspiel films,
   a) Sylvester uses no intertitles,
   b)depending on simple situations,
   c)details of acting and setting, and
   d)symbolism to convey the narrative events.

Scene introduction:
A motif of shots using a mirror on the wall emphasizes the relationships among the
characters within the family’s drab home in the following scene. I apologize for the quality of this clip. This is the best version of the film I know of (and I have been looking for over 15 years).

Sylvester (Lupu Pick, 1923)

Establishing shot in the cafe

She's breathing heavy and runs to the door - pauses points out the door

i guess she means him

Not sure what's happening with the mother

She stays angry and he keeps hugging his mom.
The wife puts on her coat - takes the baby and leaves

He runs after her.

Mom is left alone scared

End of clip

Backstairs

1)Similarly, Backstairs balances two settings.
2)The boardinghouse kitchen in which the housekeeper works and 
3)the apartment of her secret admirer, the mailman,
4)stand opposite to each other in a grubby courtyard. 

The film’s action never moves outside this area. When the heroine’s departed fiancé mysteriously fails to write to her, the mailman tries to console her by forging letters from him.

Backstairs (Leopold Jessner, 1921)

Wakes up and smiles at the clock

She sets the clock back 5 minutes and goes to sleep again

Cool angled walls and set

disformed set

postman's home - buckling up for work

great staircase shot - matches other mise-en-scene

Nice encounter - sweet faces 

He stares on as she just grabs the mail and nods thank you

She puts on shawl and leaves her room

End of clip

Tragic Endings

1)Shattered, Backstairs, and Sylvester all end with at least one violent death, and
2)Michael closes with the death of its protagonist from illness.
3)Because of the intense psychological situations, unhappy endings, and claustrophobic
   atmospheres,
4)these films attracted mostly critics and highbrow audiences.
5)Erich Pommer recognized this fact when he produced The Last Laugh,
    insisting that Mayer add a happy ending.

The Last Laugh

1)This story of a hotel doorman who is demoted from his lofty post to that of lavatory
    attendant
2)was to have concluded with the hero sitting in the rest room in despair,
   possibly dying.
3)Mayer, upset at having to change what he saw as the logical outcome of his script’s
   situation,
4)added a blatantly implausible final scene in which a sudden inheritance turns the doorman
   into a millionaire.
5)Whether this ludicrously upbeat ending was the cause,
6)The Last Laugh became the most successful and famous of the Kammerspiel films.
7)By late 1924, however, the trend ceased to be a prominent genre in German filmmaking.

The Last Laugh (F. W. Murnau, 1924)

The doorman walks toward the street and tips his hat to someone

I guess he is walking to his post

Great scowl towards the other guy in rotating door

I don't know how they did this mirroring shot

Where was the camera?

The guy has the same uniform so must be another more stylish doorman

He runs after him and the bell hop stops him

Looks like he's fired due to his old age.
(This scene with him reading the letter lasts about 4-5 minutes

The letter says he's been reassigned to clean toilets

He's stunned and someone comes to strip off his uniform.
It's really sad and a lot of dramatic shots of him reacting.