With Halloween right around the corner, a visit to LACMA’s Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s exhibition should make it to the top of your to-do list. The exhibition is taking place until April 26, 2015.

The exhibition is a collaboration between LACMA and La Cinematheque, a film archive located in Paris, which presents German Expressionist film history through a collection of clips, photographs, posters, and documents. It also features work from the Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Margaret Herrick Library, and Los Angeles-based private collectors. Drawings and paintings have never been debuted in the United States before.

Haunted Screens is one of three installments at LACMA to showcase work produced in Germany before and during World War I. It is also the tenth exhibition to show the relationship between art and film. 

“Haunted Screens underscores the museum’s strengths in German modernist art. In addition, this exhibition highlights the relationship between LACMA and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; our complementary collections allow us to explore the international history of cinema,” said head and curator of Wallis Annenberg Photography at LACMA, Britt Salvesen. 

Designed by Amy Murphy and Michael Maltzan, the exhibition takes visitors from the real world, into a horrific psychological illusion. Installations are organized into 25 films and five themes: Madness and Magic, Myths and Legends, Cities and Streets, Machines and Murderers, and Stairs.   

Designers say the purpose of the exhibit's architectural elements is “to intentionally create an undulating dialogue between dark and light, inside and outside, space and form, rupture and unity-highlighting the simultaneous and often overlapping worlds of art, film, and designed so often represented within each film’s production."

Madness and Magic revolves around The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene. Conflicts of dream and reality, madness and sanity, and authority and freedom are only a few psychological motifs in this segment.  

One LACMA visitor favored this section the most. 

"Seeing the sketches of Dr.Caligari was amazing because I never really thought of predesign for that. I'm in entertainment art, but I never made that connection for some reason. It's amazing seeing these original watercolors and pen drawings,” said John Seymore. 

German cinema and the Expressionist movement was popular from 1919 to 1933, mainly in paintings, photography, theater, literature, and architecture. Silent films, which are featured at the exhibition, also reappeared during the 1920s. Production revolved around certain genres, mostly science fiction, horror, and film noir (crime drama).  The concept of science fiction focuses on present day anxiety and the fear of modern day technology. Naturally, monsters, villains with supernatural powers are prime components of horror film in Expressionism. Film noir, one of the earliest themes in the movement, includes criminals and prostitutes. German director Fritz Lang, known as the master of darkness, is famous for his noir-themed silent film, Metropolis. A life-size reproduction of Maria the robot is stationed on an arched white wall. 

The film M, also directed by Lang is the exhibition’s poster, attracts visitors like Matt. The exhibit seemed to provide him with clarity.

"I've seen tons of posters of that hand with the M on it and it's a really good movie. I'm watching it, and its super weird," said Matt, "I'm going to watch it again to know what’s going on this time.”

Background sound is played, while the silent movies are screening. Films like M, exploit both sound and silence, building suspense. 

"It’s wide-ranging, informative, for people who don't know much about that period in film, including myself. Exhibit is interactive, visuals rather intriguing. It's interactive to a point in that it’s a visual but a reading medium. Not a visual touch and play thing that asks you questions about the period of film. You need to have an interest in film,” said visitor Greg Hiansely.  

German Expressionism expressed complicated psychological states through cinematic accessories such as geometric distorted set designs, dark lighting, and quirky camera angles. Characters usually had various personalities, also stressing the complex psychological aspect. 

Staircases are a significant aspect of German film and Expressionism. They were featured in countless paintings and drawings. They represented point of view or social status. Six screens are hung from two dark tunnels in the middle of the exhibition while featured films are projected

Film posters are situated on two sides of the exhibition. During the 1920s, posters were catalysts for increasing attendance, but they also became collectibles. Posters were usually designed when a film was released abroad. Graphic artists used bold colors, imagery, and text. 

"I've always been a big fan of German Expressionism and German Expressionist film. I studied it in college so it's great to see the actual concept drawings and everything. I didn't even expect to see any of this here," said Seymore. 

The Academy is currently building the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the world’s premier institution devoted to the history and future of film, expected to open in 2017. Located next to LACMA, it will feature exhibition spaces, movie theatres, educational areas, and special event spaces. 

Reach Staff Reporter Iqbal Al-Sanea here.