While American movies were still popular and making money, more demanding viewers began to look to Europe for new ideas in film art in the 1920's. Movie makers in European countries competed against American domination of their own theaters by coming up with distinctive styles often. This goal was achieved most successfully in Germany. There, many film directors, writers, and designers were also in other arts, including painting and live theater.
In this subject, German filmmakers stressed fantasy and legend, and also an intense psychological realism that was not oftenput in American films. The Germans often used themes in a style called expresionism. Expressionist films used nonrealisc sets and unusual camera angles to show a character's inner feelings. The best known and most influential expressionist film was "THe Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1919), directed by Robert Weine.
One artistic move in German cinema stressed lighting and camera movement. German filmmakers created a threatening visual scene to accompany their tales of the supernatural by making scenes darker than normal and emphisizing contrasting light and shadow. A famous example is the horror movie "Nosferatu" (1922), directed by Friedrich Murnau. This director also made "The Last Laugh" (1924), which told it's entire story though visual images of the camera, getting rid of descriptive and dialogue titles.
Advances in filmmaking also happened in Russia, particularly after the Bolshevik (Communist) revolution of 1917. In 1922, the Soviet Union was formed under Russia's leadership, and it existed until 1991. In the Soviet Union, movies got attention as an important medium for education and propaganda. Soviet filmmakers emphasized film editing, refining the montage. Montage is a technique in which many seperate shots are used to create a single point.
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