Corpse Bride

 Corpse Bride is a stop motion animated film released in 2005. Directed by Tim Burton and starring the usual suspects, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, this movie was critically acclaimed, being nominated for an academy award for best animated feature at the 78^th Academy Awards. This movie, like most of Tim Burton’s ventures, is heavily inspired by the elements of German Expressionism film making. In this write-up, we are going to discuss this film and how it exhibits the classic German Expressionism tropes.

German Expressionism in film is a unique style that emerged at 1919-1926. It’s a movement that influenced all forms of art in Germany in that time period. Due the spoils of World War 1 , Germany became a largely isolated country and banned all foreign imports. This included arts and film. The local artists began experimenting with ways to convey newer stories with raw human emotions. The most taboo of topics were touched. German expressionistic art often portrayed themes of revolt, self-awareness/analysis, madness, primitive sexual savagery unnatural events and all sorts of things that weren’t in the common discourse of society. Not only did German Expressionism influence the narrative of the films, the also influenced film techniques and produced methods such as oblique camera angles, high-contrast lighting, distortion of bodies and shapes, shadow play, and gothic motifs are prevalent in German expressionism.

Corpse Bride, set in Victorian England, revolves around Victor van Dort, son of fish merchants who is set to be married to Victoria Everglot in an arranged marriage brokered by the Everglots to save them from financial ruin. Initially, awkward and reserved, the pair manage to find things in common and fall for each other. Things become haywire when , Victor, due to his nervousness, messes up the wedding ceremony rehearsal. As Victor, practices his wedding vows in a forest he accidentally marries a Corpse named Emily who was murdered many years ago while eloping with her lover.  The story then follows Victor’s escapades to undo his unearthly marriage and return to his beloved Victoria which he eventually succeeds in.

One of the many thematic elements of German Expressionism present in Corpse Bride is the theme of self-analysis.  This is evident where the movie examines the theme of arranged marriage or marrying someone you barely know and also following societal norms. Arranged marriages were an extremely common practice back in the olden days. Parents would look for spouses for their children and it was the socially acceptable thing to do. Children rarely could refuse lest be shunned by the family and society. In fact some cultures still practice this tradition till this day.  This movie shows us how marrying someone you barely know can have dire consequences as Victoria nearly lost her life at the hands of Mr Barkis. Adding to this, a theme of revolt can also be seen when Victoria refuses to marry Mr Barkis.  She even goes to the extent of climbing through the bedroom window to escape.  The unnatural events in this movie stems for the titular character Emily, who is a corpse bride who gets married to Victor a living, breathing human being.  Madness is also a prevalent theme in this movie. It is best portrayed Victoria’s parents and Mr Barkis, who in the madness for wealth, were willing to do anything to attain it. Victoria’s parents were willing to get her married to a complete stranger for money and Mr Barkis was willing to murder a person.

The technical aspect of German expressionism in this movie are numerous. Namely, the use of high contrast lighting or low key lighting. This technique was used to create a very dimly lit scene with lots of shadows. Examples of such scenes were when Victor was brooding in the forest after messing up the wedding ceremony and also the scene where Mr Barkis walks in the hall of portraits, revealing his true colour. Another interesting use of low key lighting was the clear distinction that was produced between the land of the living and the land of the dead. By comparison, the land of the living seemed more murky, gloomy, and “dead” than the underworld which was in a state of constant party. This was produced because the underworld was subjected to high key lighting and the land of the living, low key lighting   Distortion was also recurrent motif in this movie. The bodies of the characters were heavily distorted and misshaped.  Gothic themes were observed on the buildings present in the movie.  Oblique camera angles such as high and low angles were used to create surreal feel,

German expressionistic art has had a heavy influence in films and Corpse Bride is no different.  It clearly resonates with the themes, narrative, and techniques present in the movie.  It has the self-analysis, revolt, unnatural events, and madness thematic elements. The techniques used in the film, such as oblique camera angles, low key lighting, gothic motifs, and distortion are also common German expressionism tropes.  The German Expressionistic elements clearly enhances the storytelling of this film.  It has become almost second nature for directors to adopt this method when they wish to make films with supernatural themes. Directors like Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro have made this into their style.