Realism vs Formalism

Realism is the name for films shot in a realistic way, with plots that are very everyday and ordinary. Realist films don't use any other type of sound apart from what is going on in the background and dialogue. Realism is an extremely classic style of cinema and does not involve any special effects or non-diegetic sound, although it became popular long before the formalist revolution it is still an extremely credited style of cinema.

An example of a realist film is 'Kes'.

Formalist films always revolve around the plot. Time is nearly always distorted, characters conversations are linked with the plot, shots are purely for adding to the plot. Some people may say that formalist films are more interesting then realist, but realist films might not be that exciting to watch but have underlying issues that can be so much more powerful than a formalist plot. Formalist films have become much more popular within the last decade. Animation has been a large contributer to this.

An example of a classic formalist style film is Harry Potter, in which they mix fictional storylines, special effects and modern life.

Expressionism, abstract expressionism and German expressionism

Expressionism started after cameras were invented, because with a camera you could take a picture of the object in interest. But before cameras artist used to paint pictures exactly how the object looked, this became uninteresting. Artists then started to paint pictures how they thought the object looked to them, how the light shone and what relation the place/object was to them. This then started the other art movement, abstract expressionism, which is where artists painted pictures using shapes and lines, the paintings weren't of actual objects but just a bit different, which is what expressionism is, the actual focus of abstract expressionism was to express feelings and emotions, things that couldn't be drawn in a realistic way. German expressionism in films was very dark, gothic and influenced film directors today - Tim Burton. An early German expressionism film was Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. German expressionistic films uses mis en scene to create a mood, backgrounds were also derived from abstract expressionism. The directors used warped sets to create a surreal atmosphere. German Expressionist films plots were often about political happenings at the time, for example Metropolis.

A Kandinsky painting (abstract expressionism)

Metropolis

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari