Facets Features' College Corner

In October, Oakton Community College student Katarzyna Porkop attended Facets Fright School, Facets' month-long Night School lecture series devoted to the horror film. Katarzyna learned about the Universal classic, The Mummy, and found a lot to think and write about, especially about the film’s visual style. We thank her for attending and gladly post her thoughts and insights on The Mummy to Facets' blog.


GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON HOLLYWOOD

The Mummy was directed by German cinematographer and director Karl Freund and released in 1932.

The story involves a British archeological expedition to Egypt led by Sir Joseph Whemple in which the mummy of High Priest Imhotep is discovered. Imhotep, a priest of an ancient Egyptian temple, was condemned and buried alive for attempting to resurrect his lover, Princess Anck-es-en-Amon, with a sacred Scroll of Thoth, which contains a spell that raises people from dead. Whemple's assistant reads the magic spell aloud, bringing the mummy back to life. Imhotep walks away with the Scroll of Thoth into the desert night. The story continues 11 years later when Frank Whemple, son of Sir Joseph Whemple, and Professor Pearson are on expedition in the desert. They are visited by Imhotep who is disguised as Egyptian scholar Ardath Bey. He shows them where to dig to find Anck-es-en-amon's tomb, because he wants to use his mystic powers to bring his ancient love to life. He needs Helen Grosvenor to die in order to revive the princess and make her a living mummy.

The film was influenced by German Expressionism. We can notice the film techniques, characters and symbolism that are Expressionistic. In the opening scene we see the room in which the mummified body of Imhotep is located. Low-key lighting that dominates in this scene creates tension. The play of darkness and shadow portends that something bad is going to happen, particularly that the mummy Imhotep will be brought back to life. In the following scene when Ardath Bey visits the English archeologists we have a close-up of his face. His facial expression barely resembles a human face. Covered with wrinkles, his skin looks unnatural and in some way painful and monstrous. His makeup expresses his internal state. He has been buried alive, so he went through terrible and excruciating tortures. There is nothing more terrifying than the awareness of your own death. The pain he experienced is reflected in the lines and decrepit skin on his face. The dark circles under his eyes and the extremely wrinkled face suggests a dead person—one that has been awakened from the grave and is now a monster.

We also notice Expressionistic symbolism in the scene where Ardath is praying by the sarcophagus of Princess Anck-es-en-Amon and attempts to raise her body to life. While he's reading the spell written on the Scroll of Thoth, he's kneeling down on the floor next to the glass box that protects museum artifacts. We see a clear reflection of his face in the glass surface. This symbol suggests a doppelganger personality. A doppelganger is a person whose personality has two sides, a good one and a dark one. There are two sides to Imhotep's personality. He's a man deeply in love with his ancient princess, who would do everything for her. He wants to be united with her for any cost, even if that means profanation to her dead body by attempting to bring her back to life. On the other hand, he's a monster who tries to kill an innocent woman, Helen Grosvenor, or any person who stands in his way. Without any human emotions or remorse, he kills Sir Joseph Whemple and manipulates his slave to steal the Scroll of Troth. The exact shadow shape of Ardath is also a visual clue that tells us his doppelganger. In the death scene of Sir Joseph, there's a high-contrast shot of Ardath. His exact shadow on the wall symbolizes the dark side of doppelganger personality.

In the scene when Ardath's disguise is revealed, we see another close-up of his face. The mummy looks at the viewer. Dark circles around his eyes and bright light coming out of them make him look like a powerful and evil monster. In Expressionism and in classic horror films, the monster generally symbolizes the dark side of another character, or something that he is suppressing. By extension, the monster symbolizes something dark that every person is suppressing. It is generally something abnormal, which as a society we fear, or it’s a hidden desire that we're holding back. All of us have a dark side that we can't release, because of social norms or common morality. In the end scene, Ardath talks to Helen who's dressed as an Egyptian princess. High-contrast lighting creates exact shadows of both of them against the wall. This symbol tells the viewer that there are also two sides to Helen. One is the modern-day young woman and the other is Princess Anck-es-en-Amon. She's torn between two lives. In the end, though, thanks to her love for Frank, Helen overcomes her ancient self.

Understanding the visual symbolism and themes of German Expressionism helps to get more out of the movie. It certainly allows the viewer to go under the surface of the film, and realize what the inner message or subtext is. It tells us that deep inside of everyone is a suppressed dark side and desires that want to be unleashed. We have to make sure that our good and evil sides stay in equilibrium.

Lecture series like Facets Night School are wonderful and educating types of programs. Not only do they bring back to life old, forgotten movies that are true masterpieces of film history, but they also encourage people to be active viewers. These types of programs ask audiences to start thinking of movies in terms of filmmaking techniques and to treat film as an art form, and not just as entertainment. They teach viewers to be aware of film history and appreciate the films aesthetically. Night School at Facets Multi-Media, by having brief lectures discussing the movies before hand, tries to make us turn from passive entertainment consumers into media literate audiences.