QUEEN CHRISTINA IN THE LIGHTS OF GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM - Essay Example

The movie shows us Queen Christina's personal desire for love and happiness and her affair with the Spanish Ambassador, Don Antonio De Pimentel. However, ultimately he dies leaving their love unfulfilled. Another aspect of the movie, which is of significance, is that Queen Christina wanted to be a human and not just some object, like women were treated in that time. Queen Christina displays German Expressionism, which was a kind of film movement and refers to the numerous interrelated artistic movements that had come about in Germany.

Interweaving German Expressionist in the movies of the 1930's was an upcoming and new style, which was widely shown in many movies. Most of the developments, which took place in Germany, were due to this movement. A number of movies, including Queen Christina, served an important role in transporting the private emotions of a person in the open and thus, is intimately related to the concepts and ideas of the German Expressionism. As emphasized by German Expressionism the movie gives us emotional and extremely personal reactions.

This movie uses many dark and light contrasts with tilted angles, exaggeration and dreamy atmospheres. In the early 19th century, most of the German films were copied from foreign films or were made for commercial usage. However, due to its intense success many other movies displaying expressionist style started appearing. After the First World War Germany faced confusion and unrest and there was hysteric misery everywhere. Social pressure created an atmosphere of terror. Queen Christina completely thrives on the continuous and always present fantastic, gruesome and mysterious element of terror.

In addition, the film industry in Germany suffered a lot when the German economy was recovering. As inflation grew in Germany, films were very cheap and were easily sold in the foreign markets. However, with these upcoming Expressionist movies their budget raised making them a competition for the foreign movies. (Lamb, 2004)This movie also contains a number of elements of German Feminism. Throughout history, the story and lives of especially the women have been neglected to a larger amount. Their roles in various political matters, cultural and social changes have often been ignored.

Queen Christina is feminist in the solid views that it has given. It gives us various views about bisexuality, female nobility and homosexuality. Queen Christina is one of the most appreciated movies of all times and gives us an insight to the personal and delicate struggle that women go through while trying to surpass the feelings she has towards a person whom society does not approve of. It shows us a delicate character of a very strong yet emotional woman facing many difficulties. Since it has portrayed bisexuals, the movie has often been criticized and disputed by a number of people.

Queen Christina was one of the greatest movies in the wonderful era of silent movies. Although the movie contains elements of that time, it is amazingly ahead of time. It displays qualities of rich art at several levels. Queen Christina's secret love affair with the Spanish Ambassador served as a catalyst bringing up questions about Queen Christina's perspective, duty and also her