Cinematography

Cinematographers Karl Freund and Gunther Rittau relied heavily on traditional German Expressionistic techniques in shooting the film. One particular technique involved slowly focusing in on a key character’s face or a part of their body, such as a hand, to emphasize the character’s emotions or intentions. To create the panoramic shot of the Eternal Garden, Freund employed a so-called debris camera. Because the model in the foreground had to be shot from very close up, the camera would have had to remain absolutely motionless. To solve this problem, Freund moved the model in front of the camera instead. Gunther Rittau photographed animated mechanical models for the film’s title sequence, closely mimicking Leger’s "Ballet Mechanique"

Scene Breakdown, pt. 2

One of the more remarkable scenes in the film portrays a telephone with a sort of television screen in Joh Freder’s office, far predating any such actual technology- including the television itself! The effect was created by projecting the footage of the workman shown on the screen backwards onto the screen using a projector before filming this with the camera positioned in front of it. The projector and camera were phase connected to ensure they worked at the same speed.


Multiple exposures of the film were the third major technique used in the film. This wasn’t done by copying one exposure on top of the other in post-production, but during the actual shooting in the camera, using the same reel of film rewound several times. This was done by Gunther Rittau and his assistant H. O. Schulze. This technique can be seen in the scene of the multiple eyes and male faces gazing on the dancing evil Maria in the Yoshiwara district.