Outline

1.   Introduction

    1.1 Introduction to the topic

    1.2 thesis

2.   Body

    2.1 Background
     
         2.1.1  The approach taken by Expressionism in Germany

         2.1.2   German Expressionism on American Cinema

     2.2  Analysis

          2.2.1 "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"

          2.2.2  "Metropolis"

3.   Conclusion

4.    References

Thesis Statement

     This essay will consider the historical background of German Expressionism and also will analyze it for its deeper  meaning within German expressionist films, arguing that German expressionism demonstrated a nihilistic concern with industrialization and modernization. 

" Theses On the Philosophy of History"

     What I could understand about this work from Benjamin is that the time is really you and that the past and the future exist in a single present. This essay handles two important concepts in its thesis; history discontinuous and interrupted time. For Benjamin history is the subject of a fragmented building, where there is no linear time. According to Benjamin the past should not be articulated historically because this would mean not to know it the way it really happened since we only know memories as history. Therefore, in order for the past to continue living, collective memory must reinvent it every minute. He also emphasizes that all the energy of the history focuses on reality of the present, and that past and future are only ways of how we live now.  

" The Work of Art In the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

     The principal concept of this essay is the lost of  " aura" in the work of contemporary art. It is the hidden and mysterious which give us that aura. For Benjamin the aura contains all the essential qualities of the art work. Art has lost its original character of unique and unrepeatable work. The time from which Benjamin speaks , innovative techniques have been developed that makes an art work to be updated or copied very easily. It seems that the work of art in the age of technical reproduction has changed; it is no longer authentic and unique.

     Benjamin also gives reference to photography and films, about how the actor has changed his public by a camera. Therefore, the aura gets lost within the actor and the character it represents. On the other hand photography gives the opportunity to examine images at different speed and sizes ; by the time of Benjamin people debated if photography could really be called art.