<P> German Expressionist painters rejected the naturalistic depiction of objective reality, often portraying distorted figures, buildings, and landscapes in a disorienting manner that disregarded the conventions of perspective and proportion . This approach, combined with jagged, stylized shapes and harsh, unnatural colors, were used to convey subjective emotions . </P> <P> A number of artists and craftsmen working in the Berlin theater brought the Expressionist visual style to the design of stage sets . This, in turn, had an eventual influence on films dealing with fantasy and horror . </P> <P> The prime example is Robert Wiene's dream - like film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) which is universally recognized as an early classic of Expressionist cinema . Hermann Warm, the film's art director, worked with painters and stage designers Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig to create fantastic, nightmarish sets with twisted structures and landscapes with sharp - pointed forms and oblique, curving lines . Some of these designs were constructions, others were painted directly onto canvases . </P> <P> German Expressionist films produced in the Weimar Republic immediately following the First World War not only encapsulate the sociopolitical contexts in which they were created, but also rework the intrinsically modern problems of self - reflexivity, spectacle and identity . </P>

Where did the new wave style of expression in movies originate