Phantom (1922)

 F.W. Murnau's "Phantom"

After making his breakout sensation "Nosferatu," F.W. Murnau started work on his next project, "Phantom." Despite the horror-sounding title, the film contains no horror elements. And despite the massive explosion of expressionism in the German film landscape, "Phantom" leans more into realism than it does expressionism. There are, however, touches of expressionism that can be found throughout. 

The film follows a minor government clerk and aspiring poet named Lorenz. Lorenz lives in poverty with his mother and sister. One day when walking to work, Lorenz is knocked over by a horse-led carriage. He is unharmed, but the woman in the carriage catches his eye. From that point onward, he becomes obsessed with this mysterious woman. He stalks her, tries to convince her parents to marry him, and even steals money from his aunt to buy nice clothes to impress her. However, his obsession costs him his job, his relationships, and even his perception as a stand-up citizen. Eventually, he is arrested. Once released years later, he tries to forget all about this mysterious woman who drove him insane.

The film is considered by many to be a 'psychological romance.' Lorenz's obsession with the mysterious woman, despite no romance being reciprocated, psychologically changes him. This psychological break leads him to upend his entire life. During the early 1920s in Germany, inflation was at an all-time high. Many people were living in poverty and those that weren't were terrified of their economic downfall. The paranoia that one's safety could become suddenly upended was a concept explored in lots of German media. This break is often linked to the untamed self. This notion is explored most popularly in Josef von Sternberg's 1930 German masterpiece "The Blue Angel." It is not some outside presence forcing the character's downfall. Rather, it is the characters' obsessions with lust, romance, or some external force. The characters are chasing down something that they do not already possess, forcing them to sacrifice the things that they do already possess in the process.

With this element, the film could also be viewed from an economic perspective. The protagonist, as well as his family and acquaintances, live in relative poverty. All of the characters are also chasing after economic security. Lorenz's sister must work as a prostitute to make money. Lorenz's aunt's assistant convinces Lorenz to steal from his aunt so he can take a piece of the sum. Even Lorenze, although his chase is after a woman, the woman herself seems to represent the kind of lifestyle Lorenz and his family wishes that they have. The mysterious woman is very wealthy, lives in a large house, goes to extravagant parties, and is due to marry a wealthy man. Lorenz's chase may as well be a chase after her finances, despite his earnest intentions. All of the characters are chasing after a phantom of sorts. The phantom they are chasing is economic security in an unstable world. However, phantoms, naturally, are never within reach.

Murnau's choice of realism in this film seems directly contrary to the expressionist movement happening in Germany at the time. Perhaps the starkness of the subject matter (that of poverty and class suffering) denoted a more realistic viewpoint. Murnau does, however, add touches of expressionism into the story. These touches come about each time Lorenz yearns after the mysterious woman. Oftentimes, the scenes will cut to an image of Lorenze chasing the carriage throughout the haunted-looking city in the night. Other times, Murnau will change the color of the scene to reflect a heightened sense of fantasy, as Lorenze daydreams about his unachieved romance. Murnau seems to separate the real from the imagined by dividing these two concepts between realism and expressionism. The stark poverty-stricken everyday life of Lorenze is shown with no filter, while his fantastical imaginings denote a life that he could never have: one in which his hopes and desires come to fruition. Murnau expertly designs the film to showcase how our unrealized fantasies are no match for the desolate lack of hope that exists in reality.

These hopes and fantasies expressed through realism are the real phantoms of the film's title. We are constantly chasing something we can't have, trying to attain that which we desire. Those desires are constantly out of reach. Like Lorenz chasing his fantasy woman both in real life and in his imagination, so too are we constantly chasing something that we will never truly attain.