Tim Burton Research

Burton Is a well-known film director that was born on the 25th of August 1958 in California. He's known for having one of the most movies being alike and for all of his movies being with an interesting aesthetic, a post made by Vox in 2019 say's that it's very hard to find a film director like Tim Burton. (Romano, 2019)

A lot can be said about Tim Burton, but in my research, I wanted to focus on what is related to expressionism and other research that I have done and that somehow are related to the artist.

He has been heavily inspired by the late movies about expressionism. At the time, in Germany, expressionism was having a heavy impact on the cinemas, the reason being for its interesting visuals and unique visual style. This made Burton make movies with aspects from the older expressionist movies, for example, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. (Romano, 2019)

Yamont (2018) tells us that there are many visual similarities between the films of Tim Burton and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, such as in Vincent (1982), Beetlejuice (1988), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Corpse Bride (2005). 

The following images show these similarities, extracted from Yamond (2019) 

Similarities with The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The look of Cesare (Conrad Veidt) from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) influenced the elongated form of Edward Scissorhands (Bold Entrance, 2020).

It is still possible to better understand their similarities if you watch the video available on youtube, in the following link: (20) Video Essay Comparison of Dr. Caligari and The Corpse Bride - YouTube

We managed to also see similarities between Burton's work and the film Metropolis (1927) by Fritz Lang. The following images show us these similarities, extracted from Yamond (2019).

I chose images of scenarios and characters, so I can understand the inspiration that Tim Burton had with this film. In my research on Metropolis, I had already chosen some images as a comparison, but in these, I can see what Burton did from someone else's work. The same is true in the previous film. 

There are lots of images that show the comparison between Tim Burton's work and these expressionist films, I chose these as an example. 

One of the films I haven't researched yet, but it's on my list, is the film, Nosferatu de Murnau. However, I decided to put here some images from the film that relate to Burton. It's a way to get an idea of another work by Tim Burton.

The images (Yamond, 2019) below show us the similarities between Burton's work and the film Nosferatu (1922) by F. W. Murnau. 

We can see here how artists can influence each other and how they can be an inspiration.

I also intend to continue to analyze expressionism in order to understand how it may have influenced Burton. 

“German Expressionism didn’t result in that many films, but the ones that did have become famous for their visionary aesthetic, standing out visually and intellectually against the other films of the day.” (Mills, 2015, para.3), unfortunately, this didn’t stay for long because at the time most of the artists had to go to Hollywood because of the Nazis (Mills, T. 2015).

Expressionism sees these themes by means of building a dreamlike reality through scenography, lighting, and unrealistic and highly figured characters. The main objective is to use various scenarios, lighting, and characters to show the internal psychology of the characters and also to put psychological tension on the viewer. Thus the viewer can understand all the expressions that the author wants to convey (Romano, 2019)

The movies that Burton did at the time related to expressionism were: Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Batman, Batman Returns, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Big Fish, Corpse Bride, and Alice in Wonderland. In each of these movies, there are references to older and well-known expressionist movies. When he did these movies he felt empathy for the characters, especially the ones that people found scary. The artist related to these characters more because of his childhood being isolated and different, and for that he liked more the “scary” characters who he viewed as misunderstood and attacked by other people for just being different (Bold Entrance, 2020).

There are many influences of expressionism that can be seen in Burton's work. I chose some because they helped me to better understand how I could influence my work and continue my project. I can then refer to the following, according to Bold Entrance, 2020, namely: 

(1) The lighting is used when working with shadows and figures on the scene. Most of the time the scenes can have distorted shadows made by the scene itself or even characters in the movie; 

(2) Many of Burton's films put the expressionist idea of anthropomorphism, basically imbuing objects and animals with qualities and actions similar to those of humans. Some of the scene objects in Burton's films can have great significance, so this is why this happens;

(3) A lot of the characters from his movies made people remember the characters from German Expressionist films. Most of the characters had dark tones, like the faces and even the clothes that they wear. A good example of this is the character Edward Scissorhands, having a dark, elongated form of Cesare from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).

I feel prepared to try to change the way I draw and now I am more informed about what expressionism really is and what can inspire us. In my next post, I will show new characters that I created from this current and from the different artists that I analyzed. 

References:

Bold Entrance (2020) ‘BURTONESQUE’: THE DARK AND TWISTED INFLUENCES BEHIND TIM BURTON’S VISUAL STYLE. [online] Available from: 'Burtonesque': The Dark And Twisted Influences Behind Tim Burton's Visual Style | Bold Entrance [accessed: 02/02/2021]

Mills, T. (2015) How German Expressionism Influenced Tim Burton: A Video Essay. Open Culture, 23/06. [online] Available from: How German Expressionism Influenced Tim Burton: A Video Essay | Open Culture [accessed: 02/02/2021]

Owens, A. (2015) Video Essay Comparison of Dr. Caligari and The Corpse Bride. [Youtube video] Available from: (20) Video Essay Comparison of Dr. Caligari and The Corpse Bride - YouTube [accessed: 04/02/21]

Romano, A. (2019) Tim Burton has built his career around an iconic visual aesthetic. Here’s how it evolved. Vox, 17/04. [online] Available from: Tim Burton’s visual aesthetic, explained - Vox [accessed: 02/02/21]

Yamount, D. (2018) The Influence of German Expressionist Cinema on the Films of Tim Burton. [online] Available from: The Influence of German Expressionist Cinema on the Films of Tim Burton | by Dania Yamout | Medium [accessed: 02/02/2021]