From Wagner to Murnau: The Transposition of Romanticism from Stage to Screen

This study maintains that Murnau, and by extension the long-rake, deep-focus, moving camera approcah to filmaking he initiated, have their artistic foundations in the theatre, precisely in the romantic theatrical movement of the third quarter of the 19th century. The study begins with Wagner, the undisputed leader of romanticism at the time both as artist and aesthetician, and also examines George II, Adolphe Appia, Max Reinhardt, ending with F.W. Murnau.