Why Do So Many Filmmakers Rely On THIS Trick?

Oh, now this is ridiculous

Marshall, your apartment's crooked. What do you mean? This camera angle can be found all over the place

Not just in movies, but in TV shows and commercials as well. It's called the Dutch angle, and it has been used steadily since the 1920s

Its intended purpose is to stir emotion in the audience. But the questions remain, why are so many filmmakers still using a 100-year-old camera trick

Where exactly did it come from? And why, after all these years, is it so effective

It's an incredible story. I'm going to tell you the whole thing

Before we really jump into the details of the Dutch angle, we need to get a grip on the basics

And there's no better way to do that than with a solid example. Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious s makes frequent use of the Dutch angle

though it is most prominently featured in this iconic scene. Sergeant Donnie Donowitz, the Bear Jew

While a majority of the camera work is done straight on at eye or ground level

the angle is noticeably shifted after Donnie emerges from the tunnel and speaks with a German soldier on the ground in front of him

This tilt on the X or roll axis is what constitutes a Dutch angle

The camera works in tandem with the rest of the film's language to tell the audience how we're supposed to feel

what we're supposed to think, and what we can expect moving forward. Since we suddenly find ourselves off balance

we have to struggle to emotionally right ourselves, but Tarantino intentionally keeps us unsteady

There's an unnatural intensity to Eli Roth's impassioned gaze and Richard Sammel's steely resolve

And when coupled with the rising volume of the music, it signals to the audience

they're about to witness something brutal. And, well, we all know what happens next

It an undeniably effective use of the Dutch angle and Tarantino deserves to be acknowledged for it but he certainly can be credited of its invention For that we have to return to Germany

and this time, we're going all the way back to World War I. During the First World War

Germany banned the import of foreign works of art. This left the German public in a kind of

cultural bubble. While the rest of the world was enjoying the rise of ethereal impressionist art

and the humble beginnings of early Hollywood filmmaking, Germany was marching in a decidedly stranger direction

German painters had embraced expressionism in a big way, leaning into the emotionality of art

and playing with distorted perspectives. These ideas naturally bled into the filmmaking process

and led to now-classic movies like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. One of the most important horror films

in the development of that genre and a key example of German expressionism in the cinema

Directed by Robert Wiener, with cinematography by Willie Haymeister, the 1920s silent horror film wears its influences boldly and proudly on the sleeve of its dark black trench coat

The sets are filled with wonky lines meant to unsettle the audience, and the characters are all done up with extreme makeup

Buildings are misshapen, streets are incongruous with the rest of the environment

and even the furniture was specifically chosen to create off-silhouettes. While Calgary doesn't include a true Dutch angle

the sets themselves provide that disconcerting tilt and perspective which would inspire future filmmakers

F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Ziga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera

and even Orson Welles' Citizen Kane all physically offset their cameras for particular moments

Obviously, all of these films would become icons of the industry, which served to make the Dutch angle

a widely recognized and revered filmmaking technique. So yes, despite its name, the Dutch angle is actually German

What is that an apostrophe? I think you mean an epiphany While we don know for sure it assumed that the Dutch angle was originally called the Deutsch angle but years of misspellings and mispronunciations from English speakers left it a little twisted As you might have noticed from the examples the earliest uses were found mainly in serious genre

films, particularly horror films. But as the technique became more popular, the camera trick

broke free of its limiting origins and its full viability as an industry staple became clear

Famously, the 1960s Batman TV show and its spinoff movie made use of Dutch angles whenever the villains were on screen

Each character had their own specific tilt, signifying their crooked intentions and unstable personalities

The shots also gave the show and movie a more fantastical feel, which helped to sell the tone of the universe overall

Good going, Batman! I thought we were dead ducks! Dutch angles are also seen in action movies, and especially anime

Usually, they're employed as a way to showcase the otherworldly abilities of a character

or capture a particularly unreal set piece. When used well, these tilted shots get the audience's heart racing in a way a standard shot might not

and they do a better job of letting us know that what we're seeing is supposed to be epic in scope

Recent Marvel flicks are known for using Dutch angles, and Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies are absolutely full of them

Of course, Raimi got his start in horror with the Evil Dead movies, so it's obvious where his influences came from

And he's not the only one. Tim Burton's directorial style is also heavily steeped in German expressionism

which means he makes frequent use of Dutch angles to highlight the absurdity of his films

It could keep me up all night worrying about you. You watch yourself here

When it comes down to it, a Dutch angle is at its best when used to convey and highlight the abnormal

Whether that abnormality is horrific, comedic, or action-oriented in nature doesn't really matter

because the Dutch angle is as versatile as it is effective at least in the right hands Just because a camera trick or filmmaking technique has been used to great success in the past doesn mean it will always have a similar payoff You have to understand why it works otherwise the results can be disastrous The most poignant example of this is the movie

Battlefield Earth, directed by Roger Christian. There must be some mistake. Oh, oh, Marcus

does not make mistakes. On release, Battlefield Earth was panned for, well, just about everything

John Travolta's bizarre acting choices, the terrible costuming, and the strange story based

on a book written by the founder of Scientology didn't make for an Oscar-worthy product

And while the movie can definitely be described as abnormal, the constant use of Dutch angles

does nothing to lift it past its embarrassing 3% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

As Roger Ebert put it so deftly and scathingly, the director, Roger Christian, has learned

from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why

Let's not feed around the bush. This is one of the ugliest, the most incomprehensible movies I've ever seen

Instead of heightening the emotion of a scene or single shot, Dutch angles are peppered throughout Battlefield Earth with seemingly no real intention

They're there in close-ups, they're there in wides, and they were there in our nightmares after watching the movie

The overuse of Dutch angles made them completely meaningless. The deeper impact they have in better films was gone

replaced with shallow visual stylization to the point where it became a distraction

If Tarantino used Dutch angles as a tool, Christian used them as a gimmick

and their finished films are a tribute to how important it is to use them sparingly and properly

Though the act of tilting a camera might sound fairly simple, when done well, the Dutch angle can evoke a level of emotion in your audience

that other shots cannot. After a hundred years, filmmakers are still finding new ways to use it

It's a time-honored technique that won't be going anywhere anytime soon, so whatever the future of the Dutch angle has in store

we know it too will be terrifying, inspiring, and exciting