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The Death of the Dutch Angle

It went from a respected technique of German expressionist cinematography to a cheap parlour trick. Perhaps no other element of classic cinema has taken such tough a fall into ill-fated territories than the Dutch Angle. It is also known by the names of The Dutch Tilt, The German Angle, The Oblique Angle and The Batman Angle. Today the Dutch Angle stands at such a frail point that even the slightest use of it would bring down the stature of the film like the curse of a promised plague. One of the shining examples of the curse taking over is Battlefield Earth (2000), which attracted the following comment from critic Roger Ebert:

“The director, Roger Christian, has learned from better films that directors sometimes tilt their cameras, but he has not learned why.”

It wasn’t always like this. The origins of the Dutch Angle have a very different story to tell.

The Birth of a Technique

Although a very simple technique to execute, the Dutch Angle didn’t find its way into serious cinematography until the advent of the German Expressionist cinema of the 1930s. Films like The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920) made the first use of the angle to depict a sense of discomfort, disorientation and psychological imbalance. Thus, the name was coined: Deutsch (meaning German) Angle and the simplification of the pronunciation resulted in the name Dutch (although it has no connection with the country).

It was not long before the infamous tilt made its way into American cinema. 1949’s The Third Man directed by Carol Reed was one of the first films to use this technique extensively throughout the film.

So what exactly is this Dutch Angle and what does it represent?

The Science of the Tilt

The tilt is a cinematic tactic where the camera is titled to its side so that the horizon meets the bottom of the frame at an angle. This sort of composition is often used to signify a feeling of imbalance, psychological uneasiness and horror. Most often, alternating Dutch angle shots are composed at mirroring angles to sustain a flow among quick cutting shots. Though mostly used as static shots, Dutch angles can also be used in dynamic movement of the camera. One of the most popular combinations is with the dolly, where the camera usually starts at a distance and travels to a close-up of the subject in focus at an oblique angle. Another interesting movement is a very sharp pan of the camera, once again used to establish a feeling of horror.

The very first innovators of the tilt intended it to be a courageous technique to be explored and executed creatively. But fate had other plans for the Dutch angle.

Holy Abuse -of-the-tilted-camera Batman!

Come 1966 and the infamous Batman TV Series was launched in America. Week after week, audiences were thrilled with the comic antics of Adam West and Burt Ward in their circus-like costumes and the frequent use of Punch-words. The series featured an extensive arsenal of gadgets that acquired the prefix Bat- to signify the right of ownership. The Bat-mobile, the Batarang, the Bat-cycle, the Bat-copter, the Bat-photocopier, the Bat- water dispenser and inevitably the Bat-angle or the Batman Angle. The series featured the Dutch angle in almost every frame across 120 episodes, causing serious fans to lose track of level ground and others to identify the Dutch angle as a quintessential ambassador of Camp-cinema.

The momentum of the same followed into the eventual theatrical release of the 1966 Batman film and later into several B-movies and direct-to-video releases across America and Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.

Although, it lost its place as a serious cinematographic trick, some directors still managed to use it to their advantage with limited use and exceptional story-telling. One of the finest examples comes out in the form of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead series. Raimi’s 1981 twisted comic horror film ‘The Evil Dead’ was one of the first signs of a rising independent film market in America and the Dutch angle did its job in portraying the horror of the film in a manner of strict black humour. The same pattern followed into its sequels: The Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn (1987) and The Army of Darkness (1993).

Finding its way back?

The tilt found its way into an odd scene in the works of present day heavy-weights like Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and M.Night Shyamalan. They presented the tilt as a homage to their favourite films and in turn threw light onto the fact that perhaps a limited use of the Dutch angle still does a neat job of communicating that certain feeling of imbalance.

Filmmakers and Cinematographers have always innovated with the movement of the camera and they will continue to do so even against popular opinion. The fact that a simple camera trick would go on to represent a generation of popular cinema might sound ridiculous to most of us, but then again the world has seen worse. Needless to say, these radical events in cinema history continue to fascinate and inspire film lovers throughout time and in their sight the Dutch angles never loose reverence.

For further reading on Dutch Angles you can view an interesting discussion here.