European film studios struggled after World War I to reach audiences who had fallen in love with American movies. Working-class Europeans, in particular, preferred Hollywood’s offerings to the films produced in Europe. In this 1928 article from a cinematography journal, German expressionist filmmaker Erich Pommer suggested new strategies for expanding an audience for European films. Expressionists, influenced by romanticism and modernism, explored dark themes such as spiritual crisis and insanity. (A famous example of expressionist painting is Edvard Munch’s The Scream.) Pommer worked for American studios and later fled to the United States after the rise of Hitler.

The towering importance of the American motion picture on the world’s markets cannot be safely explained by the unlimited financial resources at the disposal of the American producers. … Its main reason is the mentality of the American picture, which, notwithstanding all attacks and claims to the contrary, apparently comes nearest to the taste of international cinema audiences.

… The specific and unique element of the American film is the fact of its being absolutely uncomplicated. Being what is called “naïve” it knows no problems. …

Universal Appeal. It is really preferable to have a picture too light rather than too heavy, because in the latter case there is a danger that the public will not understand the story. This is the worst thing that can happen with a picture. …

Spectacular Appeal. The international appeal of a picture has its foundation in a story. It is totally independent of the capital invested and of the splendor and luxury used in its production. The fact that in most cases the supers and monumental pictures have proved to be such international successes, does not disprove this claim. Such productions always have a simple story of universal appeal, because it is simply impossible to use spiritual thoughts and impressions of the soul in a picture deluxe. The splendour in such production is not merely created for decoration — it is its outstanding purpose. … But splendour means show, and a show is always and everywhere easy to understand. …

Source: Excerpt from “The International Picture: A Lesson on Simplicity” by Erich Pommer from “Film Europe” and “Film America”: Cinema, Commerce and Cultural Exchange 1920–1939, edited by Andrew Higson and Richard Maltby, 1999, ISBN: 978-0-85989-546-0. Used by permission of Exeter University Press.