type of realistic motion picture, popular in Germany during the 1920s, that dealt with the lives of common people during a time of economic depression; the term refers to the importance in the films of urban street scenes (usually filmed on studio sets of great ingenuity). The street in these films was not only a place of violence but also a place where virtues that had seemingly been abandoned by middle-class society flourished among prostitutes and other outcasts. The hero of the picture usually broke away from the security of a traditional home, sought adventure in the street, and then returned to a conventional life.

The Street (1923) was the prototype of a series of such films, which included Joyless Street (1925), Tragedy of the Street (1927), and Asphalt (1929). The realistic tone and experimental use of the camera influenced the production of outstanding street films, notably The Last Laugh (1924), directed by F.W. Murnau, who used the camera subjectively in his portrayal of an aging doorman played by the famed actor Emil Jannings. The disintegration of society and the return to traditional values that characterized street films foreshadowed the movement toward authoritarianism in the 1930s.