Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Silent (none linear) German Film created by Robert Wiene, Written by Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz and was released in 1920 (after world war one). The film was rated a five star. (1)

In the film, we as the audience are reconnoitering Dr Caligari and his slave who has been asleep for 23 years in his casket. The scene starts off with Francis seeing his fiancée Jane and tells us the atrocious experience they had together subsequently going to a cross-cutting scene. This is also one of the rationalization why it was rated a five-star film because of the none linear impact in the production, being able to see the present and the past which was not common in the 90’s. In Francis flash-back, he and his friend Alan went to visit ‘The cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ where the Doctor present to them a dead man known as Cesare who he awakens for some moments. Alan asks Cesare about his future and his answer was ‘death.’ The next day Francis found out Alan was dead and suspected Cesare and started spying on him. Cesare was going to stab Jane in the night, however, falls in love with Jane and abducted her and failed at the end. The police called by Francis started reconnoitering the area in the Dr Caligari’s caravan. Knowing that Cesare was no more in the casket Dr Caligari absconded away who was pursued by Francis. At the end of the scene Francis was locked up in a madhouse. This ended in an ambiguous means creating an enigma code which never got answered leaving us to guess.

The demonstrative décor and sets of this horror film are alluring additionally giving the audience hidden signs in their painting which is commonly known in the genre of arts as “German expressionism aesthetic at its most extreme. The scenery and sets of ‘Caligari’ are unlike anything that one might find outside modern animated films” (Jon Schnaars, 2010). In the endorsement of Jon Schnaars review of the film, the crafting of the set was expressive because of the curved lines in the drawing and the construction of the set (or house) a connotation of things not being immovable as if it is deteriorating. The décor in ‘The cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ is vivid and surreal challenging its audience about their emotions or lives. For example, Francis’s friend Alan was killed but only shadows were used to portray this, the house has a personified character of Alan as the space of the house is infolded around forming dark shadows connoting immorality not being able to see the light an alternative meaning of death. Tom Hudson (2011) also sees the personified architecture “the role of the home as a metaphor for humanness was to appear heavily in their work also, re-assuming the identity of the home as key to that of the self. The homes and spaces intensified the thoughts and emotions of the characters as opposed to re-presenting them, culminating in a disfigured and uncanny vision of space.” In addition, one of the props in act one was noticeable as a man was sitting on a high chair which singled him out from everyone representing power or the bourgeoisie. In comparative of ‘hidden signs,’ the man sitting on the chair represented the government in Germany as Robert Wiene was mocking him (2016). Overall the production was magnificent moreover with ought the lighting there would not have been as much life in the production. The lighting used was very expressive (for example blue, yellow, orange and green) to clarify to the audience; morning, afternoon, evening and night which shows a big comparison to the modern films today as they use natural lighting.

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Pic 1

Lighting was one of the essential things in this production mostly when acting the ‘death scene’. The MPAA was not there in the 90’s moreover there was still strict rules of the audience not being allowed to witness a character dying on stage as the scene should be done of stage because of inappropriacy. Robert Wiene was able to bend the rules by using a dark room and pointing the light to the actor’s direction creating a shadow, therefore showing what is of stage however not clearly visible (e.g covered by the curtains). Robert Wiene did not only focus on lighting and production however corner-stoned the camera angles in every scene. For example, when Cecare came to murder Jane one of the technical convention used to portray the actor’s neutral facial expression of Cecare was a close-up. A stationary, long shot was used when abducting Jane, a connotation of us not being able to help her. Generally, the expressive acting style used was magnificent because “The Expressionists moved away from strict realism and external representation” (Roger Ebert 2009). The expressionism used in the acting style gave personality to their characters as we are able to clarify what type of stereotypical character roles they are playing as it is a silent film, in addition making us as audience interpret the story and emotions by their actions.

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By Divine Uwadiale

Refrences

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndFysO2JunE&t=149s (2016)

Bibliography

(1)               http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0010323/awards

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/g/german-expressionism (history of tate)

http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/reviews/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari By Jon Schnaars on July 06th, 2010

https://thudsonarchitecture.wordpress.com/2011/08/01/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari/ (Tom Hudson 2011)

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari-1920 (Roger Ebert 2009)

Illustration

1st pic https://theredlist.com/media/upload/2013/09/12/1378996115-5231cf933c541-007-the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari.jpg

2rd pic https://thudsonarchitecture.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/alan-01.jpg

3rd pic https://lettersfromokinawa.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/vlcsnap-2012-02-27-03h09m20s961.png

4^th pic https://thefanmetareader.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/tops.jpg