THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
Week of 3-7 December 2007
The German film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Robert Wiene, 1920) is one of the classics of the silent cinema and a model for the use of set design in narrative. Its historical influence was huge, especially on the use of Expressionistic set design in the Hollywood horror genre (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, etc.). Expressionism was a movement in the arts that tried to "express" heightened and strained (abnormal) emotions by exaggerated lines and vibrant colors (Van Gogh is an example, as well as Edward Munch's The Scream) (right).
The film, however, is less cinematic than pictorial; its mise-en-scene is theatrical, there is no camera movement, and editing (except for Cesare's capture of the sleeping woman) shows no appreciation of cinema as a special art form. But the discovery movement, as the supposedly mad Dr. Caligari reveals himself to be the head of the mental institution (left) is memorable and has been influential (as in the slow discovery movement of the Bates skeleton in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho).
Caligari was a landmark film with influences that are felt to this day. Film students should know this film. Luckily, it's available on the internet. It's about an hour long. Click on the film's title or here. Study pictures are attached.
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