The Cabınet of Dr. Calıgarı

 

october, 2023.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Robert Wiene’s 1920 silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a German silent film written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is often referred as the first true horror film and one of the films that has a great importance in the German expressionist cinema.

German expressionism is an artistic movement that, roughly, intends to focus on individuals’ inner conflicts rather than reflecting reality. The dominant themes in German expressionist cinema were influenced mainly by the experiences of World War I and, thus, provoked by such things as betrayal, madness, and insanity.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’s sets are generally improperly designed. They often seemed like handmade pieces; especially the street lamps and doors were attention grabbing. The characters used exaggerated facial expressions and gestures to convey their unwritten dialogues. The explanations between the scenes to let the viewers know what have been happening and to give an idea regarding the dialogues were quite new and exciting. Clearly, something like that was a necessity for a silent film that long however, as it was really unexpected and surprising.

Dr. Caligari is depicted as a mad hypnotist who has a somnambulist. Even though the theme of madness was already present from the very beginning since the film’s opening scene was a little dream-like, when Dr. Caligari was introduced everything fit in their place.

 Although, the audience tried to find the real criminal throughout the film, the plot twist made the plot the most realistic, unreal story.

- from an attempt to write a film analysis for the second time