DR CALIGARI & DIE BRÜCKE

Vincent, Casper, Grace

"WHAT IS GREAT IN MEN
IS THAT HE IS A BRIDGE
AND NOT A GOAL.“
Friedrich Nietzsche ,1883-92
DIE BRÜCKE (THE BRIDGE)
➤ group of German expressionist artists
➤ formed in Dresden (1905 - 1913)
➤ founding members: Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel and
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
➤ major impact on the evolution of modern
art in the 20th century and the creation
of expressionism
DIE BRÜCKE - ARTSTYLE
➤ extrem emotion
➤ wild spontaneity
➤ strong, brilliant colours (non-
naturalistic)
➤ straight from tube on canvas (crude)
➤ distorted forms (abstraction)

➤ Oil on canvas, Linocut, Woodcarvings

EXPRESSIONISM
➤ Expressionist movement started in 1905
(Germany) and continued through and
after the First World
➤ one of the long-lasting and diverse art
movements the world
➤ wide range of different art
➤ heavily influenced by artists such as
Vincent van Gogh
➤ aim to create more powerful reactions to
their work than aesthetically pleasing
pieces
EXPRESSIONIST FILMS
➤ born in Germany during the 1910s
➤ quickly generated high demand due to
the government’s ban on foreign films
➤ soon spreads internationally
➤ By the 1920s, many had begun to
experiment with the absurd and wild
aesthetics of German cinema
“EVERYONE BELONGS TO US WHO
DIRECTLY AND UNDIVERGENTLY
TRIES TO EXPRESS THAT WHICH
DRIVES THEM TO CREATE“
Die Brücke, Manifesto
DR CALIGARI & DIE BRÜCKE
➤ first motion picture that feel like Art
➤ like a moving version of painting,
sculpture, and woodcuts (traditional
arts)
➤ distorted perspectives, canted angles of
the houses, lampposts and streets
➤ comparisons to the Women in Potsdam
Square by Kirchner
DR CALIGARI & EXPRESSIONISM
➤ bridge between the art forms
➤ traditional arts of painting, drawing and
etching and the new, modern art of
cinema
➤ the only film that might truly be
considered Expressionistic in the original
sense of the word
➤ The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari counts as major
influence
➤ German Expressionism was never heard
from again
CONCLUSION
Overall it can be said, that the art of the
movie “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari" is
mainly inspired by Expressionism.
How ever the art group “Die Brücke“
ended before the movie was made.
Therefore it is more influenced by the
expressionistic artwork of the 1920s.
Nevertheless the work of “Die Brücke“
was a main inspiration for the making
of the movie.
HARVARD ILLUSTRATION LIST
➤ Barry Herbert (1983). German Expressionism, Die Brücke and der
blaue Reiter. London: Jupiter Books. p1-205.
➤ Damon Griffin. (N/A). Zwanghaften Kunst: How Caligari ended
German Expressionism. beverlyartcenter. N/A (N/A), p1-12.
➤ Darsa, A. (2018). An Introduction to German Expressionist Films -
artnet News. [online] artnet News. Available at: https://news.artnet.com/
market/art-house-an-introduction-to-german-expressionist-films-32845
[Accessed 20 Sep. 2018]
➤ : Buckley, C. (2010). A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art (2nd
edition)2010133Ian Chilvers and John Glaves-Smith. A Dictionary of
Modern and Contemporary Art (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University
Press 2009. viii+776 pp., ISBN: 978 0 19 923966 5 £10.99/$19.95
Oxford Paperback Reference. Reference Reviews, 24(3), pp.44-45.