Film review

Das cabinet des Dr Caligari

Fig 1 The cabinet of Dr Caligari poster

Robert Weine’s Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920), is based in the
town of Holstenwall which has a fair in town. One of the fair’s show
is Dr Caligari and his somnambulist. It is shown that Dr Caligari is the
only one that can wake up and control cesare.

With the fair in town strange murders started to occur in the town,
those who were murdered had seen or interacted with Cesare which
led to the assumption of him being the culprit until many plot twists
show that it couldn’t possibly be cesare. Until we’re shown that it is
the Doctor controlling him.

The film is seen through Francis who is the protagonist in the film
who tells us the story of the strange happenings during the fair.
Throughout the film we are led to believe that Cesare is the killer and
Dr Caligari is controlling him. There are many twists such as when we
find out that there is a dummy of Cesare to keep suspicion off of him
when he is out at night. Then at the end of the film it turns out that
Francis was a patient in an asylum and the whole story is a delusion,
he believes that the director of the hospital is Dr Caligari and that
he’s controlling Cesare.

Fig2 inside the asylum at the end

At the time of the film being made Germany was going through a
great depression due to ww1. Many people found themselves
wanting to escape from reality and the US started the boom of
German entertainment. The influence of the war is very strong
throughout the film through the Mise En scene, themes, setting and
narrative of the film. There is an underlying theme of a feeling of
dread which is representative of the Weimar republic. Such as the
police turning on the hero, the feeling of not knowing who to trust
and how Caligari went from having power, being stripped of it, then
given it back at the end of the film. “while Germans were surely
anxious of the inevitability of authority, the film expertly
encapsulates these fears, the horrific content of the films story
represents a country in the midst of turmoil as its most basic level.”

Throughout the film we’re shown the impact of the war, which is the
biggest influence for the writing and settings of the film. It is clear
from the film that war is fresh in the memory of the creators; in fact,
Hans’s Janowitz and Carl Maya fought in the war. The feeling of fear
and apprehension is made clear due to the changing and conflicting
story, especially in the scene with Cesare kidnapping Jane, the use of
sharp patterns in her room provokes the feeling of terror and dread.

Fig3 cesare kidnapping Jane

The film has a big impact on pop culture such as influencing styles of
films and creating the mad scientist trope. A big director who has
been hugely influenced by the film is Tim Burton, who uses the dark
gothic horror theme in his sets, script and tone. Such films by Burton
that show this influence is the Nightmare Before Christmas, a book
that a production designer admitted that “some of the designs are
reminiscent of the old German expressionist film the Cabinet of Dr
Caligari and Nosferatu which have a strong, graphic two-dimensional
look within a three-dimensional environment.” (Smith and Matthews
2002)

Bibliography
https://www.intjournal.com/0813/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari/

Mehruss Jon Ahi and Armen Karaoghlanian (2013)

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/389060507/content#from_embed

impacted of ww1 presentation (2018)

https://www.scribd.com/document/389061527/Caligari-Pop-
Culture#from_embed – pop culture presentation(2018)

https://the-artifice.com/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari-dark-relationship-
with-postwar-germany/

Kevin kryah(2015)
images

https://rosimanopolis.wordpress.com/2010/11/07/el-gabinete-del-
dr-caligari/ -fig 1 (1920)
https://www.eastman.org/event/film-screenings/cabinet-dr-caligari-
0 - fig2 (2018)

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/05/cabinet-of-dr-
caligari-dvd-review-classic-french -fig3 (2014)