The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari Analysis

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, 1920) was produced during the German Weimar Republic after World War I and was one of the greatest early German Expressionist films. It was a German silent horror film, directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. The producers had originally chosen Fritz Lang to be the director, but he had other obligations, and so Dr. Robert Wiene was tapped to direct the film. The story concerns a psychotic killer, Dr. Caligari, who hypnotises a somnambulist (a person who is perpetually asleep but who can be awakened briefly) to perform horrid murders at his choosing. Two friends, Alan and Francis, see Caligari at a village fair exhibiting for a concession …show more content…
Caligari is dark, twisted and bizarre; radical and deliberate distortions in perspective, form, dimension and scale create a chaotic and unhinged appearance. The sets are dominated by sharp-pointed forms and oblique and curving lines, with narrow and spiraling streets and structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, giving the impression they could collapse or explode at any given moment. It was like a jagged landscape of sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases climbing crazy diagonals, trees with spiky leaves, grass that looks like knives. The sets are characterized by strokes of bold, black paint. The landscape of Holstenwall is painted on canvas, as opposed to a constructed set, and shadows and streaks of light are painted directly onto the sets, further distorting the viewer's sense of perspective and three-dimensionality. Buildings are clustered and interconnected in a cubist-like architecture, surrounded by dark and twisted back alleys. The rooms have radically offset windows with distorted frames, doors that are not squared, and chairs that are too tall. Strange designs and figures are painted on the walls of corridors and rooms, and trees outside have twisted branches that sometimes resemble