Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr, Caligari)
1920
Robert Wiene, director

Some terms

Mise en scene

A rather loose phrase from theater meaning “everything in the set. In film tends to refer to everything in the frame – sets, props, costumes, arrangements of people and so on. Different writers define the term somewhat differently.

Does not include editing and camera positions and movements

Horror is a genre which is typified by:

Although it often crosses with science fiction, the latter films are generally more involved with world catastrophy than individual problems. Alfred Hitchock's Psycho is often considered a classic horror film in these respects. What kinds of sub-genres are there in horror?

Are monster movies "horror" films?
Psycho is a kind of psychological horror.
Are there are supernatural horror films? Consider films like The Exorcist. How Would you classify films such as Curse of the Demon or Cat People where there is some question as to whether the events are real or imagined?
Are the three films we are about to see similar? How similar are they? Consider the structure of the film. How is it put together? Would a different structure alter the film's meaning - that is would we read it differently?

I. Variables in film:

1. tells you something about where, when or who made the object. “In the style of the people of the Pacific” in the style of the 1800’s”, “in the style of Shakespere”.

2. Some styles are named: modernism, postmodernism, impressionism, expressionism. This last is awkward since almost all art expresses something, but in this case it is an internal state of the artist (often) that is being expressed. The result in film is that expressionist films do not look like the real world.

3. Germany in the 1920’s experimented with an expressionist style which we see in the two short films today “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” and “Nosferatu”. Since many German film makers fled Germany for the US shortly after this, the style has some impact on American on American film in a somewhat diluted version. Americans by and large have been growing away from this style of film making, looking for more and more reality in the films. No matter how fantastical the film, it should LOOK real. These films do not.

4. Expressionism can not use the real world to film in. All the scenes are shot in doors where directors have complete control over all aspects of the film making process.

5. Expressionism is important for films which lie outside the “real world” in some way. The are usable for fantasy, supernatural and supernatural horror and other films of that sort.

Cabinet of Caligari:

What is the structure of the film?

Who is mad? If the scenes with the mad man in them are equally distorted who is the narrator?

In the end section (the second half of the frame story) do the sets appear naturalistic or expressionistic?

Are there times when the film appears to link Caligari and Mr. Francis, the narrator.

There are moments when both are positioned in the same way in the frame relative to others.
When goes and sits behind Dr. Caligari's desk.
When he is put in the strait jacket
Are there people in the asylum who resemble (or are) those in the enclosed narrative?

What does the film says about "control"?

Caligari is interested having people commit acts they normally would not, but that someone could get them to do that. This questions the nature of how people could have ben misled by a government in WW I, hence the film has strong overtones about war, and WWI in particular.

Some questions to ponder

On a subtextual level, the film deals with the question of the control of people by governments in leading them into wars.

There has been a great deal of argument about the structure of this film. The original writers maintain that the "frame story" was added later against their wishes. Actual ecidence shows a frame story from the start. It would appear however that the original frame story is different and implies the narrator is not insane. The addition of an unreliable narrator makes one suspect that the idea of control by another is in fact a mad idea since it is told by a madman. That is to say the framing story completely stands the internal story on its head.

Frankenstein

Some Questions to “Ponder”

What is defines the horror genre?

Frankenstein

The book, written in 1818 (2 years after her marriage to Percy Shelley) is by Mary Shelley. The book is called Frankenstein: A Modern Prometheus

Who is Prometheus? Forethought – A Titan who brings fire to humans. As punishment he is chained to a rock and a vulture eats his liver out daily. At night it grows back. As a punishment humans are given Pandora a woman who is entrusted with a box which she opens letting out all the ills of the world.

Why is the book (and hence the film) film subtitled: “A modern Prometheus”?

The book was made into a play by 1823 and even the Grand Guignol did a version.

The first movie was made by Edison studios in 1910 with Charles Ogle playing the monster is a 16 minute version

There had, of course been earlier horror/monster films like The Golem, Nosferatu and a slew of film made by Lon Chaney

Universal studios which would become known for its horror films produced a set of horror films in the early ‘30’s which would later be duplicated in a very different style by the British company Hammer Films with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as the main protagonists. Universal cranked out Dracula (1931), Frankenstein (1931), The Mummy (1932) , Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932), and nearly 10 years later The Wolfman (1941)

This film from 1931 was made in 35 days (24 August to 3 October 1931) and was released Dec 4th 1931. It was budgeted at $262,007.00 and came in at $291,129.13

It made over $1,000.000 in its first domestic run (more than 2x that of Dracula) One of the great moneymakers for Universal – also an artistic triumph and made the NY Times 10 best and played at the first Venice film festival 1932

The film raise hackles all over and brought out the censors. Scene and lines were cut before the releases in different places. More on these after the film

There are some interesting things to note in the opening titles not the least of which is the fact the monster goes uncredited

This was done in the first stage production as well and Mary Shelley approved of the idea. PT Cooke played the monster. This is an indication about what actors should be used to play monsters. One problem in casting is whether to use a relatively unknown actor (as Karloff was) or use a “big name (as happened with DeNiro). Most feel that with big names the audience gets too involved with trying to find the star under the make-up. This rule certainly doesn’t hold with “monsters” like Hannibal Lechter who is not a heavy special effect make-up character.

Some names which will appear also are Carl Lammle, James Whale (who is the subject of the biopic Gods and Monsters), Colin Clive, and Dwight Frye and Jack Pierce are all famous in films

AFTER THE FILM

To start, the peculiar absence of an actor’s name for the monster is not the only odd thing about the film. The film has a rather odd “preface” in which Edward van Sloan who plays Dr. Waldman “braces” the audience for the film and explains something about it.

The subtext of films are often analyzed psychoanalytically, socio-politically by using semiotics and other theories of communication. How does that happen here?

To analyze the film, it is necessary to discover both the text and subtext. The text is basically “the plot” what happens on the screen. The subtext is what can be derived from looking at the way the film is constructed and “breaking” the code of the film

What kind of things are used to find meaning?

Photography

Proxemics

Sets

Some trivia about the film

What about the film upset people that they demanded the cuts here: (Some of the censor’s demands may help get a grip on what was so upsetting about this film in 1931.)

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