德国表现主义电影The cabinet of Dr. Caligari: a discussion of the German Expressionism film
Jinyu Li, University of Southampton, WSA
jl6g14@soton.ac.uk
Abstract
The “golden age” of the German cinema begins at 1920s as the rising of the Expressionist film which also influenced by the art and literature of Expressionism in Germany, Scandinavia and America. The most important and most known one is The cabinet of Dr.Caligari directed by Robert Weine. It has been seen as the beginning of the Weimar cinema and also generated lots of discussions and researches by the scholars afterwards. From Caligari to Hitler is considered to be the most valued study about the film written by Kracauer. Siegfried in 1947. The study viewed the content of film from a perspective of sociology and psychology, it’s trying to identify the national issue in Germany back at that time through analyse German people’s mind through the film. In many of the subsequent studies which hold different opinions with Kracauer, The haunted screen by Eisner holds an almost equal value as Kracauer’s book. The essay will mainly based on those two studies to discuss Kracuer’s view through assessing different factors of mise-en-scene inside the film.
Content
Abstract…………………………………………………………………..……….01
Content……………………………………………………………………………02
Introduction………………………………………………………………….……03
Mise-en-scene, Aesthetic function and symbolic context……………….…..03
“Metaphysics of decor”………………………………………….………...….…04
From “the secret of German cinema” to the “German soul”…………………06
Costume and make-ups: from Cesare’s eyes to authority……………..……09
Lighting…………………………………………….………………………………11
“Framing story”-reality or a madman’s fantasy………………..………………13
Reference…………………………………………………………………………16
Introduction
The so-called “golden age” of the Expressionist films in German cinema makes the Expressionist becomes synonymous with the Weimar cinema. It becomes one of the representative among “the Bauhaus, The magic mountain, Professor Heideggot and Dr. Strangelove” when we talk about the Weimar culture.
It tells a story of a hypnotist named Caligari who conduct murder by his somnambulist Cesare through a mad man’s imagination. The film has strong Expressionistic style in term of its mise-en-scene which including film set, lighting and character make-ups. The book by Kracauer. Siegfried, (1947), From Caligari to Hitler, is highly valued for the subsequent research and critiques together withThe haunted screen (Eisner. H. Lotte, 1952).
German cinema has been judged with the assumptions of its political and ideological purpose after the World War I, those assumptions are seen as “part of the separate development into modernity” and the primary researches based on those assumptions are attacked by their attempt of isolating the film from its original context by Elsaesser (1996). In Kracauer’s study,
Mise-en-scene, Aesthetic function and symbolic content
Originally from the French term, “mise-en-scene” which means “staging an action” (Bordwell. D & Thompson. K, 1993), plays a very important role in the film history. It is the impressions and memories of the film, the certain details and scene which catch the audience. When extending the notion, it applied to the overall control of the director on the film frame.
“Metaphysics of decor”
The two original scriptwriter (Hans Janowits and Carl Mayer) brought up the idea of using canvases and draperies to set up the basic atmosphere for the Caligari movie and to create jagged, sharp-pointed patterns to illustrate the reminiscent and gothic feelings. Afred Kubin who was also from Prague same as Janowits was chosen to do the setting commission initially. Although Wiene agreed on the setting arrangement but preferred the other three architects to the target artist Afred Kubin.
Afred Kubin was first known as the illustrator of his own fantastic novel Die andere Seite (The other side) in 1912. According to Lothar Lang (1976), Kubin can not be considered as an Expressionist artist at all, despite the fact that many historians treated him as one and most of the time believed he was an Expressionist artist who stood outside of the mainstream. In Kubin’s illustration, even though he was talented to catch those gloom nightmare-feelings (Eisner H L, 1953), there are more fine and concentrated lines, which separate him from the most of the Expressionist illustrators who are used to speedy, energetic and scratchy painting styles. As matter of fact he is more a Surrealistic than an Expressionist artist. But in The haunted screen, Eisner clearly expressed her feelings of pity about the absence of Kubin in this film.
On the other hand, the three architects Hermann Warm, Walter Rohrig and Walter Reimann are both belongs to the Berlin Sturm Group which promote Expressionism in almost every aspect of arts. (Kracauer. S, 1947) In Bergfelder’s book Film architecture and the transnational imagination (2007), to address the significant impact of the film set to the development of German cinema, he quotes Paul Rotha and Henry Langlois’s words as seeing the “metaphysics of decor” as the “secret of German cinema”. According to Kurtz, the only way to transfer a film to art work is through the design of the set by the director, and it is only in this way, the film can have its “soul”.
Figure 2, Architectural sketch by Walter Reimann, (Photo taken by author in Film museum, Frankfurt)
They created disharmony light and shadows together with the buildings of a zigzag outline. It is almost impossible to distinguish any directions from this kind of setting. (Kracauer. S, 1947) “Films must be drawings brought to life.” based on Hermann Warm’s words which also represent his belief, they built a world with canvases materials and painting elements. In this “Stereoscopic universe”, the space are presented in flat, the design of background successfully transferred those materials into ornaments which are full of emotions.
There are also criticise about the settings in Caligari are being too “flat”. In Eisner’s book The haunted screen (1952), she disapproved the comments of the “flat” film set and mentioned that the depth of the setting comes from “the deliberately distorted perspectives” and the “slanting streets”. Indeed the painting and printing for the background cannot be considered as “flat” when they are producing three-dimensional effect by using oblique and inclined objects such as the window of the house and the steep path.
In addition, the cost reason and the intention to start new experiment made the final decision goes to Hermann Warm, Walter Rohrig and Walter Reimann.
From “the secret of German cinema” to the “German soul”
In Passion and rebellion (Bronner. E. S and Kellner. D， 1983), Lenny Rubenstein admitted that some parts of the movie of Caligari is almost primitive to the new age and the gestures and make-ups of characters are archaic and dramatic. But he also addressed that it is the comic gesture and dramatic flat back settings make the film appealing, and most importantly, shows the inner emotions of the characters so that the whole film becomes symbolic and emotional. For instance, when it comes to the scene of Francis(one of the protagonists as a thinker) chasing Dr. Caligari to the lunatic asylum, the star-shaped pattern in the middle of the yard floor with sharp pointed horn represent the character’s lost heart and the missed direction. Also in the episode of the death of the town clerk who is the first victim of the murderous activity of Caligari and his tool Cesare, when the policeman gathered in the dead clerk’s room, one of the sharp triangle’s edge is directly point to the direction of the crime scene, which is also the dead clerk’s bed. For this special pattern appeared in this scene, it forced the audiences’ concentration to the clerk’s bed and the crowd around the crime scene and also create a kind of nervous and stressful horror. Rudolf Kurtz also pointed out in Expressionist and film (1926), that the physical reactions and emotional experiences for using straight lines and curved lines are completely different for the observer or audience, the meaning of the slanting lines in the film are metaphysical. Additionally, when it comes to the nature of German language for explanation, the objects normally have quite active life as same as human being in terms of their same adjectives and verbs. The same emotions can be evoked both from human beings and objects.
It is quite common for the viewers to judge a film by evaluating if the film is “realistic” in terms of the set and character’s behaviour back at that time. The using of studio-based and somehow non-realistic film setting is considerably crucial for the success of several films, for instance, the Mermaid of Geoges. Melies. In which film, it is only possible to build an undersea world by arranging the scene inside the studio with certain techniques. Too much focus on “realism” about film can blind us and therefore prevent us from the exploring of the film setting possibilities. (Bordwell. D & Thompson. K, 1993)
The special German cinema’s studio-based and non-realistic setting in Caligari particularly, in Kracauser’s point of view, represent some kind of regression act for the Germany nationally. He used the term “retreat into the shell” (the national act of regression after the first world war) as a description of this retreat act of Germany three times in his book From Caligari to Hiter to emphasize his point. However, the definition of “realism” is largely depends on the matter of rigion and time. For instance, Willian.S.Hart’s Westerns are seen as “realistic” for American critics in 1910s but considered to be “artificial” in France at 1920s. “What strikes us as realistic today may well seem highly stylized to future audiences.” According to Bordwell and Thompson, when simply define a film to be realistic or not, we should not forget to consider the time and generation issues. As for the subsequent studies and critics about the Caligari film, it is not completely reliable to discuss the content without considering the time and society situation. In Kracauer’s point when seeing the dramatic and non-realistic set in the film as a sign of “regression”, it is necessary think about the context.
Another question which has been bought up in Bergfelder’s book, the fact that the techniques and approaches are widely influenced Europe and Hollywood movie from the mid-1920s is a situation which cannot be explained with the conception that the Expressionist set design and approaches are introspective and exclusive in Germany. Even more, the film set team seems like the most portable work force throughout Europe. Also, similar critiques are brought up in the book Light motives by Halle and McCarthy. When they questioning Kracauer’s research which links the film with sociology and psychology studies, two main factors which involves international issues are emerged to argue with his research in terms of his methodology and strategies. With agreeing the massive influence of the German cinema by other countries and the context of German cinema cannot be understood without researches on the French and American cinemas, they also indicate a problem which is that during the gold time of German cinema, it is considered to be a highly commercial global market to the cinema industry. “The somber expressionistic style of Caligari is perhaps more the product of sober business calculations than an emanation of the tortured ‘German soul’”. (Halle and McCarthy, 2003) So the emergence of the film Caligari can be highly effected and sponsored by the motivation of the new international film market which rapidly grows in the 19 century. Quote from Hermann Warm, that “film, at least commercial film, are forced to answer to mass desire.”
Costume and make-ups: from Cesare’s eyes to authority
Costume and make-ups in a film are functional as much as the settings. When the setting is used to focus on backgrounds, costume and make-ups are applied to the human figures. In the scene of The cabinet of Dr. Caligari when the somnambulist Cesare who wears black kidnapped the white nightgown woman, the contrast of colour of their costume build a similar style and notion as its film set.
The characters with strong Expressionist style and their symbolic meaning are pointed to the original purpose, or motivation of Caligari. Due to the fact that Janowits and Mayer’s encounter at their earlier time, when they are similarly abused by the society and its authority, mentally or physically. For instance, the high and slim stool which the town clerk sit on when Dr.Caligari was asking the permission to attend he fair, it is the symbol of authority without doubt. The unfriendly attitude of the clerk as a represent of authority is the reason he becomes the first victim of Caligari’s murder crime, and that is seen as a sign of rebellion to the authority. (Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, 1983) According to Kracauer, it is their shadowed and damped former experience make them have the primitive idea of this film. When Janowits witness the crime which happened in a fair, the image of the fair stuck in him mind as a stamp of horror, which also becomes the main setting in the whole film and the most important place for the introduction of Dr.Caligari and one of his base area. At the same time, the suicide of his father made Mayer went through a dark period as he also have to take the burden of life. When the two young men finally met, their stories and thoughts “evoke and supplement each other”.
Figure 3,Dr. Caligari and Cesare, (www.shocktillyoudrop.com)
The character of Caligari is a typical “academic-gone-mad” (Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, 1983) with his tousy white hair and caped-cloak. He is the master of unlimited power and the controller of his weapon Cesare. The gesture and the appearance of Caligari embodied the authority and tyranny, he represent the “lust for domination, ruthlessly violates all human rights and value”. (Kracauer. Siegfried, 1947) On the other hand, Cesare as the weapon of his murder action, also can be seen as an innocent victim of Caligari, is a symbol of a normal man who controlled by the authority to conduct killing. The relationship between the master, Dr.Caligari, and the puppet, Cesare, is reverted to the German people’s relationship with the German war government system, the image was applied to the German people after the first world war (Nachkrieg). (Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, 1983)
Kracauer try to illustrate the tremendous effect of the whole society at that time to the scriptwriters’ later film work, therefore to demonstrate his theory and support his opinion about the inner political meaning of this film, as Janowits also admit that the half purpose of this film is to stigmatize the authority and the German government. In Kracauer’s book From Caligari to Hitler, he tried to analyse the film to explain the mass base of Fascism in Germany by putting the content into a sociology and psychological study. The character of Caligari itself are pointed out as a “premonition of Hitler” by him, the same as he believe that the character of the schoolboy in The blue angel as “born Hitler young”. (Dietrich S, 2003)
Even though the study of Kracauer about the Caligari film is still significant when studying Weimar cinema and German film culture, but the tautological and “self-fulfilling conspiracy theory” (Elsaesser.T, 2000) which trying to explain the emerge of Fascism in Germany by analyse the whole German people’s psyche through a rather narrative study based on one-sided investigate of the Weimar cinema.
Lighting
“No component of mise-en-scene is more important than ‘the drama and adventure of light’”. As the comments of the light element being made in Film art: an introduction, the using of light is seen as an efficient and useful tool for the director to take the overall control of film. When it comes to the shadow, according to the book, there are basically two types of shadows: attached shadow and cast shadow. The attached shadow shows the object’s shape and features when the cast shadow project the object’s shadow on other subjects, like a wall for instance. The cast shadow are used in the film Caligari to tell a story of a murder. When Cesare his commit murder to Alan, the real scene of a man being stabbed have not been present to the audience, instead, the horror was transmitted through the reflection (cast shadow) which being generated on the wall. Also the direction of the light plays an important role in the film Caligari. The use of underlighting to the characters (especially Cesare) creates a dramatic horror feeling to the audience when trying to distort the character’s face features.
The contrast of black and white relies heavily on the light effect which highlights certain objects and manipulate the audience’s attention. Through changing the tones slightly from black, white and grey, the focus of audiences can be emphasized and also switched. However the high-contrast setting of background also create a feeling of light and shadow, sometimes can reduce the supposed effect of the real lighting set. For instance when Dr.Caligai appeared as the director of this lunatic asylum, his position among the paralleled stairs clearly states his statue in the asylum by create a star shaped pattern on the floor which radiated from centre where exactly where Caligari stands. The purpose of the shaped pattern in black and white is to focus attentions to the position of actor, which has a similar effect as using light contrast in this situation to outline the character.
“Framing story”-reality or a madman’s fantasy
Out of the original scriptwriters’ expect, Weine decided to build a “framing story” to actually introduce Francis as a mad man and expand the whole story as the story of this mad man. This attempt is contradict to the intention of Janowits and Mayer who would like to present a “real horror” instead of a “mad man’s story” according to Kracauer.
In the film, Weine used the first two episodes to introduce the mad man-Francis sitting on a bench telling another man of his story, after a female whom Francis claimed is his fiancé, the real main scene was ready to unfold. However this setting, according to Kracauer, reduced the perceived effect of the rebellion of society which Janowits and Mayer initially want to highlight in the film. It was Fritz Lang, who had been chosen to be the director of Caligari film at the first beginning. However it was because of his fully engagement of another film (Die spinnen) back at the time that the commission went to Wiene. Lang suggested to the production team that the usage of “framing-treatment” can effectively reduce the feeling of horror and uncomfortableness to the audience in some film like Caligari.
The way of adding a “bracket” to the story indeed affect the reliability of the story and therefore reduced the feeling of horror, it was said in the From Caligari to Hitler that the exist of “framing story” not only reduced the intensity when depicting the madness, but also performed badly when conveying the revolutionary messages from the scriptwriters. However, the function of this method is clearly not that simple.
Eisner (1952) see the end period of the film, when the scene goes back to the first begin of prologue, as “a lack of continuity”. At the concluding episode of the film, the frame comes to an end and the “bracket” is over, the story goes back to the beginning when a madman is telling his fantasy to the other person. However, the dramatic and metaphysical setting is not over. In Eisner’s opinion, it is the sign of lack of consistency of the film’s expressionist style, as she states “the facade of the asylum is not distorted, yet the end of the film is seen in the same weird decor.” Before Eisner, Kracuser asked the question about “what function did it (the framing) really assume” in his book From Caligari to Hitler. With his disagreement of the most common opinion back at that time of the using of “framing” which indicate that there is nothing more in the function of “framing” apart from depicting a madman’s fantasy, Kracauer pointed out that the technique still values both symbolically and aesthetically.
The lack of continuity (Eisner, 1952) is seen by Kracauer as reinforce of horror, with confliction. Since the fact that the weird decor still exist even at the end of the frame when normally the audience expecting the revival of reality, it shows a real panic feeling. The confliction of narration and the frame generated a mysterious uncertainty of the result about who is the mad one, Caligari as the director, or Francis as a patient. (Isenberg. N, 2009) “All of you think I am mad, that’s not true, it is the director who is mad!” The words from Francis left an open question to the audience, is it a story about a mad man who believes the director of the lunatic asylum is the evil Dr. Caligari, or is it the mad scientist who pretend to be a director to take control of an innocent man and try to cover his crime? At the same time, as the sentence he highlighted many times in his book, Kracauer believes the “framing” represent the regression act of Germany after war. He quotes Hauptmann’s point to indicate that the use of frame has the function of “characterizing the phenomena on the screen as phenomena of the soul”. The “bracket” of the story is seen as the “shell” in his words to describe this phenomena as “retreat into shell” for the Germany.
Figure 4, German veterans of the First World War, (Old magazine article, http://oldmagazinearticles.com/magazine-articles/world_war_one_/aftermath)
When Kracauer judging the change of adding frame to the story by Weine, saying “it perverted, if not reversed, their (Janowitz and Mayer) intrinsic intentions” which turned the film into a “conformist one”, Isenberg hens pointed out that the fact of Kracauer was over-influenced by a single manuscript by Janowitz “Caligari: the story of a famous story” (which had been disapproved later in 1976) to make this statement. In fact, there was already hints which existing in the film before Weine made his change about the frame to prove the possibility of Francis being a madman. For example, when Francis questioning his sanity when he realized in the lunatic asylum that the director and Caligari are the same person, he said:” I fell as if I myself had lost my mind”. (Isenberg.N, 2009)
Overall, in his study, Isenberg criticised Kracauer’s research for being narrow. Because of the fact that the study of Kracauer was generated during the World War II, the pressure of fighting Nazi Germany can possibly made Kracauer drew the conclusion to see Caligari as the “premonition” of Hitler.
The change of the original willing of attack the social authority of the scriptwriters are seen as the raising of rights for the director and producer. (Murray. B, 1990) The fear of the film’s fail to the public which possibly generated from the unsympathetic elements in the original script make Weine changed the arrangement in terms of the narrative and the setting designers. In the study of Isenberg. Noah about the Weimar cinema (2009), he questioned the relationship between the film setting artists (Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Rohrig) and the journal: Der Sturm, which directly linked the artists to Expressionism. He believes that the main purpose of the film setting is out of commercial point by combining high art and mass culture to attract broader audience instead out of pure art purpose. This study also reinforces the notion which brought up in the end of “the secret of German cinema” to the “German soul” sector in this paper to disapprove Kracauer’s theory about the German cinema.
Reference
Lang. Lothar, (1976), Expressionist book illustration in Germany, Thames and Hudson Ltd: London
Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, (1983), Passion and rebellion: the expressionist heritage, Croom Helm Limited: London
Kracauer. Siegfried, (1947), From Caligari to Hitler, Princeton University press: New Jersey
Dietrich Scheunemann, (2003), Expressionist film-new perspectives, Camden house: London
Eisner. H. Lotte, (1952), The haunted screen, Le Terrain Vague: Paris
Bergfelder Tim, Harris Sue and Street Sarah, (2007), Film architecture and the transnational imagination, Amsterdam university press: Amsterdam
Rudolf Kurtz, (1926), Expressionist und film, Verlag der Lichtbildbüche: Berlin
Bordwell. David & Thompson. Kristin, (1993), Film art: an introduction, 4rd ed, McGraw-Hill, Inc: New York City.
Elsaesser. Thomas, (1996), A second life: German cinema’s first decades, 2rded, Amsterdam university press: Amsterdam
Murry. Bruce, (1990), Film and the German left in Weimar republic, University of Texas press: Texas
Isenberg. Noah, (2009), Weimar cinema, Columbia university press: Columbia
jl6g14@soton.ac.uk
Abstract
The “golden age” of the German cinema begins at 1920s as the rising of the Expressionist film which also influenced by the art and literature of Expressionism in Germany, Scandinavia and America. The most important and most known one is The cabinet of Dr.Caligari directed by Robert Weine. It has been seen as the beginning of the Weimar cinema and also generated lots of discussions and researches by the scholars afterwards. From Caligari to Hitler is considered to be the most valued study about the film written by Kracauer. Siegfried in 1947. The study viewed the content of film from a perspective of sociology and psychology, it’s trying to identify the national issue in Germany back at that time through analyse German people’s mind through the film. In many of the subsequent studies which hold different opinions with Kracauer, The haunted screen by Eisner holds an almost equal value as Kracauer’s book. The essay will mainly based on those two studies to discuss Kracuer’s view through assessing different factors of mise-en-scene inside the film.
 |
Content
Abstract…………………………………………………………………..……….01
Content……………………………………………………………………………02
Introduction………………………………………………………………….……03
Mise-en-scene, Aesthetic function and symbolic context……………….…..03
“Metaphysics of decor”………………………………………….………...….…04
From “the secret of German cinema” to the “German soul”…………………06
Costume and make-ups: from Cesare’s eyes to authority……………..……09
Lighting…………………………………………….………………………………11
“Framing story”-reality or a madman’s fantasy………………..………………13
Reference…………………………………………………………………………16
Introduction
The so-called “golden age” of the Expressionist films in German cinema makes the Expressionist becomes synonymous with the Weimar cinema. It becomes one of the representative among “the Bauhaus, The magic mountain, Professor Heideggot and Dr. Strangelove” when we talk about the Weimar culture.
It tells a story of a hypnotist named Caligari who conduct murder by his somnambulist Cesare through a mad man’s imagination. The film has strong Expressionistic style in term of its mise-en-scene which including film set, lighting and character make-ups. The book by Kracauer. Siegfried, (1947), From Caligari to Hitler, is highly valued for the subsequent research and critiques together withThe haunted screen (Eisner. H. Lotte, 1952).
German cinema has been judged with the assumptions of its political and ideological purpose after the World War I, those assumptions are seen as “part of the separate development into modernity” and the primary researches based on those assumptions are attacked by their attempt of isolating the film from its original context by Elsaesser (1996). In Kracauer’s study,
Mise-en-scene, Aesthetic function and symbolic content
Originally from the French term, “mise-en-scene” which means “staging an action” (Bordwell. D & Thompson. K, 1993), plays a very important role in the film history. It is the impressions and memories of the film, the certain details and scene which catch the audience. When extending the notion, it applied to the overall control of the director on the film frame.
“Metaphysics of decor”
The two original scriptwriter (Hans Janowits and Carl Mayer) brought up the idea of using canvases and draperies to set up the basic atmosphere for the Caligari movie and to create jagged, sharp-pointed patterns to illustrate the reminiscent and gothic feelings. Afred Kubin who was also from Prague same as Janowits was chosen to do the setting commission initially. Although Wiene agreed on the setting arrangement but preferred the other three architects to the target artist Afred Kubin.
Afred Kubin was first known as the illustrator of his own fantastic novel Die andere Seite (The other side) in 1912. According to Lothar Lang (1976), Kubin can not be considered as an Expressionist artist at all, despite the fact that many historians treated him as one and most of the time believed he was an Expressionist artist who stood outside of the mainstream. In Kubin’s illustration, even though he was talented to catch those gloom nightmare-feelings (Eisner H L, 1953), there are more fine and concentrated lines, which separate him from the most of the Expressionist illustrators who are used to speedy, energetic and scratchy painting styles. As matter of fact he is more a Surrealistic than an Expressionist artist. But in The haunted screen, Eisner clearly expressed her feelings of pity about the absence of Kubin in this film.
On the other hand, the three architects Hermann Warm, Walter Rohrig and Walter Reimann are both belongs to the Berlin Sturm Group which promote Expressionism in almost every aspect of arts. (Kracauer. S, 1947) In Bergfelder’s book Film architecture and the transnational imagination (2007), to address the significant impact of the film set to the development of German cinema, he quotes Paul Rotha and Henry Langlois’s words as seeing the “metaphysics of decor” as the “secret of German cinema”. According to Kurtz, the only way to transfer a film to art work is through the design of the set by the director, and it is only in this way, the film can have its “soul”.
 |
 |
Figure 2, Architectural sketch by Walter Reimann, (Photo taken by author in Film museum, Frankfurt)
They created disharmony light and shadows together with the buildings of a zigzag outline. It is almost impossible to distinguish any directions from this kind of setting. (Kracauer. S, 1947) “Films must be drawings brought to life.” based on Hermann Warm’s words which also represent his belief, they built a world with canvases materials and painting elements. In this “Stereoscopic universe”, the space are presented in flat, the design of background successfully transferred those materials into ornaments which are full of emotions.
There are also criticise about the settings in Caligari are being too “flat”. In Eisner’s book The haunted screen (1952), she disapproved the comments of the “flat” film set and mentioned that the depth of the setting comes from “the deliberately distorted perspectives” and the “slanting streets”. Indeed the painting and printing for the background cannot be considered as “flat” when they are producing three-dimensional effect by using oblique and inclined objects such as the window of the house and the steep path.
In addition, the cost reason and the intention to start new experiment made the final decision goes to Hermann Warm, Walter Rohrig and Walter Reimann.
From “the secret of German cinema” to the “German soul”
In Passion and rebellion (Bronner. E. S and Kellner. D， 1983), Lenny Rubenstein admitted that some parts of the movie of Caligari is almost primitive to the new age and the gestures and make-ups of characters are archaic and dramatic. But he also addressed that it is the comic gesture and dramatic flat back settings make the film appealing, and most importantly, shows the inner emotions of the characters so that the whole film becomes symbolic and emotional. For instance, when it comes to the scene of Francis(one of the protagonists as a thinker) chasing Dr. Caligari to the lunatic asylum, the star-shaped pattern in the middle of the yard floor with sharp pointed horn represent the character’s lost heart and the missed direction. Also in the episode of the death of the town clerk who is the first victim of the murderous activity of Caligari and his tool Cesare, when the policeman gathered in the dead clerk’s room, one of the sharp triangle’s edge is directly point to the direction of the crime scene, which is also the dead clerk’s bed. For this special pattern appeared in this scene, it forced the audiences’ concentration to the clerk’s bed and the crowd around the crime scene and also create a kind of nervous and stressful horror. Rudolf Kurtz also pointed out in Expressionist and film (1926), that the physical reactions and emotional experiences for using straight lines and curved lines are completely different for the observer or audience, the meaning of the slanting lines in the film are metaphysical. Additionally, when it comes to the nature of German language for explanation, the objects normally have quite active life as same as human being in terms of their same adjectives and verbs. The same emotions can be evoked both from human beings and objects.
It is quite common for the viewers to judge a film by evaluating if the film is “realistic” in terms of the set and character’s behaviour back at that time. The using of studio-based and somehow non-realistic film setting is considerably crucial for the success of several films, for instance, the Mermaid of Geoges. Melies. In which film, it is only possible to build an undersea world by arranging the scene inside the studio with certain techniques. Too much focus on “realism” about film can blind us and therefore prevent us from the exploring of the film setting possibilities. (Bordwell. D & Thompson. K, 1993)
The special German cinema’s studio-based and non-realistic setting in Caligari particularly, in Kracauser’s point of view, represent some kind of regression act for the Germany nationally. He used the term “retreat into the shell” (the national act of regression after the first world war) as a description of this retreat act of Germany three times in his book From Caligari to Hiter to emphasize his point. However, the definition of “realism” is largely depends on the matter of rigion and time. For instance, Willian.S.Hart’s Westerns are seen as “realistic” for American critics in 1910s but considered to be “artificial” in France at 1920s. “What strikes us as realistic today may well seem highly stylized to future audiences.” According to Bordwell and Thompson, when simply define a film to be realistic or not, we should not forget to consider the time and generation issues. As for the subsequent studies and critics about the Caligari film, it is not completely reliable to discuss the content without considering the time and society situation. In Kracauer’s point when seeing the dramatic and non-realistic set in the film as a sign of “regression”, it is necessary think about the context.
Another question which has been bought up in Bergfelder’s book, the fact that the techniques and approaches are widely influenced Europe and Hollywood movie from the mid-1920s is a situation which cannot be explained with the conception that the Expressionist set design and approaches are introspective and exclusive in Germany. Even more, the film set team seems like the most portable work force throughout Europe. Also, similar critiques are brought up in the book Light motives by Halle and McCarthy. When they questioning Kracauer’s research which links the film with sociology and psychology studies, two main factors which involves international issues are emerged to argue with his research in terms of his methodology and strategies. With agreeing the massive influence of the German cinema by other countries and the context of German cinema cannot be understood without researches on the French and American cinemas, they also indicate a problem which is that during the gold time of German cinema, it is considered to be a highly commercial global market to the cinema industry. “The somber expressionistic style of Caligari is perhaps more the product of sober business calculations than an emanation of the tortured ‘German soul’”. (Halle and McCarthy, 2003) So the emergence of the film Caligari can be highly effected and sponsored by the motivation of the new international film market which rapidly grows in the 19 century. Quote from Hermann Warm, that “film, at least commercial film, are forced to answer to mass desire.”
Costume and make-ups: from Cesare’s eyes to authority
Costume and make-ups in a film are functional as much as the settings. When the setting is used to focus on backgrounds, costume and make-ups are applied to the human figures. In the scene of The cabinet of Dr. Caligari when the somnambulist Cesare who wears black kidnapped the white nightgown woman, the contrast of colour of their costume build a similar style and notion as its film set.
The characters with strong Expressionist style and their symbolic meaning are pointed to the original purpose, or motivation of Caligari. Due to the fact that Janowits and Mayer’s encounter at their earlier time, when they are similarly abused by the society and its authority, mentally or physically. For instance, the high and slim stool which the town clerk sit on when Dr.Caligari was asking the permission to attend he fair, it is the symbol of authority without doubt. The unfriendly attitude of the clerk as a represent of authority is the reason he becomes the first victim of Caligari’s murder crime, and that is seen as a sign of rebellion to the authority. (Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, 1983) According to Kracauer, it is their shadowed and damped former experience make them have the primitive idea of this film. When Janowits witness the crime which happened in a fair, the image of the fair stuck in him mind as a stamp of horror, which also becomes the main setting in the whole film and the most important place for the introduction of Dr.Caligari and one of his base area. At the same time, the suicide of his father made Mayer went through a dark period as he also have to take the burden of life. When the two young men finally met, their stories and thoughts “evoke and supplement each other”.
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Figure 3,Dr. Caligari and Cesare, (www.shocktillyoudrop.com)
The character of Caligari is a typical “academic-gone-mad” (Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, 1983) with his tousy white hair and caped-cloak. He is the master of unlimited power and the controller of his weapon Cesare. The gesture and the appearance of Caligari embodied the authority and tyranny, he represent the “lust for domination, ruthlessly violates all human rights and value”. (Kracauer. Siegfried, 1947) On the other hand, Cesare as the weapon of his murder action, also can be seen as an innocent victim of Caligari, is a symbol of a normal man who controlled by the authority to conduct killing. The relationship between the master, Dr.Caligari, and the puppet, Cesare, is reverted to the German people’s relationship with the German war government system, the image was applied to the German people after the first world war (Nachkrieg). (Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, 1983)
Kracauer try to illustrate the tremendous effect of the whole society at that time to the scriptwriters’ later film work, therefore to demonstrate his theory and support his opinion about the inner political meaning of this film, as Janowits also admit that the half purpose of this film is to stigmatize the authority and the German government. In Kracauer’s book From Caligari to Hitler, he tried to analyse the film to explain the mass base of Fascism in Germany by putting the content into a sociology and psychological study. The character of Caligari itself are pointed out as a “premonition of Hitler” by him, the same as he believe that the character of the schoolboy in The blue angel as “born Hitler young”. (Dietrich S, 2003)
Even though the study of Kracauer about the Caligari film is still significant when studying Weimar cinema and German film culture, but the tautological and “self-fulfilling conspiracy theory” (Elsaesser.T, 2000) which trying to explain the emerge of Fascism in Germany by analyse the whole German people’s psyche through a rather narrative study based on one-sided investigate of the Weimar cinema.
Lighting
“No component of mise-en-scene is more important than ‘the drama and adventure of light’”. As the comments of the light element being made in Film art: an introduction, the using of light is seen as an efficient and useful tool for the director to take the overall control of film. When it comes to the shadow, according to the book, there are basically two types of shadows: attached shadow and cast shadow. The attached shadow shows the object’s shape and features when the cast shadow project the object’s shadow on other subjects, like a wall for instance. The cast shadow are used in the film Caligari to tell a story of a murder. When Cesare his commit murder to Alan, the real scene of a man being stabbed have not been present to the audience, instead, the horror was transmitted through the reflection (cast shadow) which being generated on the wall. Also the direction of the light plays an important role in the film Caligari. The use of underlighting to the characters (especially Cesare) creates a dramatic horror feeling to the audience when trying to distort the character’s face features.
The contrast of black and white relies heavily on the light effect which highlights certain objects and manipulate the audience’s attention. Through changing the tones slightly from black, white and grey, the focus of audiences can be emphasized and also switched. However the high-contrast setting of background also create a feeling of light and shadow, sometimes can reduce the supposed effect of the real lighting set. For instance when Dr.Caligai appeared as the director of this lunatic asylum, his position among the paralleled stairs clearly states his statue in the asylum by create a star shaped pattern on the floor which radiated from centre where exactly where Caligari stands. The purpose of the shaped pattern in black and white is to focus attentions to the position of actor, which has a similar effect as using light contrast in this situation to outline the character.
“Framing story”-reality or a madman’s fantasy
Out of the original scriptwriters’ expect, Weine decided to build a “framing story” to actually introduce Francis as a mad man and expand the whole story as the story of this mad man. This attempt is contradict to the intention of Janowits and Mayer who would like to present a “real horror” instead of a “mad man’s story” according to Kracauer.
In the film, Weine used the first two episodes to introduce the mad man-Francis sitting on a bench telling another man of his story, after a female whom Francis claimed is his fiancé, the real main scene was ready to unfold. However this setting, according to Kracauer, reduced the perceived effect of the rebellion of society which Janowits and Mayer initially want to highlight in the film. It was Fritz Lang, who had been chosen to be the director of Caligari film at the first beginning. However it was because of his fully engagement of another film (Die spinnen) back at the time that the commission went to Wiene. Lang suggested to the production team that the usage of “framing-treatment” can effectively reduce the feeling of horror and uncomfortableness to the audience in some film like Caligari.
The way of adding a “bracket” to the story indeed affect the reliability of the story and therefore reduced the feeling of horror, it was said in the From Caligari to Hitler that the exist of “framing story” not only reduced the intensity when depicting the madness, but also performed badly when conveying the revolutionary messages from the scriptwriters. However, the function of this method is clearly not that simple.
Eisner (1952) see the end period of the film, when the scene goes back to the first begin of prologue, as “a lack of continuity”. At the concluding episode of the film, the frame comes to an end and the “bracket” is over, the story goes back to the beginning when a madman is telling his fantasy to the other person. However, the dramatic and metaphysical setting is not over. In Eisner’s opinion, it is the sign of lack of consistency of the film’s expressionist style, as she states “the facade of the asylum is not distorted, yet the end of the film is seen in the same weird decor.” Before Eisner, Kracuser asked the question about “what function did it (the framing) really assume” in his book From Caligari to Hitler. With his disagreement of the most common opinion back at that time of the using of “framing” which indicate that there is nothing more in the function of “framing” apart from depicting a madman’s fantasy, Kracauer pointed out that the technique still values both symbolically and aesthetically.
The lack of continuity (Eisner, 1952) is seen by Kracauer as reinforce of horror, with confliction. Since the fact that the weird decor still exist even at the end of the frame when normally the audience expecting the revival of reality, it shows a real panic feeling. The confliction of narration and the frame generated a mysterious uncertainty of the result about who is the mad one, Caligari as the director, or Francis as a patient. (Isenberg. N, 2009) “All of you think I am mad, that’s not true, it is the director who is mad!” The words from Francis left an open question to the audience, is it a story about a mad man who believes the director of the lunatic asylum is the evil Dr. Caligari, or is it the mad scientist who pretend to be a director to take control of an innocent man and try to cover his crime? At the same time, as the sentence he highlighted many times in his book, Kracauer believes the “framing” represent the regression act of Germany after war. He quotes Hauptmann’s point to indicate that the use of frame has the function of “characterizing the phenomena on the screen as phenomena of the soul”. The “bracket” of the story is seen as the “shell” in his words to describe this phenomena as “retreat into shell” for the Germany.
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Figure 4, German veterans of the First World War, (Old magazine article, http://oldmagazinearticles.com/magazine-articles/world_war_one_/aftermath)
When Kracauer judging the change of adding frame to the story by Weine, saying “it perverted, if not reversed, their (Janowitz and Mayer) intrinsic intentions” which turned the film into a “conformist one”, Isenberg hens pointed out that the fact of Kracauer was over-influenced by a single manuscript by Janowitz “Caligari: the story of a famous story” (which had been disapproved later in 1976) to make this statement. In fact, there was already hints which existing in the film before Weine made his change about the frame to prove the possibility of Francis being a madman. For example, when Francis questioning his sanity when he realized in the lunatic asylum that the director and Caligari are the same person, he said:” I fell as if I myself had lost my mind”. (Isenberg.N, 2009)
Overall, in his study, Isenberg criticised Kracauer’s research for being narrow. Because of the fact that the study of Kracauer was generated during the World War II, the pressure of fighting Nazi Germany can possibly made Kracauer drew the conclusion to see Caligari as the “premonition” of Hitler.
The change of the original willing of attack the social authority of the scriptwriters are seen as the raising of rights for the director and producer. (Murray. B, 1990) The fear of the film’s fail to the public which possibly generated from the unsympathetic elements in the original script make Weine changed the arrangement in terms of the narrative and the setting designers. In the study of Isenberg. Noah about the Weimar cinema (2009), he questioned the relationship between the film setting artists (Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Rohrig) and the journal: Der Sturm, which directly linked the artists to Expressionism. He believes that the main purpose of the film setting is out of commercial point by combining high art and mass culture to attract broader audience instead out of pure art purpose. This study also reinforces the notion which brought up in the end of “the secret of German cinema” to the “German soul” sector in this paper to disapprove Kracauer’s theory about the German cinema.
Reference
Lang. Lothar, (1976), Expressionist book illustration in Germany, Thames and Hudson Ltd: London
Bronner. E.S and Kellner. D, (1983), Passion and rebellion: the expressionist heritage, Croom Helm Limited: London
Kracauer. Siegfried, (1947), From Caligari to Hitler, Princeton University press: New Jersey
Dietrich Scheunemann, (2003), Expressionist film-new perspectives, Camden house: London
Eisner. H. Lotte, (1952), The haunted screen, Le Terrain Vague: Paris
Bergfelder Tim, Harris Sue and Street Sarah, (2007), Film architecture and the transnational imagination, Amsterdam university press: Amsterdam
Rudolf Kurtz, (1926), Expressionist und film, Verlag der Lichtbildbüche: Berlin
Bordwell. David & Thompson. Kristin, (1993), Film art: an introduction, 4rd ed, McGraw-Hill, Inc: New York City.
Elsaesser. Thomas, (1996), A second life: German cinema’s first decades, 2rded, Amsterdam university press: Amsterdam
Murry. Bruce, (1990), Film and the German left in Weimar republic, University of Texas press: Texas
Isenberg. Noah, (2009), Weimar cinema, Columbia university press: Columbia
金鱼 Jin
(London, United Kingdom)
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