Analysing "The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari"

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, also known as Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari, was one of the first signs of film making in the 1920's. This film, directed by Robert Weine, began the very first traditional horror conventions that are used all the time. Many horror films that are produced in the modern world today use many if not all of the horror conventions that were first experimented in 1920's hit, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

The first recognisable horror convention used in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the NARRATIVE of the film. The main narrative is of a psychologist, Dr. Caligari, who has found out how to hypnotise a somnambulist (sleepwalker), Cesare, to carry our evil deeds for him. This narrative can be classed under the sub-genre of Psychological Horror because of the themes that run through the fifty minute film of mind control, mental illness, and evil crimes. Psychological Horror is a sub-genre that is very popular today in horror films such as Paranormal Activity and The Shining. Psychological Horror plays with the audience's minds and let's their minds play a big part of how the narrative will digest and cary on in their minds.

 

Also linking with the narrative, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was the first film to experiment with an ANTI-CLIMAX TWIST at the end. An anti-climax twist is bascially a twist in the narrative; something happens in the narrative that was unexpected. The Anti-Climax Twist in The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari was that ....

 

The CAMERA WORK within The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari was very important as it was also the first film to make use of the unusual Dutch Angle Shot. The Dutch Angle Shot is where the camera has been tilted at an angle so that the horizon of the shot is no longer horizontal to the bottom of the screen but slanted to the bottom of the screen. This shot is used to create an atmosphere of the unusual and imbalanced feeling of a scene.

 

The MISE EN SCENE was also very important in The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari as German Expressionism was used throughout the film. German Expressionism is the exageration of the props and set of the scene which reflects on the particular scene's atmosphere and feeling.