Case of Visuals: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The first thing mainly comes to mind in the case of German expressionism, especially during the time of the Weimar Republic, is through the visuals. A lot of the visuals seen from this era are very abstract and for some, quite bizarre. One of these films that widely known for these quite odd and interesting visuals is the film by Robert Wiene, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Photograph of Dr. Caligari's monster from the film. Image Link

Released in 1920, the film is known as one of the first horror films to make the expressionist movements of the 1920s popular¹. What makes this film one of the more intriguing pieces of the decade and its overall design and specatcle however, in my opinion, is through the visuals themselves. Simply put, the visuals or by broader terms the set design are extremely abstract put also very intriguing to look at, largely being inspired by paintings during the time period². This also is backed up by points such as working with a larger space, and using big strokes and lines to frame the abstract visuals that these early films are quite known for³.

Scene of Dr. Caligari, walking through the alleyways of the town.
Image Link

 The inspiration of paintings is generally the largest reason as to why these films have these odd visuals is thanks in part to the paintings that largely inspired them. This is shown, as previously mentioned, from the expressionist movement itself. While the concept of German expressionism had existed before the Weimar ever existed, it largely rose in prominent during the time of around when Wiene's film was being produced. Lastly, many of these visual concepts are done in part to attempt to relay a sort of freedom from natural ideas that one may visualize of a certain idea like of an alleyway and distorts it to show a very intriguing visual effects, though it does limit in a certain regard the building of naturalist ideals that these films would rely on⁴. In conclusion, visuals play a very fine role in the the influences of the German expressionism, allowing for odd, but very interesting visuals that one can no doubt ever forget.

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1  J.P. Tolette, "German Expressionism", in Traditions in World Cinema. Linda Badley, Palmer, R. Barton, and Schneider, Steven Jay, eds. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005), 19.^↩

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2 Rudolf Kurtz, and Brenda Benthien. Expressionism and Film. Ed. Kiening Christian and Beil Ulrich Johannes. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2016, 54.^↩

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3  Ibid., 55.^↩

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4 Ibid., 52.^↩