Caligari

 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is about an insane asylum patient thinking that his director is the mystic known as Dr. Caligari. The story starts off with the patient telling someone about how there was this mystic that moved into town with a sleepwalker by the name of Cesare. Basically they are involved with a bunch of Murders in the town and the main character Franzis is the one who tries to solve the case. In the end Caligari gets locked up but this is where the story ends. Franzis who was telling the story turns out to be an insane asylum patient and has accused the director of the asylum to be this mystic. So the whole story is just a big accusation made by Franzis. I think this film was able to do a good job of making us think we knew what happened within the story and then all of a sudden dropping a twist in the end. This reminded me of the cliche where some films and books use, for example: "it was all just a dream."

The film is told through a silent movie full of suspenseful music and also beautifully done artwork backgrounds. The film has somewhat a sense of being scary but I feel it mostly made me want to learn about the whole story and mystery of the movie. It glued me to my seat and made me watch the whole time because of the way it was able to use the word screens as a storytelling aspect. The set design made me think that during early films such as this one there was a lot of cartoonish and cheaper choices for sets. I think that even though these choices might seem way different compared to what we see now in cinema, they really complement the storytelling going on within these older films. Set designs have a huge role on movies because think about how much of the screen they take up. They have to be carefully thought of in order to create a certain mood for the film, because the audience notices it the most. This film in general I think had a huge role in the creation of the horror and mystery genre that is so popular in the modern day.

If I had to draw a similarity to a 20th century film that is close to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari then I would probably say The Boy. It is not exactly similar but I do get some of the same vibes and also the twist in the movie is also done well just like in Dr. Caligari. 

The narrating in this film was one of my favorite parts. It was so well done and I think one of the main reasons that I sat through the whole movie without pausing. I think when you have a bad narrator then it makes you confused and even mad at some points because you do not understand what is going on. When done well you really are able to grasp and tie the film together into something that makes you actually interested in the movie.