The directors Influence On: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

I am going to write a short overview of the formalist film 'the cabinet of dr. caligari' and comment on the directors influence on the film. I will look at a number of features of the film, including camerawork,mis-en-scene, plot, sound and lighting.

A 1920s silent film directed by Robert Wiene. 'the cabinet of dr. caligari' was at the fronteir of the german expresionism movement and is one of the earliest and most influential films of this genre. Critics comment on how 'dr. caligari' has influenced the film noir genre and is known to be one of the earliest made horror films.

The plot follows the story of a deranged Doctor and his sleepwalking partner, they both are linked to a number of murders in a small german town. The story is told by a sequence of flashbacks from the perspective of francis.

The setting is mainly situated in a fair ground. The backdrop is almost sereal, the set is distorted and has a big part to play in contrubuting to a artistic formalist setting, which is displayed frequently throughout. Irregular shaped shadows and eerie manic music also adds to the insain atmosphere created by the director. The set director used techniques to create this mentalist set e.g. flat back drops and painted on shadows on the set walls.

The director Robert Wiene and writers Carl Mayer and Hanz Janowitz, lived in post world war one Germany, during a very unstable period when Adolf Hitler was atempting to secure control over germany. The writers of the plot were heavily influenced by there past experiences. Carl Mayer and Hanz Janowitz were working together to create the story to 'dr. caligari' and met in berlin, Mayer experienced sessions with a cycotic military pychiatrist after the war which he said influenced the character, dr. caligari. Janowitz also included personal experiences in the film, once when he left a fair ground he said he glimpsed a strange figure in the dark, the next day a woman was found dead near the same area. The film created a feeling of mystery and depression which related to the times they all lived in, it dealt with many important political issues in a diverse formalist way.

Film Influences

Howl’s Moving Castle

The imaginative creation by the renowned, Oscar winning director Hayao Miyazaki influenced my ideas for my animation. Colour is an important factor within the film, the contrast between dark and light shades create moods and feelings which I wish to re-create in my animation. I admired how simple the animation is in some parts but how effective it is. Also how they plant emotion and feelings in every character, particularly in facial expressions and body movement for example when Howl is depressed because of his appearance his whole body language slumps and his facial expressions darken. Also the story line is extremely imaginative and almost dreams like, which is what I want my film to reflect to the audience. The art is stunning; I want my film to illustrate this type of animation genre.

Class Formalist Film

As a class we have been studying the difference between formalism and realism. These are the dictionary definitions for both terms:

Formalism- A method of aesthetic analysis that emphasizes structural elements and artistic techniques rather than content, especially in literary works.

Realism-The representation in art or literature of objects, actions, or social conditions as they actually are, without idealization or presentation in abstract form.

After, we looked at the key features of both methods and were given the task in creating a formalist film. As a class we decided on the idea of 'walking a dog' and then developed the idea from there. I was given the job with lewis and imran to organize the camerawork. The rest of the class were sectioned into developing other aspects of the film including: sound, lighting, mise en scene and editing. together we decided on a wide range of different shots and angles to demonstrate different points of view to the audience and confirm the idea of formalism. 

• canted shot 
• worms eye view
• birds eye view
• wide shot 
• establishing 
• extreme close up

we included only a few of these shots during the filming as we only had a narrow stage to film on we included canted shot, worms eye view and close ups. Lewis was on the camera so i aided in the lighting side of the project, which i think was very successful in producing a formalist film. 

Having watched the rough cut i think the varied camera angles and shots contributed in producing a creepy formalist film. the most successful shots were the close ups which caught the overall theme of the film. When watching the film the audience are made to interpret it in their own personal way as the story line of 'walking a dog' is so abstract, this is a devise of the genre.