a great exploration

Kenny 2022-03-23 09:02:08

As a movie in the silent era, Caligari also follows some movie formulas, such as stage-like backgrounds, fixed camera positions, and dramatic acting skills, but it still seems to be very pioneering. Combining painting and film, use painting to draw the light and shadow relationship of the background, and use the brush to outline the shadows on their faces more sharply when shaping the terrifying villains. There are not many close-ups in the whole film. The most impressive sleepwalker, Caesar, woke up with a strange twitch on his face, as if his facial features were out of control, and the heavy eye shadow made him even more terrifying. It can be seen that in 1919 the director already knew how to use close-ups to highlight the key points and use masks to create the effect of peeping. In the two scenes describing the murder, the assassin did not appear directly in the first scene, but the director used the oppressive feeling created by the huge shadow projected on the wall, and the unknown darkness made people more fearful; and when Caesar murdered Ya, Yana, dressed in pure white, slept peacefully on the bed, with a strong contrast to the black and eerie Caesar, and this murder scene was even more intense. Kanudu called film the "seventh art". There is a huge gap between time and space art, and film is precisely the "seventh art" that bridges this gap. When a movie is projected on the screen, it appears as a two-dimensional plane, but what the movie presents is a three-dimensional world with a sense of depth. This kind of intertwining of the real and the unreal gives people a unique feeling that simply painting and photography cannot bring. Dr. Caligari may be an exploration of the fusion of painting and film media. From the results, the shadows on the set are indeed realistic and have a unique beauty, but when the shadows cast by the characters and the shadows on the set are illuminated by the light There is overlap, and this light and shadow effect cannot be expressed on the moving characters, and it still looks like a split.

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Extended Reading
  • Augustus 2022-04-24 07:01:14

    1. It is a great initiative of this film to express the mentality of the mentally ill through the scenery. This implies that the formal system of the film can be used to express the psychology of the characters. 2. The setting of the scenery actually has the function of scene scheduling. The lines in the foreground lead the line of sight to the characters in the middle and background background, which expands the depth of the stage.

  • Augustus 2022-04-24 07:01:14

    The atmosphere is terrifying, silent like a collage animation.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari quotes

  • Francis: Jane, I love you - when will you marry me?

    Jane: We who are of noble blood may not follow the wishes of our hearts.

  • Francis: You all think I'm insane-! it isn't true - it's the director who's insane! - He is Caligari... Caligari... Caligari!