The document provides an in-depth analysis of the 1920 German horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It examines how the film was influenced by German Expressionism and established conventions for the horror genre through its distorted sets, nonlinear narrative, and exploration of themes like madness and authority. While the film's plot is not complex, it presented groundbreaking visuals and left audiences uncertain about what was real. The ending revealed the story was told from the perspective of a mentally ill patient, calling into question the distinction between sanity and insanity. Nearly a century later, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari remains an iconic and influential work in world cinema.

1. Aesthetics of Horror in Cinema
(Celebrating 100 years of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: World’s First Horror Film )
Dr. Preeti Oza
St. Andrew’s College
University of Mumbai
Abstract:
The Cinema has undergone a transformation in recent years, and the societal thirst for horror
begs an important question: why do so many of us enjoy being horrified, disturbed, or afraid?
The virtual world of cinema's concept of utopia and dystopia has evolved. The horror genre
has developed its aesthetics as a result of increased scholarship and attention over the last
four to five decades. The search for the 'missing horizon' has spawned a slew of new
cinematic theories. The majority of these horror film ideas are Freudian in nature, with a
focus on the concepts of ‘repression’ and ‘release’. However, Noel Carroll's new concept of
'The Philosophy of Horror' examines the pleasure of horror films. He claims that the source
of this pleasure is a special curiosity that produces a sense of ‘hope’. ‘Horror’ can be
analysed form the dichotomy of Utopia and Dystopia- Heart and Hopes. This paper
examines the most iconic and cult film, Robert Wiene's 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary'. The
film has a powerful storyline of hope and despair, transporting spectators to 'La Shangrila
land,' and then resolving the paradox to the simple joy of gore. It provides ‘spectacle horror'
with fine camerawork, pacing, and an artistic splitter that add to the pure Hope in the pure
Performance.
Introduction:
European Art Cinema is a film genre that emerged in the 1960s and is based on a rejection of
the techniques utilized in traditional Hollywood filmmaking today. It employs a variety of
narrative and stylistic components, and there are numerous varieties of European Art Cinema
found throughout Europe. In contrast to the classical Hollywood styles that evolved around
the same time, European Art Cinema rejects the heavily structured narrative and continuity-

2. based editing that we see in classic Hollywood. One of the major European art film
movements is German Expressionism, which depicts reality in a distorted manner.
Development of ‘Horror’ as a Genre with ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary’:
When "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) first appears on the screen, it is the unusual
appearance that everyone notices and remembers. It is a rugged setting, with sharp angles and
tilted buildings and windows, stairwells climbing strange diagonals, trees with spiky foliage,
and grass that resembles razors. All these elements immediately distinguish the film from
prior works, which were based on the camera's innate impulse to depict the truth, were these
extreme distortions in the film.
The movie begins in the German town of Holstenwall, which is depicted in a graphic as
shrieks climbing a high slope. A narrative is told after a prologue: Caligari (Werner Krauss),
a sideshow operator, arrives at the carnival to present the Somnambulist, a man he claims has
been sleeping for 23 years. Cesare (Conrad Veidt) is a figure who sleeps in a coffin and is
hand-fed by a crazed-looking doctor who claims to be able to answer any query. Francis
(Frederich Feher), the hero, comes to the theatre with his friend Alan (Hans Heinz von
Twardowski), who openly asks, "When will I die?"…. "At first light!" is the chilling reply.
Alan is no longer alive as the sun rises. Cesare is the target of suspicion. While Caligari
sleeps next to the closed coffin, Francis keeps watching through a window all night. His
fiancée, Jane (Lil Dagover), had been kidnapped the next morning. The doctor and the
somnambulist both come under suspicion.
Upon discovering the bodies of Alan and several other people who have been stabbed to
death, Francis decides to conduct his investigation, which brings him back to Caligari.
Francis narrates his story to a stranger on a park bench after the occurrence, which serves as
the film's framing device (which was later used for the film ‘Forrest Gump’) and serves as a
fitting conclusion. Considering that the film isn't recognized for its plot, none of this is
noteworthy. It's all about the visuals these days. It is possible to argue that "Caligari" was the
first true horror film. Even though there have been previous ghost stories such as the
terrifying serial "Fantomas" (1913-14), its characters lived in a world that was recognizable
to them. "Caligari" creates a subjective mental landscape, a psychological fiction that is based
on the audience's perception. In this world, the possibility of unspeakable tragedies arises.

3. Influence of German Expressionism on the Film:
The political upheaval of 1920s Germany aided the emergence of a new cinematic genre
known as Expressionism. Expressionists of the Weimar period pioneered and embraced new
filmmaking techniques, which continue to have an impact today. The German Expressionism
movement had a profound impact on painting and theatre long before ‘Caligar;’. Because it
has been around for so long, art critics were already calling it outdated and clichéd even
before the film was released. Although it was a popular theatre style in Weimar era Germany,
it had never been adapted for the cinema due to the belief that ‘film was a gutter art form
aimed at the unwashed masses, who preferred direct prosaic realism’. This film, which is
nearly a century old, continues to cast a long shadow over the various genres that it helped to
popularise. All of these aspects of the film's creation — from its script's genesis through its
execution — are still up for debate today, including how the framing story came to be, who
decided to include it, and what it means. In a way, Caligari's past is as jumbled as the film
itself, with skewed angles and unsteady images. Regardless of how it came to be, it was the
first German Expressionist film ever made, the first straight horror picture ever made, and
one of the most influential films ever made, creating a lasting impression across a wide range
of genres. The events of the last few months have made Caligari more relevant than ever
before.
The Modern Social Order:
The Weimar Republic of Germany, which spanned the post-World War I period of civil and
governmental upheaval, witnessed a fierce ideological battle, one in which the arts played a
significant role. Individuals and organizations on the left criticized mainstream art creation in
an attempt to counteract what they saw as the conservative-to-reactionary influence it had on
popular opinion. In Weimar cinema, the Marxist counter-current offers an alternate critical
approach to the standard one of close readings of classic films. During the Weimar Republic,
the Social Democratic Party, German Communists, and independent leftists all produced
films. Leftist filmmakers, journalists, and critics, who have made substantial contributions to
both marginal and mainstream cinema, have gotten little scholarly attention until recently.

4. Some Un-Answered Questions in ‘Caligari’:
At its core, ‘The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’ is an anti-authoritarian call to rebellion, an object
lesson in conformity, or a metaphor about how we're all simply pawns in a culture gone
insane. When Rudolf Meinert and Erich Pommer bought the screenplays from rookie
screenwriters, they had no intention of turning them into expressionist art house pictures.
According to writer Janowitz, the original script included no mention of the film's set design
or visual style. Simply, Meinert and Pommer thought it was a delightful, twisty melodrama
with a low-budget production. Since Germany was still rebuilding after the war, money and
resources were in short supply. The only other option was for the actors to perform in front of
painted backdrops due to a lack of set funding, energy rationing, and the fact that the film
would be shot primarily on a small soundstage. An intriguing fact is how a century after its
first broadcast, the film's origins are still a mix of falsehoods, conflicting recollections,
myths, and urban legends. Trying to find any significant truth might be a challenge. Carl
Mayer, the novel's co-writer, claims that the idea of a mad dictator and a hypnotized subject
who follows out his homicidal commands subconsciously came from Mayer's military
experiences during World War II. At a Berlin fair in 1913, Hans Janowitz observed
something that inspired him to create a series of carnival-themed murders.
Themes and Treatment of Major Themes
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) examines the nature of authority as a violent and
domineering force, and it is heavily influenced by these ideals. A twist at the end of the film
reveals that the entire story is being told by a prisoner in a mental institution, which makes it
all the more heart breaking. The film investigates the distinction between insanity and sane.
However, Caligari makes it clear from the start that the world we're witnessing is one of
distortion rather than normalcy, as he does in his earlier works. When it came to German
Expressionism, themes of madness and betrayal recurred regularly. It is a difficult aspect of
the photograph to overlook is the aesthetically complex background. Each piece is bizarre
and deformed, like a drunken nightmare done in pastels and brushstrokes to torment and
confuse those who look at it. According to Roger Ebert, the film is "a jagged environment of
sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases scaling mad diagonals, plants with
spiky leaves, and grass that looks like razors," among other things. We learn at the end of the
film that we have been watching it through the eyes of an asylum inmate named Francis that
the universe of Dr. Caligari is a place that only exists in the minds of the insane, which is

5. particularly tragic given the film's climactic reveal that we have been watching it through the
eyes of an asylum inmate named Francis (Friedrich Feher). As time goes on, everything
we've witnessed begins to make more sense, and the peculiar quality of the atmosphere
becomes more apparent. In this universe, everyone is a maniac, and we've been listening to
him give his version of the story.
Mis-en-scene and Cinematography:
It is crucial to have imaginative two-dimensional sets in 1920, not just for budgeting
concerns, but also for the film's point of view and presentation. As a result of their on going
appeal, they serve as a symbol of the Expressionist Movement's stylistic characteristics,
which have been studied for decades. There is a frame plot in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,
which shows that the middle of the film is contained within the beginning and finish of the
film, indicating that we are viewing a flashback sequence. A prominent expressionist trope
was the idea that a sane mind perceives insanity as warped and distorted, and Dr. Caligari's
crazy narrator attempts to portray this by framing the story in a state of relative normalcy
throughout the novel. The environment of the framing narrative, with its jagged trees and the
peculiar dreadful asylum architecture that shares its identity with the narrator's images,
alludes to aspects of the main story's strange reality, as do the characters in the framing story.
It calls into question the general credibility of the picture because these astonishing
components are carried over into the framing scenes of the movie. The final iris shot of the
film, which focuses on the face of the asylum director (Werner Krauss), the same actor who
played Francis' insane Dr. Caligari, calls into doubt the film's sanity.
A critical history of German film, as written by German film historian Stephen Brockmann in
his book, "A Critical History of German Film," concludes, "At the end of the day, the picture
isn't just about one unhappy lunatic; it's about an entire universe that is undoubtedly out of
balance." At the end of the film, the spectator is unable to distinguish between who is insane
and who is not, whether it is the narrator or the asylum director because the audience is
unable to distinguish between them. Brockmann (2010) Do you think the film is a
continuation of Francis' hallucinations and craziness, or do you think the director is insane? If
there is any crazy in this world, it may be found in the uncertainty of what is real and what
isn't and the in-distinguishability between the two. On its own, this plot isn't very startling.
Cesare is shown dragging an unconscious Jane while being followed by a mob, and the film's
design transforms the scene into something surreal and weird. Their pursuers chase them

6. through towns with brilliant lights and dark shadows, as well as up a mountain trail with
zigzagging switchbacks. Meanwhile, Francis is following Caligari on his journey back to the
mad asylum, where he is most likely the... director! Following evidence gathered by Francis
and the local police, Caligari desired to locate a somnambulist and place him under a
hypnotic spell, effectively subjugating him to his own will. According to an esoteric medieval
text, Caligari wished to track down a somnambulist and hypnotize him to compel the
somnambulist to comply with his wants. Francis and Alan (Friedrich Feher and Hans
Heinrich von Twardowski) are two teenage friends who go to a local traveling carnival while
competing for the love of Jane (Friedrich Feher) (Lil Dagover). They are witnesses to the
bizarre Dr. Caligari's performance, who is dressed in a top hat and has wild hair (Werner
Krauss). The great Conrad Veidt plays Cesare, who is hypnotized by Caligari and responds to
questions from the audience while under the influence of hypnosis. Asked when Cesare will
die, Cesare responds with a chuckle, saying he will die "before daylight." Even better,
wouldn't you know it, there's something else? He was 100 % correct in his assessment!
Conclusion:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was a big success in Germany and helped to establish the country
as a major film market. The successors of the Horror genre who all got influenced by this
film were F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1923) and Paul
Wegener's second version of Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920). It is considered to be
one of the earliest horror films ever created, and it tells the storey of a travelling mystic and
his stage sidekick, a sleepwalking man who has the ability to prophesy the future. A twist
ending was also included, which was one of the first in film history, with the entire movie
revealed to be a delusional flashback from the perspective of a mental patient. The film's
aesthetic elements, such as the morbid evocation of horror, menace, and anxiety, as well as
the dramatic, shadowy lighting and bizarre sets, served as a stylistic model for later
Expressionist films by several major German directors.
References:
 Bock, Hans-Michael, and Tim Bergfelder. The concise Cinegraph: encyclopaedia of
German cinema. Berghahn Books, 2009.

7.  Brockmann, Stephen. A critical history of German film. Vol. 93. Camden House,
2010.
 Budd, Michael. "Authorship as a Commodity: The Art Cinema and The Cabinet of Dr
Caligari." Auteurs and Authorship: A Film Reader (2008): 249-254.
 Carroll, Noël. The philosophy of horror: Or, paradoxes of the heart. Routledge, 2003.
 Ebert, Roger. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari." The Great Movies IV. University of
Chicago Press, 2016. 31-34.
 Kracauer, Siegfried. "5. CALIGARI." From Caligari to Hitler. Princeton University
Press, 2019. 61-76.
 Murray, Bruce. Film and the German Left in the Weimar Republic: From Caligari to
Kuhle Wampe. University of Texas Press, 2010.
 Scheunemann, Dietrich, ed. Expressionist film: new perspectives. Camden House,
2003.