Joel Alvarado

02/25/2015

LEH 355        

                                                The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari

            One of the most outstanding scenes from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) was when Cesare was trying to kill Jane. In that particular clip of the film, Cesar was looking through a window searching for his next victim. He found himself looking a lady that was laying down sleeping. As the girl slept, Ceaser slowly creeps inside the bedroom holding a knife in his closed fist; he walked towards the girl and stands right above her and gets ready to stab her. As soon as Ceaser takes one glance at the victim that he was about to kill, he had second thoughts and did not go through with it. Instead he ended up abducting her and running away with her. In the process, the victim struggled for her life and screams for help, a few individuals ended up waking up and followed the noise.

The abductor ended up kidnapping Jane but a group of people followed him while he was trying to get away. He ended up dropping Jane in the middle of the escape because she was too heavy. The people from the community ended up rescuing Jane and interrogated her to find out what happened. Jane confessed that Ceaser was the one that tried to abduct her, the detectives found it highly disturbing that Ceaser would do this because they stated that he had been slleping in his home and they had witnessed it. When the detectives went to confirm that Ceaser was in his home, they found a dummy.

Apart from the context, it was highly interesting to see the setting of the story. It was different from other films because in this particular film, the background resembled a cartoon setting. This setting resembled the Dada era because it does places emphasis on what really matters, in this particular case the impression that the characters were providing. The unbalanced image emphasized that there was not any equilibrium occurring in Germany at that time. Another unusual part of the clip was the scary music that played in the background. Scary music is usually present in scary movies. However, I personally believe that for this particular film, it was used to imply the terror that the German society was facing.

The ultimate component of this film was the high emphasis that the writers placed on the character’s emotions and perceptions. From their facial expressions and body language, it was easy to tell what they were actually doing and trying to imply. One of the most important elements of the film that reinforces what we are learning in class is the impressionism, the film implied impressionism in the setting, acting and even with perceptions that the characters had amongst one another.