Third Post- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

 

Link: https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Doctor_Caligari. 

Films enriched with German Expressionism highlighted melodramatic acting and the portrayal of characters’ feelings (Britannica). The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is considered the oldest horror film and a staple of German Expressionism. The film utilizes several fade-ins and fade-outs for transitions, with the shrinking black holes on the screen at a scene’s end and the opening of a black screen to convey the start of a scene. Francis is the main character of the film, as we experienced Francis’ reactions to events such as Alan’s death, Jane’s kidnapping, and his doubt regarding the intentions of Dr. Caligari. The sound design fits the film, as suspenseful music played when the town clerk was killed, but a jollier tone of music appeared when Francis first met Alan. The music was non-diegetic, as the characters in the film could not hear the music, only the audience could. The shapes and lettering in the film were sharp-edged and pointy, especially with the introduction of the film’s cast and the windows and houses. German Expressionism features such as lopsided doors, tiny rooms, slanted city lines, and dark shadows were scattered throughout the picture (Filmsite). One of the biggest frustrations of the film was watching the characters’ lips moving but not being able to hear them speak (the subtitles helped with this though).

The film begins with Francis and an older man sitting on a park bench, while Francis explains how spirits have driven him from “hearth and home, from wife and child.” He seems to be isolated from his loved ones and living in a different reality than would be ideal. Jane, who Francis claims to be his fiancée, walks by with the older man still at Francis’ side. Jane’s bright white dress contrasted sharply with the dark-colored suits of the gentleman. Our first glimpse of Dr. Caligari is a full frame shot of him walking. A Caligari headshot and a black screen appearing as a transition follow.  Alan is introduced as Francis’ friend in a room with the window shadows painted on the floorboards. Alan suggests to Francis the pair check out the Holstenwall Fair for different kinds of entertainment. Dr. Caligari is seen discussing with the town clerk about gaining a permit for a spectacle at the town fair (a somnambulist act). The music intensifies as Caligari first appears with his somnambulist, Cesare, at the fair and the first act is concluded. Act II begins with a punch as the town clerk has been murdered on the same night as Dr. Caligari’s appearance at the fair. The clerk was stabbed in the side with a pointed instrument. The crime does not deter Alan from trying his luck with Dr. Caligari’s fair exhibit, to the annoyance of Francis. Cesare is kept in an upright coffin, called a cabinet, and has been asleep the previous 23 years. Dr. Caligari explains he can awaken Cesare on command, and of the fact Cesare knows all secrets and can see the future. Alan asks Cesare how long he will live, followed by Cesare’s reply of “Till the break of dawn.” By the end of Act II, Alan, who was seen with Francis discussing loving Jane, was stabbed to death. Act III begins with Francis exclaiming “The somnambulist’s prophecy” in relation to finding out Alan is dead. Robert Wiene, the film’s director, then utilizes a dissolve to show Francis talking with authorities and exclaiming he will find the murderers of the clerk and Alan. The clerk’s murderer in Holstenwall was found and he was a bit stockier than Cesare (who I thought would be the murderer). Alan’s murderer was thought to be the same murderer who took out the town clerk (and almost an elderly women) based on the headline “Holstenwall mystery solved- Murderer caught in 3^rd attempt.” Francis and another man are shown going to Dr. Caligari’s home to see him and Cesare (who is in the cabinet).  Act IV begins with Jane worried about her, Dr. Olfen (he was the one who went to go with Francis to Dr. Caligari’s house), being gone with Francis. The man charged with the two murders maintained his innocence: “I had nothing to do with the two murders… So help me God.” He admitted he did try to kill the elderly women with a knife like the one used to murder the town clerk. Jane receives her first encounter with Dr. Caligari and Cesare and immediately runs away in fear. Francis almost goes into the door of Dr. Caligari’s exhibit at the fair but backs away and ends up at Dr. Caligari’s home. As Jane is sleeping, Cesare pulls a panel out of her window and enters her room. He then abducts her and runs until being captured by the authorities. Jane wakes up and maintains Cesare was her abductor, with Francis rebutting it couldn’t have been Cesare because he was watching the somnambulist asleep (end of Act IV).

Act V focuses on the hunt for the true murderer. Francis wants to ensure the murderer is safe in his cell and the stockier man is shown in the cell. Francis goes to see Cesare at Dr. Caligari’s residence but is surprised to see a dummy of Cesare in the cabinet. Caligari runs away upon Francis realizing the dummy and the doctor runs into a “lunatic asylum.” Francis asks someone at the asylum if Dr. Caligari is a patient at the asylum, before finding out Dr. Caligari is the asylum’s director. While Caligari is sleeping in his villa, Francis and company search Caligari’s office at the fair. The group finds a book on somnambulism by the University of Upsala with a section titled “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” In 1783, a mystic named Caligari toured villages for fairs in northern Italy. Accompanying Caligari while touring the fairs was a somnambulist named Cesare. The legend continues Caligari would create panic among the villages through “foul murders committed under almost identical circumstances.” Cesare was controlled by Caligari and the somnambulist carried out schemes orchestrated by Caligari. A puppet- a look-alike of the actual Cesare- would take Cesare’s place in Caligari’s cabinet so suspicion would be deflected from the real somnambulist.

Francis and the group find and read Dr. Caligari’s diary after finishing the book. His diary includes the date March 12^th, with the word “Finally” written in relation to Cesare being brought into the asylum for admission. Dr. Caligari’s wish is to discover the secrets of the mystic Caligari from 1783. An obsession by Caligari led him to wonder if a somnambulist would perform acts as a sleepwalker that he would not think to perform in a true walking state. Suspenseful music is played while Francis is relaying the diary to the others surrounding him. Dr. Caligari was determined to become the mystic Caligari as Act V concludes. The final act is Act VI, beginning with a sleepwalker (Cesare) being found and picked up in the fields and brought to Caligari’s office. Francis desires Caligari to unmask himself and tell the truth by saying he is the director of the asylum. Caligari does not unmask himself and instead tries to strangle one of the officers (who looked to be dressed in lab coats). The film then cuts back to the original scene of Francis and the old man, as Francis was telling a story this entire time. Francis tells the man “And from that day on… Caligari never again left his cell.” He goes back to the asylum, where he sees Alan and Jane. Awed by the sight of Jane, Francis asks her to marry him. Jane responds with: “We queens are not free to answer the call of our heart.” The film concludes with a more elegantly dressed Caligari (and without his glasses) emerging onto the floor of the asylum. Everyone in the asylum thinks Francis is insane after he starts screaming and waving his hands upon Caligari’s arrival (the melodramatic acting staple of German Expressionism). Francis claims Caligari is the insane one, tries to strangle Caligari, and then is tied up and assumedly thrown in jail. Caligari ends the film by proclaiming: “Now I understand [Francis’] delusion. He thinks I am that mystic, Caligari. I know exactly how to cure him.”

The above summary of the film was from notes I took while watching. I never realized Francis was a patient at the asylum until doing further research (Filmsite). Wiene did a nice job in making me believe Francis’ account of the story until the very end. Learning of Francis’ delusion nullifies the entire plot of the story, as Francis made the entire story up (quite impressive). I thought the intensity peak would be Jane’s abduction or Alan’s stabbing but seeing a normal Dr. Caligari in the asylum takes the cake.

 The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) wrapped production a few years after Germany decided to ban foreign films (1916). German audiences sought films with cultural relevance in dealing with World War I (Movements In Film). Cruelty and violence replaced romance as high interests in German households. Filmmakers focused on character symbolism as opposed to character development. Events in a film were viewed from a certain character’s point of view and mental state rather than from the rest of the world (world is only etched in a timeframe) (Britannica). The lead character in Expressionist films will express his or her tales with the most important words and keep the dialogue short and meaningful. Francis is seen talking, with the subtitles, in short spurts and sometimes in sentence fragments. The subject of Francis’ mental state appears at the film’s end, during the plot twist, as we see Francis is a patient in the asylum who fabricated the whole “flashback” of the film. Francis’ dialogue represents the most important aspects of his thoughts and allows the viewer to quickly see his line of thinking. Street shapes and set designs, including sharp window and house designs, can be seen as Francis’ take on the world. The characters he encounters are more symbolic than real-life “friends.” The entire plot line has no character development, but only focuses on emotions. Alan being in a joyful state about seeing the somnambulist, Dr. Caligari being secretive behind closed doors and accepting at the fair of his somnambulism operation, and Francis remaining determined to capture the made-up evil Dr. Caligari. German expressionists were known for portraying crowded urban scenes with crowded and emotional compositions (Britannica). The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari possesses scenes of the crowded Holstenwall Fair with an intrigued audience for Dr. Caligari’s somnambulist exhibit. Staple Expressionist emotions such as frustration, violence, and anxiety are displayed in the film. Francis is anxious about Caligari and Cesare. Violence is shown with murders and via bouts with Dr. Caligari and Francis wrapping their hands around other individuals. German Expressionism declined in the late 1920’s, as social realism in Germany made unobscured and idealist-inspired modes of communication less relevant. By the early 1930’s, Expressionism was seen by Hitler’s regime as ‘degenerate,’ and Expressionists were censored and unable to publish any works (Britannica).

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari foreshadows elements of the film noir filmmaking style via contrast lighting, flashbacks, and detail-oriented plotlines (Britannica). Contrasted lighting was prominent in Wiene’s film as he would tilt cameras and darken the settings to reveal the madness of Francis and Caligari (make faces visible). Flashbacks serve as a film noir staple by subjecting the viewer to the narrator or main character’s point of view and storyline for the cause of the situation the character is currently in. Film noir became popular during World War II, to represent the darkness and disillusionment of questionable economic times and atomic powers following World War II. Film noir production occurred because of the Great Depression to reflect the mood of the world. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the first horror film I have ever watched, so I am not sure of films like Caligari. One film with some traces could be It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), a film discussing dark topics of suicide and the differences between fantasy and reality (the film’s protagonist, George, sees how the world would be if he hadn’t been born).

I read a Google scholar article about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari titled Expressionism and the Real “Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” by Bert Cardullo (1982). He provides a perspective I never considered. Cardullo argues the doctor in Francis’ story is not Caligari. The doctor is the director of the lunatic asylum who pretends to be Dr. Caligari at the fairs so he can experiment with Cesare the somnambulist (Cardullo). The real Caligari is the 1783 mystic who experiments to see if a sleep-walking somnambulist will commit murder. Cardullo concludes both Francis and the director of the asylum are familiar with Dr. Caligari (the mystic) and believes Francis concocted the story about the director pretending to emulate Dr. Caligari to experiment with Cesare. He explains the bizarre scene at the film’s end, with Francis seeing an already-dead (according to his story) Cesare and Jane in the asylum’s courtyard. Francis loses his marbles when the director (dressed neatly and unlike Francis’ version in his flashback) emerges into the courtyard among the patients. Cardullo hypothesizes Francis is the murderer due to believing the mystic Caligari has hypnotized him to commit murder (Cardullo). Francis’ madness is derived from the fact he thinks the director is the mystic driving him to commit the two murders involving the town clerk and Alan. Attempting to rationalize and rid himself of guilt for murder, Francis chooses the director to play Caligari, Cesare to play himself as the murderer under the rule of Caligari, and Jane to play his love interest. Alan and the clerk, who fell victim to murder, are nowhere to be seen in the final courtyard scene. Francis cannot represent the character he desires to be in the film, because he is preoccupied with capturing Caligari (the cause of Francis’ problems). The asylum director, Cesare, and Jane are opposites of the image Francis portrays for them in his lie (Cardullo). Cesare is tidy and gazes spellbound at a flower in the ending courtyard scene. Jane, who Francis claims was his fiancée, does not notice him in the beginning courtyard scene or the ending scene. The director is dressed elegantly in his final act and is seen nodding his head and chatting with an older gentleman (hardly the trace of an evil and cruel personality). Cardullo’s opposites theory continues as Francis turned himself into an opposite persona: a peaceful, sane, and honorable citizen. He needs to be honest and trustworthy to continue his pursuit of the mystic Caligari. Francis selects Cesare to play himself, as Cesare in real life is peaceful and loving (identification with the white flower). Cesare is a somnambulist only in Francis’ tale.

Google scholar link: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44018696#metadata_info_tab_contents.

Second Post- Chapter 1: The Jazz Singer and Commentary

Regarded as the first ‘talkie’, October 1927 Warner Bros-produced The Jazz Singer set the stage for films with synchronized dialogue. Films of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s were silent, as producing sound to match with action on screen needed technology not yet invented. Live musicians would be hired to play in theaters screening silent films to add the synchronized sound effect (Beverly Boy Productions). Sam Warner, one of five Warner brothers, believed sound paired with image would be cinemas’ future.

Sound technology in The Jazz Singer set the stage for the Fox Movietone News synchronized sound reels. The Fox newsreels ran from 1927 to 1963, with sound involving Charles Lindbergh’s takeoff in his transatlantic flight from New York to Paris on May 20^th, 1927, as the first reel by Fox Movietone. A Vitaphone system, relying on a phonograph and key frame for sound synchronization, was not consistently successful. Humans had low error perception in matching sound and action in the frames. The new sound-on-film (SOF) technology, allowing the sound for a picture to be recorded on the same film strip as the picture, originated from two New York inventors named Ted Case and Earl Sponable. The first SOF camera, Field Outfit Number One, weighed 1,500 pounds and required three individuals to move. Young women riding fire engines, goats munching on laundry, and bubbling streams were a few of the first scenes re-presented to the public using SOF technology (Fox Movietone News).

The original SOF process, known as the DeForest Phonofilm, was patented by Lee De Forest in 1919. DeForest is attributed for expanding on SOF work conducted by Finnish inventor Eric Tigerstedt in 1914 and on the Tri-Ergon process in 1919. Sound was recorded as parallel lines on the film, with the lines “photographically [recording] electrical waveforms from a microphone” (DeForestRadio.com). The waveforms translated back to sound waves during movie projection. The Phonofilm system allowed synchronized sound to be recorded directly onto a film and would serve as the basis for the Vitatone and Fox Movietone systems.

Fox Film Corporation acquired Tri-Egon, and Warner Bros wired more than 150 theaters across the U.S. for sound. The Jazz Singer featured Al Jolson, an actor whose lines of synchronized dialogue riveted audiences. Clapping is heard in the film before Jolson begins singing. The audience was more fascinated by Jolson’s remarks before and after his singing than listening to the songs! Jolson sings and plays on the piano the 1922 hit “Toot, Toot, Tootsie.”  He charms his mother with the song, and the wordplay between him and his mother about moving to the Bronx and buying her dresses piqued audience interest. Jolson, as Jack Robin, ran away from his father after he beats him for singing in a saloon. Jack’s father, who was a cantor at the synagogue, desired Jack to sing in the synagogue. Jack changed his name from Jakie and took up jazz music instead, culminating in a performance on Broadway. His first performance on Broadway was quick, as he had to sing in his ill father’s place at the synagogue on the eve of Yom Kippur. The film concludes with Jack and his father sharing a touching scene before the father dies (Britannica). The Jazz Singer was not the first all-spoken film, but the interactions between Jolson and his character’s mother led to the film’s acknowledgement as a talkie.

Jolson’s performance marked the first time an actor spoke on film. By 1929, three-fourths of Hollywood films produced had synchronized sound, and by 1930, no more silent films would be produced (Beverly Boy Productions). Films like The Jazz Singer inspired the dialogue, music, and sound effects seen in film today.

First Post- Introduction and Reaction to Snowy

 

                        Link: https://www.pressherald.com/2021/01/11/indie-film-snowy-the-turtle-and-his-documentarians-are-going-to-sundance/

One reason I am taking film and screen is to learn about genres I have never considered. I tend to watch the same films over and over again because I am hesitant to any aspect of change. Even so, I have seen comedies, dramas, biographies, musicals, sports films, and action and history films. I have never seen short, silent, black-and-white, or science-fiction films. When talking with friends about films, I stick to the same lines of "Yeah, it was a good movie..." or "Did you like the part when...?" I cannot recall a time I had an in-depth conversation with someone about the cultural relevance or cinematography of a film.  Never have I asked about the meaning behind a character's depiction in a film or thought about camera angles. In my mind I thought the angles were intriguing and added to my liking of the movie, but I had not asked why the angles appeared as they did. I rarely take a step back after watching a film to think about my favorite scene or the moment I experienced the heaviest emotions. Viewing Snowy in class helped me begin paying attention to the subleties in a film, such as colors, characters, angles, dialogue, and the setting.

Snowy is the first short film I have ever seen. At first, I was not sure of my thoughts on the film. Snowy appeared to be a film about a turtle's journey from a small cage to a larger cage and then to the outdoors. The care Larry showed Snowy was palpable, and I wanted Snowy to be the happiest he could be in the film. Larry thought he was taking great care of Snowy, and, while Snowy was still living, the turtle's living conditions needed improvement. The expert in London mentioned Snowy's sad state and need to go for walks and experience the outdoors- a phenomenon neglected with a small cage in the basement. Snowy seemed to be stagnant everytime the camera panned to him in the cage. Once outside, the turtle was crawling around and even got a 'ride' from Larry's stomach to the ground. The drone shot at the film's end confused me at first, but my opinion changed after hearing our class discussion. The filmmakers may have been zooming out from the top of the house to show Larry and Snowy's bond and story is only one story, as the houses all around the pair contain stories too.

I felt sadness when the expert explained Snowy's beak was broken and he was sad. She explained how Snowy had strong survival insticts and his being alive could be attributed to Larry not doing everything wrong (not Larry doing everything right). The film then turned back to Larry, as the expert relayed Snowy most likely knew Larry's face and voice. After the suggestion Snowy should go for walks and entertain a bigger exploration area, the film plays "heavenly music" when Snowy and Larry are outside. Larry's wife, who stated she let Larry handle the turtle tank, joined her husband and their pet turtle outside near the end of the film. My favorite shots of the film were the close-ups of Snowy walking around in the grass, as Snowy seemed to be the king of his own little world. The following zoom-out showed how small Snowy looked in the grass from the human eye, but the close-up camerawork made Snowy stand tall in the grass. The triumphant music when Larry transported Snowy to a larger cage was fitting in the fact Snowy received his larger habitat after 24 years. 

Snowy was initially bought for Will, but Larry became the sole caretaker up until the end when we see Larry's wife in the yard too. The filmmakers' goal was to help Snowy and the documentary led to a London trip resulting in Larry's increased awareness and Snowy's expanded habitat. The expert highlighted as we think about the similarities between reptiles (or mammals) and us, we may start to care for them to a greater degree. Snowy brought this family together in an interesting way. The kids desired nothing to do with him, while the parents, (Larry at first), kept a close eye on him. A larger message of caring for those around you, no matter who they are, can be taken from Snowy.