In this research paper, I am especially aiming to clarify differences and contrasts between Siegfried Kracauer's and Thomas Elsaesser's analysis and understanding about a famous German Expressionist Film, the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an innovative German silent film, produced by Robert Wiene in 1920. This film is the oldest, most influential, and highly valued works among a series of German expressionist movies. A story of this film is about serial murder in a fictitious village in the mountains in Germany. There are two men, a doctor, Caligari who has mental disorder, and his faithful servant, Cesare, who is sleepwalker patient. Dr. Caligari makes Cesare kill people.
Siegfried Kracauer supposes that this film can be interpreted as a fable to the social situation during the interwar period from the First World War to the Second World War. He focuses on a relationship between a sleeping man who has no intention, and a mentally abnormal person, Dr. Caligari who skillfully manipulates him and commits a murder. Kracauer insists …show more content…
Caligari symbolizes Hitler is contradictory. Elsasser positions the background of the original style of German expressionist movies (or what is so considered) including this work as follows. German expressionist filmmakers actively introduced expressionism style to differentiate themselves as Germany's own movie to counter the influx of American movies, which had been growing gradually at that time. Elsaesser has a fresh perspective and a new approach to German cinema of the 1920s, including the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Elsaesser make objections to conventional critical readings and essays which link to romanticism and expressionism, and he insists that German cinema’s importance is more contributing to share a ‘historical imaginary’ than ‘national identity’ unlike Kracauer’s
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an innovative German silent film, produced by Robert Wiene in 1920. This film is the oldest, most influential, and highly valued works among a series of German expressionist movies. A story of this film is about serial murder in a fictitious village in the mountains in Germany. There are two men, a doctor, Caligari who has mental disorder, and his faithful servant, Cesare, who is sleepwalker patient. Dr. Caligari makes Cesare kill people.
Siegfried Kracauer supposes that this film can be interpreted as a fable to the social situation during the interwar period from the First World War to the Second World War. He focuses on a relationship between a sleeping man who has no intention, and a mentally abnormal person, Dr. Caligari who skillfully manipulates him and commits a murder. Kracauer insists …show more content…
Caligari symbolizes Hitler is contradictory. Elsasser positions the background of the original style of German expressionist movies (or what is so considered) including this work as follows. German expressionist filmmakers actively introduced expressionism style to differentiate themselves as Germany's own movie to counter the influx of American movies, which had been growing gradually at that time. Elsaesser has a fresh perspective and a new approach to German cinema of the 1920s, including the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Elsaesser make objections to conventional critical readings and essays which link to romanticism and expressionism, and he insists that German cinema’s importance is more contributing to share a ‘historical imaginary’ than ‘national identity’ unlike Kracauer’s