Expressionism In The Film Caligari, By Jon Kracauer

Expressionism refers to a movement that began with the focus on paintings and the theatre. “Expressionism had begun around 1908…appearing in other European countries, but finding its most intense manifestations in Germany” 1 The expressionist movement became very popular for having a unique style that was instantly recognisable. “Expressionism was one of the several trends around the turn of the century that reacted against realism and turned towards extreme distortion to express an inner emotional reality rather than surface experiences” 2 As cinema became more popular and widely available, a new way of conveying expressionist ideas to an audience was found. One of the first major expressionist films that shocked those who first viewed it
The source helps to gain a deeper understanding on how film can affect or give forewarnings of events that could happen in the future. The source suggests that Robert Weine created the film to meet with the needs and feelings that the German people had at the time making the visually unrealistic film seem also realistic. Kracauer’s focus upon authority both textually and contextually provides the reader of an impression of the use of characterisation in the film and sentiment that was experienced in the time the film was released, showing how these two are linked. Kracauer specifies “The film reflects this double aspect of German life by coupling a reality in which Caligari’s authority triumphs with a hallucination in which the same authority is overthrown” 6 This once again showing the reader the link between reality in film and real
The theme of distortion can be shared between this and the expressionism movement. Nosferatu’s distance from humanity and normality to which a rodent like figure controls a town could support this. Burns goes on to write “Count Orlok, much like the narrator and the Doctor in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, are all manifestations of their time. They both live in their own distorted world that seems very normal to them and are both representative of 1920s Germany” 8 This idea that distortion crossed from the textual world of the film to reality is exemplified here. Contextual factors of 1920s Germany lead to a breakdown of normality that lead to events later to come. Nosferatu is described as “a metaphor for a Germany stuck between two realities. Orlok is the past; he represents a system that fed off of its subjects” 9 This could reference the period in which Germany was ruled under emperors known as Kaisers. Germany’s frustration with this type of rule lead to the dissolution of the monarchy shortly before Nosferatu was released. “The decay of the society and culture that had been part of their existence for generations were frightening thoughts”