The Influence of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" on Film Noir and Horror Film Essay Example
In “Weimar Cinema and After”, Thomas Elsaesser explains expressionism as not only the style of films created in the early 1920s, but as a “generic term for most of the art cinema of the Weimar Republic in Germany, and beyond Germany, echoing down film history across the periods and genres, turning up in the description of Universal horror films of the 1930s and film noir of the 1940s.” The influence that Elsaesser is referring to is of great importance to both film noir and horror films. This influence can be seen simply through looking at Robert Wiene’s exemplary film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921), and its astounding influence on both film noir and horror films, looking at the example of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
The time period between the German Expressionist and film noir styles also reveals much of the reason for the influence of German Expressionism on film noir.
After Hitler came into power in January 1933, many German film producers, directors, writers, actors and music composers who were working in the Expressionist style, were expelled and exiled from Germany. This physical spread of German Expressionism to countries like the United States of America, and the influence that these émigrés had on Hollywood filmmaking is significant. The resulting blend of styles was captured in the existence of film noir. Film noir, as Elsaesser writes, “[combined] the haunted screen of the early 1920s with the lure of the sinful metropolis Berlin of the late 1920s… mixed with the angst of German émigrés during the 1930s and 40s as they contemplated personal tragedies and national disaster.”
Before one can understand the influence of German Expressionism, one must understand the qualities of the style, which are exemplified in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This film features all of the primary elements we associate with German Expressionist films. The character at the heart of this story of madness, paranoia and obsession, is Dr. Caligari, an evil
The time period between the German Expressionist and film noir styles also reveals much of the reason for the influence of German Expressionism on film noir.
After Hitler came into power in January 1933, many German film producers, directors, writers, actors and music composers who were working in the Expressionist style, were expelled and exiled from Germany. This physical spread of German Expressionism to countries like the United States of America, and the influence that these émigrés had on Hollywood filmmaking is significant. The resulting blend of styles was captured in the existence of film noir. Film noir, as Elsaesser writes, “[combined] the haunted screen of the early 1920s with the lure of the sinful metropolis Berlin of the late 1920s… mixed with the angst of German émigrés during the 1930s and 40s as they contemplated personal tragedies and national disaster.”
Before one can understand the influence of German Expressionism, one must understand the qualities of the style, which are exemplified in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This film features all of the primary elements we associate with German Expressionist films. The character at the heart of this story of madness, paranoia and obsession, is Dr. Caligari, an evil