In 2017, we have such advanced technology when it comes to filmmaking that we expect movies, especially horror, thriller, or psychological ones to include cool special effects and recording techniques to make us feel like we’re really there experiencing what is happening on screen. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a surreal, expressionist, German silent film that was released in 1920. This was right on the cusp of when films with sound started being produced, but you can see how The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari operates to interest the viewer without the need of sound. Some of these techniques include lighting, which plays a big role in the film- some scenes were really well lit while others were intentionally dark and shrouded to convey a sense of spookiness. It also includes showing, rather than telling; like in one of the opening scenes that we first see Dr. Caligari. You can tell that he’s evil and creepy without being told so. Or in the scene where the character who had asked how long he was going to live is then stabbed to death in his bed, but the entire stabbing is shown through its shadow on the wall. Something really special about films like this are the hand drawn backgrounds that are displayed between shots. In the beginning, you see this imagery of pointy, surreal houses crowded onto a hill, with a castle at the top. This immediately lets the viewer know that they are not looking at Germany, but some other world that defies the laws of our own. Also it hints at what life was like in Germany at the time during the Weimar Regime.
I also think that maybe the setting is so surreal because we are seeing this world through the eyes of a mad man who is telling the story. The producers use a non linear storyline to let the viewer know that the movie is indeed telling a story and not trying to convey reality, I think this is the most notable tactic because it was very unprecedented technique to use at the time.
If I were to create my own murder mystery set in New York City I think I would have it be some kind of apocalyptic battle between different neighborhoods, as a result of the wage-gap between different groups in New York City becoming so disparate. It would be a kind of race war, terrifying, end of times, edge of a revolution kind of thing. I would really play up how lavish and unnecessarily fancy things are in some neighborhoods to contrast with poverty and turmoil in others. I want to highlight things about the city that maybe we don’t think about because we live here, or that viewers who don’t live in New York don’t realize about it. The other day on my way to school I saw a woman lying on top of one of those newspaper containers that had been flipped onto its side, she was passed out and had a lit cigarette in her hand. People in fancy suits and dresses walked by unknowingly, and I don’t necessarily blame them. We are so conditioned to ignore those who are different from us here. I would like to include some imagery like that, I want to really highlight how dire the situation is- people sleeping on the street in front of a coffee shop that sells $7.00 lattes.
