For the longest time, photography was used to capture reality and be able to give spectator’s a perspective. Film, on the other hand is able to manifest the ‘real’. Film has evolved tremendously since it’s been discovered, it developed the purpose of stimulating people’s minds and developing sentiments. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari challenges the understanding of reality and truth in filmography with its horror genre, depiction of the characters, gestures used when acting, choice of music, and variation of color lighting.
The genre itself, horror plays with your understand of reality by portraying insanity and mental illness. The main character goes through flashbacks of horrific experiences he went through with his fiancé. A notable element that stood out to me was the lighting as the acts progresses the background ranged from yellow, blue, and white. The director used the changing of lighting as a sense of foreshadowing and anticipation that an upcoming dramatic event was going to occur next as well as adding to theme of mental insanity. Another element that impacted the storyline was the over exaggerations and extreme facial expressions. Instead of using a words and script like we do today, the actors were overemphasizing their movements and facial expressions. The eyes’ of the actors and actresses were distorted to be extremely large that the viewers can feel the sense of horror that the film is intended to do. In addition to gaining a frightened reaction from the audience, the music appeals to that purpose as well. When a suspenseful scene was coming up, you can hear the music of the piano intensifying, also foreshadowing an alarming event.
If I were to create my own murder-mystery silent film in New York City, I would distort the norms of the infamous bustling, fast-paced, and crowded city. You usually picture New York City as a huge crowd that’s always on the move with bright lights and lot’s of commotion occurring all the time. I would twist that reality by having it take place in a dark alleyway with a couple of stray black cats running around with no lights, no people, no sound surrounding it whatsoever; Which is not usually how you would depict New York City to look like. The black cats is known to symbolize bad omen adding on to the horror genre. I would intensify it even more by distorting their eyes to be larger like they did in the film with the their characters. Similar to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as well, I would use a frightening piano playing to create suspension throughout the acts and get a terrified reaction from my audience. Also the setting would take place in the winter, so there could be an upcoming snowstorm to add to the terrifying theme. I would end the film with a cliffhanger or an unexpected turn, so I’m able to entertain and shock viewers on their understanding of reality.
