THE ARTS IN NEW YORK CITY Fall 2017 | Baruch College | Macaulay Honors

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari definitely played on my views of what was real or not. For a film made in 1920, the acting, the plot and the scenery were well presented. I found myself confused at first because I did not really understand what was happening. It was not until halfway through the film did I even begin to understand what the plot was. While the plot was portrayed as well as possible, the aspects of it being a silent film did drive me insane. I am so used to the talking in a movie and how things are well explained, that having to figure it out on my own and watch the action was, ashamedly, a bit challenging. But I did figure it out and the music and acting really played a big part in it. The music is what people now win awards for and I feel like the music in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari could have won an award. It matched both the action and the mood the viewers were supposed to feel. At certain points, it would be very dramatic, or it would be suspenseful or happy or sad. To represent all of that in a film accurate takes a great deal of skill that I appreciate. Another noteworthy thing was the selective use of words. The actors could not speak but some things need words. And they emphasized the words with a dramatic “bang” in the music. Overall, while I would not watch it again, they did a great job with the movie.

If I was to make my own silent murder movie based in NY, using only a few words, lighting and music I think it would be something based off of taxi cabs. Taxi cabs and drivers are the one things about NY that really freak me out. I would use the theme of New York at night when the clubs are even closing and there aren’t a lot of people out. The thing about it would be that in the beginning the viewers would be forced to believe it was the taxi drivers kidnapping people, etc. But then it would be revealed that it was actually the taxis themselves. And each time the person would be getting kidnapped, they would be consumed by the taxis and made into another taxi monster thing. I feel like this would really freak people out, and even knowing that it is not real (or is it) they would be wary of riding around in taxis in NY.

Ariel Margolin

Blog #7

Although I was left perplexed beyond most words, I found Dr.Caligari to be one of the most interesting works I’ve seen recently. I believe it was meant to create fright in its audience via sheer confusion; the insane jump from scene to scene, and inexplicability of certain elements perfectly captures the mind of the insane. They say hell is a place of disorder, and what Dr.Caligari lacked in special effects due to the limitations of the times, it made up for in showing us the delusion and disorder of an unhinged world. Beyond the macabre and horrorful screen sights, Dr.Caligari was meant to portray a very serious and sane idea to the audience: the manipulation of society into war. As soon as Professor Heath said to look for a historical/philosophical undertow to the film, my eyes were affixed in search of such. Between the lines of mayhem and bedlam, I gathered that Cesare was the common man lulled into non-thought by his warsome government (in the form of Dr.Caligari) and sicced onto whomever his master wanted dead. Although I enjoy watching old films, writing one in the style of is a weighty challenge indeed, but this is a mountain I will scale. Dr.Caligari’sethereal screen works proved to me that reality can be shown through many different courses, even those which we would label as crazed.

My silent film would be set in the course of one night and would be uncovering the mystery of a murdered person found in the alley adjacent to a popular bar. The people contact a policeman on the street and it just so happens that this police-man is on thin ice with his lieutenant, and needs a big break and doesn’t call in the murder to solve on his own to receive all the credit. The policeman would follow the bloody tracks through the winding alleyways until he enters a secret hell. This hell would be paintings upon paintings of all the worst moments of his life and as he rushes back in escape, he stumbles over the dead body and sees it his him. The film would end there and the central message would be self-destruction is not always self-evident, and how sometimes the end can come without us seeing it.

           Dr.Caligari surely expanded my understanding of early film. My impression of silent films was that they were sappy love-stories with an occasional piano falling for comedic effect; I was surprised to find a thought-provoking prototype to the psychological horror-films of today. I would want my old film to have the same eerily, skin-crawling effect Dr.Caligari had on me. Perhaps the movies of today can take a page from Dr.Caligari’s book and make their audience leave in thought.

Out of the very few silent films I’ve ever seen in my life, I found The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari seemed both incredibly well-developed and well performed. One of my favorite features of this silent film is the fact that the surroundings are obscure at many times, hard to discern. In fact, most of the environment around the actors is either too heavily shadowed to be discernible or intentionally ambiguous. For this reason, I felt it was easier to focus on the main storyline of the film and to follow purely the actors and actresses. In films and movies these days, the surroundings and the landscapes often take us away from the main plot and create a distraction. However, in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari made me realize the drastic difference between the “first true horror film” and the horror films we have today. What we can consider to be corny was viewed as incredibly revolutionary in the 1920s, and what we perceive as “banal horror” was incredibly shocking and effective to the earlier audience. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was produced in the 1920s- a time where ostentatious music was not uncommon and where dramatics and theatrics were common even in everyday society. Nowadays, we might find the “scary music” featured in this film as incredibly corny, but an audience in the 1920s, post World War I, would have found this music and the scenes that accompanied it to be incredibly engaging. The characters featured in this film were dynamic and well produced, and in the `1920s would have been considered to be the epitome of a horror film villain and protagonist.

If I were to create a murder-mystery set in modern day New York City, I would want my crime scene to take place in the most well-known areas of New York City, such as Chelsea or the Upper East Side. What we consider to be the most “affluent” and most “untouchable” neighborhoods of this city would be rocked with a stream of unsolvable and horrifying murders. I would choose these neighborhoods as the sites of my film because there is a stigma that surrounds neighborhoods outside of these wealthy, affluent areas that are given a bad reputation and a cold judgement because of the standard of living that exists within these “outside communities.” Areas within Queens such as Jackson Heights or Sunnyside, or neighborhoods within Brooklyn such as Park Slope or Sheepshead Bay are regarded with distaste and spoken of with a turned-up nose. Many residents within the “best” areas of Manhattan see the outside boroughs and less-prominent neighborhoods only as crime and poverty ridden. My murder-mystery film would feature a string of murders taking place in Chelsea, the Upper East Side, the Upper West Side and Soho. These murders would leave people baffled and fearful in neighborhoods they once deemed as infallible and untouchable. The reality I hope to give to my viewers is less about the reality of the crime itself, but the truth about humanity, regardless of the neighborhood you live in or the status of a name. It is too often forgotten that money and wealth cannot buy everything- least of all the goodness of humanity.

When one of our senses becomes impaired or inhibited, our other senses become hypersensitive in order to process stimulatory around us. If our vision is obstructed, we rely heavily upon auditory processing or physical touch. If our hearing is impaired, we may use our sense of site or smell in order to process what we cannot hear around us.

I have never watched a silent film before. I typically associate enjoying a film with being able to understand it’s dialogue. Dialogue is a component of communication and a mean in which ideas and thoughts can be conveyed. However, after watching the silent film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I realized that a film does not have to contain verbal communication in order to be understood. It is true that this film was not completely silent. There was still music in the background. Yet, because there was no verbal dialogue, I was forced to use my other senses in order to process the storyline being expressed.

The first thing I noticed in this film was the lighting. The lighting would alternate between black/ white and sepia. At first, I thought that this was perhaps due to unsophisticated technology. However, as the story line progressed, I realized that the shifts in lighting occurred during different scenes. For example, the scenes with Dr. Caligari and his “zombie” seemed to often be in sepia whereas the scenes with Jane were often black and white. I am not completely sure what the director’s intention of this was, yet, the shift happened too often to be random.

Music is often a component that I take note of during films and shows. Sometimes, if I am feeling suspenseful about what will occur next, I’ll listen to the music in order to get a sense of what will happen next. Is the music slow and calm or suspenseful and fast paced? In this film, I paid closer attention to the background music in order to understand what which scenes of the horror film would be more suspenseful and intense than other scenes.

Additionally, because I could not hear the actor’s tone of voice as they spoke, I paid closer attention to their body language and facial expressions. The directors of the play heavily relied on costume and appearance in order to express a persona that could not be captured through the viewer hearing his tone of voice. for example, I think that in order to make Dr. Caligari seem mad, the directors could not only rely on his actions but also had to have him visually look slightly insane or whacked.

As I reflect on this silent film, I feel that leisure film is often an exaggerated depiction of reality. To engage and entertain the viewer, our senses have to be hyper stimulated in order to be impressed by what is projected in front of us. This can be done via auditory stimulation or visual stimulation. I feel the same is true with artistic photography. That which is captured must be an exaggerated snap shot of what is ordinary. However, exaggerating reality in film or photography is only a way to categorize this media measure as an art form.  I feel that a raw snap shot or candid footage is an accurate depiction of reality rather than an art.

If I were to create a film similar to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I would take note of engaging the viewers visual sense. Elements like set design, costume choice, makeup, sound and lighting would all be in a sense amplified. This would cause the viewer to view the film as less real but also more entertaining and suspenseful.

Yael Magder

Throughout history, particularly the last few centuries, photographs and filmography have been used as an effective means of conveying reality, or at least a perception of it. As we’ve discussed in class, photographs are used to depict a specific moment, and even then, it only depicts one dimension, or “reality” of that moment. On the contrary, yet very similarly, films are used to depict a series of moments, but the aspect of reality remains the same, as film, like photography is merely a medium for depicting a reality, but with more freedom to augment “reality.”

The 1920’s film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a staple of the german expressionist movement. After World War two, the German government was obliged to pay massive war reparations, and in effect, lacked the resources and necessary funding needed to produce high quality films. Producers, as well as other people in the industry including directors, artists, and writers were required to create novel methods of using the then-new technology of filmmaking, in order to manipulate reality and produce films that would earn widespread popularity. One of the methods in which the early twentieth century horror The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari manipulated reality, especially compared to modern horror films, was its unorthodox use of lighting. The film, as many critics claim, was one of the first silent films to experiment with the concept of using light and shadows to reflect the mysterious psychology of the characters. In many scenes throughout the film, extreme contrasts of light and darkness are used to create dramatic shadows and further convey the sense of fear and unrest as well as contribute to its deranged depiction of reality. Signature to the expressionist movement, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari displayed frequent use of painted designs and figures serving as the setting of many scenes in the film, laying the framework for a film depicting a twisted psyche and a sense of anxiety and terror. The musical accompaniment to this film was, I felt, extremely appropriate for the genre. After researching the film, I discovered the music contained sections, or excerpts from works by Johann Strauss III, Arnold Schoenberg, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. Since silent films were played in theatres, accompanied by live music, theatre owners hired musicians to compile musical selections based on the themes of silent films., In the case of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I learned that musician Erno Rapee was hired to create a piece of music that matched the dark mood of the film and “had to be made eligible for citizenship in a nightmare country” as Rothafel described. The musical accompaniment of this film was definitely one of its characteristics that coincided with the disturbing, and definitely horrific nature of the plot.

One of the first things I thought of when considering making a silent horror film in the landscape of New York was to definitely utilize the underground subway system. The constant darkness, occasionally illuminated with the light of a passing train would definitely be effective in creating a dramatic plot full of unforeseen twists. I would center the film around establishing a dark and empty train track being where all crimes mysteriously take place with no witnesses to account for how they happened. One of the sounds I would include would obviously be that of a train entering and leaving a station, as well as a simple soundtrack of instruments which would compliment the tone of mystery and obliviousness of city people to the murder streak occurring in one of the most populous stations in New York City. With regard to expressionist characteristics, the scenes in my film would alternate from crime scenes to unsuspecting people going about their day, to emphasize the people’s lack of understanding of the horrific happenings in their city.

Ronald Osherov

Films are very different from photographs because such a large aspect of time can be captured. It is no longer a single moment that is being captured, but rather a whole timeline. The Cabinet of D.Caligari is a silent German horror movie from the 1920s. The main actor, Francis, goes into a flashback and that is how the movie begins. Throughout the movie, Dr. Caligari- a mysterious doctor, Francis, and Alan go through events of murder, mystery, and suspense. The most fascinating aspect of the whole movie, is that it is a silent movie! The idea of a silent movie in the 20^th century almost sounds bizarre. As of now, we are used to huge cinematography films, with ridiculous scripts, animations, and music. Back then, the idea that something can even be simply recorded and put on a screen to show others, was a break through. Despite there being no script, voices wise, the story line was nonetheless still powerful and easily understood.

The aspect of the movie that stood out to me was definitely the music. Music is able to express emotion and feeling in ways that words sometimes cannot. The suspenseful and dramatic music at times helped me understand the movie as a whole. The music helped me understand that this was in fact a horror thriller, and that there was the test between murder and mystery throughout the whole time. Throughout the whole movie- truth versus reality was tested. The fact that there were no actual words being said, the viewers focus moves to the movement of characters. Their movement as well as facial expressions helped understand the reality aspect of the movie. Despite this, looks can be very deceiving. Some understanding was still lost in translation because not everyone interprets the same emotions and feelings the same way.

If I had to construct my own horror movie in New York City, I would definitely use the advantage of being able to stage it in Central Park. Being one of the most popular tourist attractions the city has to offer, it is the perfect location. Central Park stretches through midtown, upper east side, and Harlem. All these different areas of the city are home to millions of people, races, and nationalities. Once the lights go down, Central Park is practically empty. During the day, it’s hustling and bustling with tourists taking pictures, joggers and bikers, and simply people laying on the lawn admiring the view. At night, things get skeptical. Being a tourist in a park with practically no people, is a very dramatic scene for a murder. I would use the idea of the park to my full overall advantage to convey reality and suspense. Overall, the movie helped me branch out into a style of cinematography that I have never been exposed to before and I am glad I was because it led me to interpret movies in a completely different way.

In general, film is a significantly more imaginative medium than photography. It requires imagination, direction, and execution whereas photography is usually a visual representation of a preexisting scene or subject. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was an innovative exploration of the unknown and toyed with the viewers’ perception. Considering the time period, the cinematography of the film was especially riveting, given that special effects were not popularized or even particularly well developed yet. Cinematography aside, even the very plot of the film obscured the truth of the narrative, which was what made the film so interesting. For the majority of the duration of the movie, the viewer, not unlike the character Francis, is under the impression that Cesare (the somnambulist) was committing the murders. It seemed likely, considering that he predicts a murder with extreme accuracy.

Francis sparks an investigation of Dr. Caligari and Cesare, leading the police to discover that the Cesare that appeared to be sleeping at the time of the murder was just a mannequin, making it seem all the more likely that he was committing the murders. He goes on further to accuse Dr. Caligari of emulating a mystic from the 1700s that went by the same name that used a somnambulist (Cesare) to commit serial murders and cover his tracks. In Francis’ narrative, Dr. Caligari is the director of an insane asylum, in which he himself eventually becomes a patient due to his crimes (after Cesare is found dead). All of this is presented as truth in the film, even though it is simply Francis’ recollection of the events. For this reason, it is the viewer’s only account of the events. However, in the end it is revealed that Francis is the crazy one and belongs in the insane asylum- the entire story is revealed to be a delusion. This was an essentially unforeseeable twist that forces the viewer to question truth and reality as we know it. I found the most convincing feature of this plot layout to be how believable the acting was in what turned out to be Francis’ narrative- because we were watching the story as HE understood it, we had no way of discerning exactly what was real and what was not.

If I were to create my own silent murder-mystery film set in present day New York City, it would be very difficult, if not entirely impossible, due to the sheer amount of security cameras. For this reason, my film would be shot entirely in the style of security camera footage. However, because there a few select areas that Big Brother has not yet pervaded (such as bathrooms, private residences, and the hearts of public parks), not everything could be see by the viewer, making the plot “mysterious.” I imagine it would be set somewhere in Central Park, most likely at night. Since it is much more green and contains many more secluded corners than the rest of the city, it would be the perfect setting for an undetected murder. I would want the sound that accompanies this film to include shrill, screeching, violins, if it were to be possible to have this accompaniment when the film was being shown in a theater.

Veronica Funk

Upon watching “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” one is struck by how innovative the movie is for being produced in the early 1900s. Though the lack of sound, the special effects, and the acting might not compare to the evolved state that we currently have, the plot and the plot twists still make for a riveting film, and had this been produced nowadays it easily could have been a blockbuster movie. It actually strongly reminded me of a more recent movie, “Shutter Island”, because of how it ultimately leaves you on a cliffhanger regarding the reality of the characters’ roles and perspectives in the plot. Both movies take you on this whole journey, conveying the storyline through the eyes of an obvious protagonist, but then introduce new facts and perspectives at the end that make you completely question the validity of the protagonist’s storytelling. But again, whereas “Shutter Island” could use dialogue and real live scenery to convey the plot and its subsequent twists, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” had to get more creative. Some scenery was hand drawn which adds yet another interpretive element to the movie, and although it is in black and white, they used different background colors to add some dimension in terms of aesthetics. In addition, the use of extravagant makeup and over-enthusiastic body movements were very expressive, and achieved the goal of conveying the emotions of the characters and a general sense of what was going on. The intertitles were yet another medium that the film used to convey the plot to us viewers, and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” engaged them masterfully. The film placed them often enough to convey the plot to us, but also limited them so that they wouldn’t break up the visuals too much and become overwhelming. The text of the intertitles was also masterfully written, as they were in keeping with the dramatic feel of film. Overall “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” really mastered the art of the intertitle, as well as using different mediums to confuse the viewers’ sense of reality.

In thinking of New York City as a playground for a silent film, I was overwhelmed in trying to come up with different ways to play with the viewer’s perception on reality. The city is so dynamic and therefore there are so many possibly ways to achieve that. “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” used things like scenery and lighting to achieve that, but New York City offers more options than were available to the producers of that film. I would consider using reflections off storefront windows, or shots taken through a frame of a car window, or something similar to that, to add that extra dimension to reality that films are known for.

Film is seen as photography long distant cousin that keep in touch but don’t really share the same interests, so they don’t have much to talk about. But one thing they do share in common is creativity, along with the underlying factors of art, cameras, etc. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a German murder-mystery silent film created in 1920 about an insane doctor who uses “dark magic”, as it seems, to use a somnambulist to literally haunt others and end up killing them. The film is one of the earliest examples of silent films in the world and it’s easy to say it was very different from today’s film. Besides the fact the viewer must use intertitles to read off what the actors are saying, the lighting, acting, scenery and overall display of the movie is what makes these silent films so different from today’s films.

Going into The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the film was unlike any other detail for detail. Starting off with the overall story line, it took a different approach to murder-mysteries than today’s film. What seemed so utterly scary was overall reality. In today’s film, pop-ups and images that make the viewer uncomfortable and sleepless for the night are what we consider “scary films” in today’s culture. However, it seems that back in the day, overall real-life events and actual possible events are what really shakes up the viewer and leaves them almost as if they actually saw a ghost. Along with the story line, is the music. The music, classical, used to this very day in modern day horror films. Suspenseful, trembling, and overall a huge boost to the actual film’s meaning. One thing to take into account for is how early these movies were made with little to no actual idea of how to act or even express emotion to a camera lens. This goes to show that the acting of the film, was surprisingly amazing. True emotion of each actor such as the doctor when he interacts with the somnambulist in Act V. It absolutely amazes me that with such little idea of film and acting as an art that the actors would be so passionate and seem so experienced with their roles. The lighting almost ties along with the scenery. We must take into the fact that at this time, technology was not as developed and people didn’t waste millions of even close to the equivalence to develop these “films.” People weren’t that into them or couldn’t afford/have time to seem these films. The scenery was as expected, not professional and absolutely beautiful but also not lacking in any aspect. Overall, very impressive once again for the fact film was still anew in this era. I won’t tell a fib, the movie was not my cup of tea or anything I would watch over and over again, but the fact that this movie was made with such utter passion, precision, and handled with time and care makes this by far the most technically impressive movie to this date. It still amazes me that these actors, cinematographers, stage crew, etc. can have put together this incredibly long film with such a tight budget and little to no real technology.

This film draws the question, what about my own murder mystery silent film? One of my most favorite resources would be New York City. I would use the city as representation of raw truth. The scariest of images that the Caligari film portrayed, reality. The image of a dog eats dog world where you only get one shot and you must fight your way to make it to the top, as NYC is known for. The images of a corporate boss being harshly rude to his employees results in his death days after firing a handful of people. But who is the real murderer? More and more thoughts go into the idea of this murder mystery film I can portray such as the acting, music and the lighting which I believe, with good lighting, you can turn anything around.

Overall, the experience of watching The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was step outside my comfort zone. It showed images and ways of the film-making process I was never familiar with and truly showed me the “other side.” The “other side” such as the struggle, budget shortages, and unfamiliar/untrained aspects. It definitely is a movie I will remember but not so much a movie that I’d want to sit down again and re-watch in complete silence. Still, an amazing time and my curiosity still flourishes.

-Kevin Hasa