Essay on Dr. Caligari

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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Robert Wiene directed this silent horror film in 1918, which was the beginning of expressionism in Germany. At the end of the 19th century expressionism was growing in Germany and was radically different from impressionism. Expressionists saw the natural world as vivid, jarring, and dynamic. Deformation of naturalness was a legitimate means of expressing a critical attitude toward society. They saw the world as terrifying and saw that society was insecure, anxious, and worried. To them, the world was spinning out of control with no means of stopping. External reality seemed to be fragmented, disjointed and chaotic. Expressionists believed that the object of art was to serve as a warning against the ugly world around them. Expressionist artists tried to pinpoint the expression of the inner experience. The German people became very afraid of reality during the age of expressionism. Max Plank stated that matter and force have weight and create a single law of conservation. Albert Einstein discovered his theory of relativity. These accomplishments made the people think about their perception of reality. There were also many advances in social science during this time. Ivan Pavlov experimented on dogs and their salivary gland. When Pavlov rang a bell, the dog would associate the bell with food and dinnertime, thus the dog would begin to salivate even when the food wasn’t there. The dog was able to realize that the bell and food went hand in hand. The German people were frightened after hearing about this because they never knew that dogs actually had a conscious. Germans were now filled with horror and dread and were losing a grip on the world. At first I was very skeptical about this film. I judged the film at first, because I had never watched a silent horror film before. I had also never seen a

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