Cars

 

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Study Questions

1. The story begins with our perceived narrator telling another man about an event that happen within the town seemingly a couple years ago that resulted in his "fiancé" acting rather strange. A Dr. Caligari entering the town and suddenly a series of murders occur. We learn more about the murders leading up to the end when we find the secret identity of Dr. Caligari.

2. It tells us this story in a flashback format almost. The story is all in our narrators perspective and this is shown when ever he's on screen he tends to solely face the camera. We also pop back into present day where he starts dramatically tell the story, alluding to some of the details being potentially exaggerated.

3. They use a sort of fish eye perspective to limit the information that we may be given at a time at certain scenes which helps build suspense, they also incorporate this on singular characters that make you question their innocence and intentions in that moment.

4. I think the final plot twist was our narrator was the one who was actually insane and how his delusion him to believe the director of the insane asylum to be this Dr. Caligari. What I was able to take from this was that our narrator was a patient of the asylum and in the same way he believed the director was obsessed and completely consumed by this mystical Caligari, the whole time it was him.

5. Typically we assume the narrator is the "good guy" and are a the good frame of reference with what's going on in that cinematic world. It shows how easily the story could be skewed if we just blindly believe what we see play out in front of us. However we see that by the end, we don't know how much of the story that we see play out is what actually occurred.

6.I think it showed that they didn't have huge open spaces and instead took a very theatrical approach with reusing certain scenes with very minor differences, the carnival entrance where the man with the monkey were taking what I assumed to be tips or tickets, and using perspective to their advantage to make rooms appear larger than they were. One thing I thought was interesting was that at no point did I see a normal door, they were all oddly shaped and very tall.

7. By having this unique look to the film, it generates a very eerie feeling as I was watching. When expecting certain things to look the same, doors for example, seeing that they were very different is unsettling. Humans tend to like to see what they are used to, so when met with something you're familiar with but isn't quite the same, that can spark a reaction 

8. The early 1920's we see the introduction of sound synchronized with film become more prominent. During tense portions of the film the music was able to reflect those feelings of intensity and uncertainty.

9. The shining, this movie uses the a similar mind puzzling approach that catches you off guard and has you in the dark the whole time. The uncertainty that you have while watching about the true nature of the world around I think was is a very significant aspect of both of these films

10. Throughout watching this film I was already questioning the reliability of the narrator, something about his story that he was telling just seemed odd. Certain scenes made me question him because of his "reactions" more so the lack there of. When his good friend was murdered he was looking more towards the camera and seemed to not really be present with the situation right in front of him. This made me suspect that maybe he might not be the most stable and trustworthy source. This also added to the uncertainty in the film which I think made the plot twist at the end that much more impactful. (I called it from the beginning that he was a little cray cray)