The distortion, intensity and disorganized structure of expressionism itself leave strong visual stimulation to the viewers, and at the same time, there is a large area of blank space in the internal expression, telling those emotional, essential, and breakthrough themes , I personally think that when this style is viewed by current or ordinary audiences, although it can arouse strong resonance and emotion, there is always a gap. When the connotation of expressionism is conveyed in the form of film through an easily understandable image carrier, this estrangement is greatly dissipated. The rhythm of "Dr. Caligari's Cabin" is slower than that of modern movies, and it doesn't have the kind of confusion when watching today's high-information movies; the music is also simplified, with the main purpose of conveying emotions and promoting the rhythm; the performance continues the drama The absurd and exaggerated way; the play reflects the abstraction of expressionist literary creation ideas; the visual presentation, which cannot be ignored the most, combines the aesthetic characteristics of expressionist art paintings such as exaggeration, coldness and sharpness, creating a unique "Caligari". doctrine".
In the process of film and theater development, more and more three-dimensional picture effects are approached, Caligari went the opposite way and retained the most traditional features of German national expressionist art, dividing the elements in the scene into Many kinds of irregular geometric shapes are distorted and exaggerated, which makes the set and characters feel incongruous (exaggerated characters weaken some of this incongruity); With the layers of curtains at different positions and distances blocking each other, the plane has a sense of depth at the same time. There are a lot of details in the set that can be scrutinized, but the ones that attract me the most are the "shadows" and some ironic exaggerations. Shadows that were supposed to be created by lights are presented in a way of painting, so that shadows can also change exaggeratedly with the set, and even do not obey the physical laws of light. For example, when the wronged murderer is locked up in prison, the shadows and light converge on the center of the ground along the wall. It is difficult for a lighting engineer to do this kind of effect. This kind of shadow can make him feel wronged at that time. , the emotion of being oppressed by authority for no reason, makes up for the weakening of the actor's performance in the blurred black and white film. And the scene where Caesar kidnapped Jane at night, and the enormous pressure of the large, warped shadows seemed to devour them. Of course, simple lighting was also used in the scene, so that the shadows of the characters projected on the flat set had a terrifying sense of elongated silhouettes. There are also some exaggerated elements in the scene, in order to express the cruel and distorted society under war in reality and the madness of people under the high oppression of power and majesty. For example, the mayor's chair that is taller than the Doctor, the endless stairs of the police station and the mental hospital, the high barricade windows in the prison, the huge windows are like cages... Many places have been stretched The effect, in order to imply power and oppression, and these are unreasonable, extended to reality is war, the people do not have the right to choose whether to go to war, they can only follow the "will of the country", just like the large area in the picture " Keep it dark", they could not understand the meaning of the authoritative order at the top of the stairs.
There is no doubt that part of its landmark significance lies in art, and the other part is that the creators extracted dark materials from the history of war and social status, implicitly showing the madness of society or the madness of people contributed to the madness of society. Deformity, as conveyed by Figure Expressionist art, leaves a cruel feeling and at the same time arouses the subconscious resonance of social issues and causes reflection.
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