In 1920, various modern art ideas swept across the European continent, and artists from various art schools such as Impressionism, Expressionism, and Abstraction also initiated their thinking on the latest emerging art form: film. "Dr. Caligari's Cabin" was born in such a background, which is the representative work of German expressionist film. Expressionism took the exact opposite path from the earlier films, which were dedicated to capturing real life. Expressionism sought not to show the world in a plain way, but to use images, performances, lighting, editing, etc. to show what the artists at the time identified as the characteristics of film: the movement of static images.
First of all, in terms of set and lighting, the film "Dr. Caligari's Cabin" completely subverted most of the filmmaking before and even in our later generations. In the filming, the director used a large number of expressionist paintings to complete the set, and in terms of light and shadow, he almost abandoned the shadows produced by lighting and adopted the light and shadow lines drawn by the paintings. The set of realistic paintings with distortion of reality, coupled with the narrative form of subjective perspective, makes the film make a huge breakthrough and wonderful presentation in exploring the subjective feelings and psychological state of the characters through imagery.
In terms of lens skills, the film's use of extremely high light ratio photography makes lens skills leap to a major part of the film's narrative. And this way of photography with a large light ratio also influenced the shooting of other films such as "Nosferatu" and "Metropolis".
In terms of content, "Dr. Caligari's Cabin" introduced psychoanalysis and psychiatric science into film stories for the first time, and since then created a new film type: psychological thriller. Psychological thrillers are a characteristic genre of broad thrillers, which often include elements of mystery and dramatic genres in addition to the typical features of thrillers. Hollywood horror master Hitchcock's "Psycho" is a wonderful psychological thriller.
In film history, the influence of "Dr. Caligari's Cabin" does not stop there. In the social awareness section, some critics and film scholars believe that the film's theme is: control and obedience. In the film, those in power sit in high, pointed chairs, with wrongly convicted prisoners locked in shadows. German film theorist and sociologist Siegfried commented: The production and success of this film reflects the subconscious need of German society for autocratic rulers. The role of the film as a record and reflector of social group consciousness is vividly displayed in this film.
Almost a century has passed from 1920 to the present, and the pioneering approach to thriller films of Dr. Caligari's Cabin is still used by countless filmmakers. But as the film develops and progresses, we also have many questions about thriller movies. Dr. Caligari's Cabin is a thriller with equal emphasis on story, character and form. In the process of our daily movie viewing, such thriller movies are not common, and more thriller movies tend to focus on one aspect of rendering. Some are the characters that impress us, some are the stories that make us sweat, and some are the light, shadow and music that we can't forget for a long time. And what I'm talking about is character and form, and which is the source of horror is not the standard by which a thriller is judged superior or not. People's fear comes from the challenge of the unknown to life experience. There was a joke that said: A man met a ghost, but the ghost patted his chest and said, "The man is so scary that it scared me to death." This joke also proves this truth. Advanced art must come from life above life and return to life, and the same is true of horror art. Thriller movies should not only shock people with critical strikes, but also allow people to see the essence of life's mysteries from this fear, and obtain secrets for dealing with the unknown. For example, in the recently released "The Clown", the clown is not invincible, and why does the whole town have to live in this kind of fear and panic? Simply because they dare not face the unknown, they dare not face the fear itself. As President Roosevelt said in his mobilization speech: What we fear is fear itself.
If you look at the thriller in this way, then it is not difficult to find the meaning of the thriller. They tell the audience that what people lack is not the heart of fear, and the heart of fear will make people submit to the vile. What people lack is courage and awe, courage to the unknown, and respect for differences.
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