Robert Wiene’s silent film, “The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari”, is an early cinematic gem that uses expressionist form in order to convey social and political messages to viewers. This film is not only a representation of the artistic styles within Germany at the time, but also an insight on the opinions of the German people during the early Weimar Republic. Sociologists, such as Siegfried Kracauer, have praised this film for its artistic form and political message. The expressionist stylings of The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari are both immediate and abundant throughout the film. Gothic themes enter the storyline within the first scene when a man is observing the movements of the spirit of his fiancee. Title cards with disorderly designs narrate much …show more content…
The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari contains numerous socio-political themes. This film was created and released during a tumultuous time in Germany. The German people had just been involved in a bloody war that polarized much of the country. In the film, Dr. Caligari represented the German government, who used the somnambulist, Cesare, to carry out murders. Cesare represented the German soldiers in World War One, who had been used to kill others on behalf of the German Empire. The reason the German people are represented by a somnambulist is because like a sleepwalker, the German soldiers acted in ways that would not have if they were in control. Furthermore, Cesare is portrayed as zombie like, almost as if he had been put through great stress. The expressionist description of the days and nights during the film, particularly of the fair, were to illustrate the social paranoia and dismay of the German people during the war. The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari is a statement that attempts to separate the everyday German citizen from the terrible wartime acts of the Second