What is the essential story?
- The story begins when a man named Francis is telling a story, of his past with an old friend Alan, to another man. In this story Francis and Alan are at a carnival and attend the Dr. Caligari and his somnambulist show. There the somnambulist predicts that Alan is to die the next night. Alan then is murdered the next night and Francis is on a mission to solve the mystery behind Alan's death.
How does the film tell its story?
- The film is told like a story. Francis is flashes back to his past to explain his experience with Dr. Caligari and his somnambulist. To further dive into the question, there are lot of bodily interactions. Meaning the use of body language was used to convey a lot of information to the audience including creepy lighting to convey an eerie atmosphere.
What conventions of cinematic storytelling does it use?
- There are lot of bodily interactions. Meaning the use of body language was used to convey a lot of information to the audience including creepy lighting to convey an eerie atmosphere.
Explain the final "plot twist."
- The final plot twist is that Francis is actually in a mental patient institute and that his story could be delusions and that he made up the story and the women and friend he was telling the story to were actually inmates in the mental asylum.
How does the final plot twist comment upon cinematic storytelling?
- The final plot twist was ahead of its time. It took storytelling to heights it has never seen before and allowed directors and actors to use it as a resource for their movies to further expand film making.
What do the set designs say about early filmmaking?
- The set designs were also ahead of its time. With the set colors, in the beginning of the story, and the blue lights, it truly created a ghostly eerie vibe that the director was trying to create.
What do the set designs imply about stories and storytelling?
- The set designs implies that the story is supposed to be thrilling, suspenseful and to keep the audience at the edge of their seats. It creates a vibe that the movie is supposed to be eerie.
How do the answers to questions 6 and 7 move us to contemplate the cultural relevance of this film?
- Since the movie was ahead of its time in set design, it created a precedent that everything in a movie, including the small details, from settings, visual colors, etc... creates a overreaching atmosphere and vibe that can further impact the audience as they are watching the film.
If you had to think about a more modern, 20th century film with traces to Caligari, what would they be? Why?
- I think the French film, "He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not" has traces to Caligari. The overall plot are not similar but the plot twist at the end are similar. In the movie, the main character Angelique thinks that she is apart of an affair with a man while he and his wife are at outs because of a miscarriage. But in reality she imagined it all and is psychotic and caused the miscarriage so she can be with the man.
How do questions about the reliability of a narrator suggest meanings, cultural relevance, and the nature of film?
- The reliability of the narrator suggests to question everything. As we know most stories are told from ONE PERSPECTIVE and that one perspectives has its own perceptions and bias's of the events. Culturally it allowed the audience to never really trust a narrator but it also depends on the nature of the film, but for a film like this question everything.
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