The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - Robert Wiene (1920)

TURAN O.

in: Architecture in Cinema, Bentham Science Publ, pp.251-267, 2024 identifier

  • Publication Type: Book Chapter / Chapter Research Book
  • Publication Date: 2024
  • Publisher: Bentham Science Publ
  • Page Numbers: pp.251-267
  • Keywords: Avant-garde architecture, Avant-garde cinema, Built environment, Dystopia, Expressionism, Expressionist architecture, Expressionist cinema, Fiction in architecture, Form-function, Frame, Horror movie, Intermediate space, Modern architecture, Perspective, Robert Wiene, Standardization, Story, Technology, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Trauma, Utopia
  • Erciyes University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the early exponents of expressionist and art cinema. The techniques in the movie function as a kind of mirror rather than a tool of entertainment. As an autonomous language specific to cinema has not yet been developed, the relationship with reality is handled on a more subjective level. The qualities of the space in Dr. Caligari oscillate between two-and three-dimensional spaces. The built environment has its own reality and aims to reflect a kind of mental construct in order to constantly express the subjective expression of the creator. The director uses a frame story to change his perspective. The forms in the built environment basically appear on the edge, as if they were deformed as a result of a certain impact. The technique of a frame story has also been used in architecture by means of intermediate spaces in order to blur the distinction between public and private in architecture.