Un Chien Andalou

The intial viewing of this film had me with a handful of questions in my mind due to the incoherent explanation of the plot. Salvador Dali really questions the audience's sanity with the surreal visuals he expresses in this film. Whether it's a eye getting stabbed or maybe ants crawling out of a hand. I wondered though throughout the film that maybe there were some connections to Dali's life in this film. Such as the man and the woman constantly arguing may have some sort of reference towards the conflicts of love Dali experiences on a day to day basis. Although I was drawn into the creepy, surreal moments of the movie, I was more or less interested in the message Salvador Dali was trying to convey. If his paintings can say a lot without spoken word, what makes this film any different. I knew going into this movie that it was gonna be surreal so I wasn't too deprived of my sanity. This uneven storyline only questioned my mind even more as to what the purpose was to put that certain shot in. For example, the camera pans to a bed with a man on it then pans back to the lady where she suddenly moves to a certain direction out of the frame from which she enters a totally different setting of a beach where she walks with a different man. I was also curious why there was such an emphasis on hands in the films, maybe the hand was a symbol for something in Dalis life. Alls I can say is this film is needed to be seen more than once to fully understand what the director was trying to say to his audience that you might have not gotten the first time around.

The Critiscm Behind the Cabinet of Dr.Caligari

As I read the New York Times articles, The Screen, A Cubistic Shocker, and Brought Into Focus, I began to notice the cultural impact that this movie has on the rest of the world. Since the articles were dated around the 20's, the genre of horror was relatively new to the world. The articles depicted that German cinema focused on moving pictures rather than in America, were it was growing out of silent films. In German films such as Caligari, you didn't need that much subtitles due to the acting potrayed in the films which instantly grabs you in the story. The Cabinet of Dr.Calagari is an example of a film that is so terrifying, so surreal, so interesting that you can't resist being glued to the screen watching it. The film does an excellent job of expressing the thoughts and visuals that came out of the German Expressionism movement at that time. Like how the Journeymen have stated, during this time German cinema was headed towards the advancement of moving pictures as an art form and because of this, it influenced many directors in America to film in a similar style. In my experience watching the film, I was still a little spooked even by today's standards with the horror films that have been produced. This theme of a madman's devotion to his creation (Cesare) has duplicated too many times to count making this film way ahead of it's time. One thing that i liked is that you didn't know what was gonna happen next and when you did, it made the experience even more thrilling. You could notice how the focus shots where it would show one person in front followed by another person behind him followed by another person behind him all in one shot was elaborately used in Citizen Kane. I wished they shined more light on Cesare for example when he was about to kill the woman when he suddenly stops himself from doing it. To me, Cesare just wants to be accepted, monster or not. I can go on and on about how this film influenced other films but if there's one thing this film is, it's without a doubt a film you must see.

The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an example of how delusional visuals can produce a quite chilling thriller. It uses many innovative techniques such as lightning and score to tell a story of a madman. Since it was a silent film, the actors may it their mission to describe a scene through exaggerated body language which i thought was clever and humorous at the same time. The setting isn't something you would find in Germany so this lopsided architecture for sure had an effect on the future films of Tim Burton. They way the set up the score so that it would fade in and fade out leaving the audience on the tip of their toes as to what was going to happen next was brilliant. The tempo of the audio was key in that whenever there was a moment of suspense, it would gradually increase which by today's standards is a common technique used. The character of Dr. Caligari played by Warner Krauss was great in that the guy had so much personality to him not to mention the makeup job on him was very believable and impressive. Everything from the setting to the credits were surreal which i can't say enough definitely caught the attention of directors like Terry Gilliam, who uses surreal aspects in his films. The lighting is something that has been imitated many times in which it shows how the audience knew something was coming through the shadows, but the other character didn't. Tinting was also used significantly throughout the film in which it not only showed the setting of the scene but the general atmosphere of the characters in the scene. If you look at the character of Cesare, you could see he's type of character whose life is controlled like a puppet. He performs the actions that Caligari wants him to do and to me, that makes me think of Cesare altogether. All he wants is to be loved but his appearance and the fact that he is a sleepwalker is only attributing to his loneliness. This is definably a movie you should go see without reading the reviews first because at the initial viewing, you will be shocked yet amazed at the same time as I was. It shows how a film doesn't need to have audio to be accepted to be great and shows how visuals can make people second guess the film's genius.