Trauma of the First World War through Expressionism: A Study of the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Abstract

In post-World War I Germany, expressionism appeared as a dominant style of artistic expression adapting itself to the atmosphere of cynicism, alienation and disillusionment which was prevalent at that time. With clear impact on art and literature, the movement also found a defining premise for itself in cinema. During the Weimar government’s rule cinema represented the inner thoughts and fear of the German people through expressionism. Expressionism, explained by John Titford, “must always be mimetic, symbolic, and can never be the thing it represents” (n.d.).The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) through its expressionist mise en scene is one of the first films to successfully experiment this art style and has become textbook material for studying expressionism. The study will attempt to analyze different aspects of the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) including use of mise en scene, characterization and the thematic illustration to symbolically represent the trauma of the first Great War.