Caseus Archivelox: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

2002-01-15
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari contains one of the, if not the, first deliberately false flashback in movie history, Francis’s dream sequence, intended to confuse the audience. The set design during the dream sequence itself allows for the audience’s discomfort over the story to be heightened, as the lack of any right angles and exaggerated histrionic acting make the movie seem more unreal. The German expressionist set design causes a cinematically knowledgeable viewer to question the reliability of Francis’s version of the events, as the set design and acting have become the classic way to tell a dream sequence. That the framing parts of the story were added later does nothing to detract from the effectiveness of the sequence. Although it does detract somewhat from the theme of questioning authority, if we are to assume that Francis is not insane, it does cause the viewer to come to the conclusion that the authority in the asylum is more insane than the patients. However, the framing also forces the viewer to look closely at how his story of the somnambulist has allowed Francis to fulfill all of his dreams. Cesare kills by stabbing, using a phallic symbol to remove Alan, the main threat to his being the only lover of Jane. Although the first murder has nothing to do with his love for Jane, it could be taken as either the random murder is the main reason for Francis to be in the asylum in the first place, or, more likely, as a way to justify in his mind that he is not the one who committed all of these crimes, because he never knew the clerk. When he, in his alternate body as the somnambulist, comes to stab Jane, he is incapable of doing so, symbolically showing his impotence, and giving insight to the viewer the reasons for Cesare killing with a knife. After he realizes that he cannot consummate his relationship with Jane, in reality because they are both in an insane asylum, and fraternizing of the patients in that matter was probably discouraged, his mind fixates on the director, the reason that he believes he cannot be with the woman he loves, and invents his version of the events that have so far made up the story, including the linking of the director with the historically insane Dr. Caligari. The parallels between his suppression (in the Carrollian sense) and the director’s in his dream show that Francis has just taken what he knows and projected it upon the other inmates and doctors at the asylum.