Analysis of Dr. Caligari

Caligari is a critical example of German Expressionism. The fundamental tenet of expressionism is that the style of the film (the mis-en-scene, that is, the style and arrangement of scenery, actors, and props) represents the psychological state of the characters or of society at large. Here both are certainly expressed.

The film is set in a "traditional" German town of Holstenwall...but nothing is right. The traditional society is shattered by an unknown chaos...humanity has gone awry, society has gone awry.

Caligari probably most famous for its set design. The sets are out of joint, at "right angles to reality" (but don't actually contain any right angles). In Caligari, the psychological states of both the main character and the world are shown, not explained.

Caligari is, in most readings, an attack on the State. Caligari is the omnipotent state. He directs his somnambulist creature to commit evil. Cesare represents the German people in thrall to (insane) absolutist power. However, in this interpretation Cesare is not guilty...Overwhelmed by Caligari, he is a victim, existing to kill or be killed (as were the soldiers in the trenches). Critics have often argued that the depiction of Germany in thrall to absolute power foretold the emergence of Nazism and some (particularly the book and film critic Sigfried Kracauer, who, in 1947, wrote a book called From Caligari to Hitler: a psychological history of the German Film) have argued that films like this actually enabled the emergence of Nazism.

The interpretation of Caligari as anti-authoritarian is made more difficult by the frame which seems to de-fang the story, reducing it to a tale told by a madman. However two caveats: first, the frame may alternatively be interpreted as representing the retreat of the German people from confronting the realities and horrors of the war (and according to some critics, presages the emergence of Nazism). Second, what we make of the frame really depends on how we feel about Caligari at the end of the movie. Is he the benevolent director of the asylum or have the insane have taken over the madhouse... Somehow, I'd argue, the frame makes Caligari even more sinister than he might be without it. Would you leave your friend or relative at an asylum run by Dr. Caligari?

Before the film came out, posters appeared throughout Berlin with the words "You Must Become Caligari" and no further explanation. This is repeated within the film.

A related way of analyzing the film sees it as the clash between two different sorts of understanding of humanity. One understanding (represented by Francis) is of humanity as a moral-philosophical self (the idea of an individual who acts from reason, sentiment, and will) the other (represented by Caligari) is of humanity as a Freudian self (the idea of an individual who actions are the result of instinct and the unconscious as much...or more than any rational reasoning). In this reading, Cesare is Caligari's unconscious self, "the personification of Caligari's impulsive drives."