HISTART 2901 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Conrad Veidt, Robert Wiene, Sleepwalking
23 Mar 2017
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The silent era and the development of narrative form: 1913-1925. Starting off on handout #3: germany: weimar cinema and expressionism. The cabinet of dr. caligari (1921) by robert wiene. The majority of significant actions are being related to us through flashbacks, particularly through franzis, who is also the narrator. As far as the flashback sequence is concerned, it appears to have a fairly conventional structure to create a three-plot structure (rising action, climax, falling action). Robert wiene uses a conservative approach to shot: camera is static (aside from one very short panning shot, and we"ll see another), usually at a straight-on angle and medium distance. These are characteristics of primitive era shooting. It looks back to the preceding period and takes its cue from earlier narrative cinema, though we know it is not a primitive era film--it"s from the silent era. Wiene used multiple shots per scene (just as in battle at elderbush gulch).
