Dr. Caligari study questions

1. This story is about a man named Dr. Caligari and a man named Cesare. These two travel and make stops at carnivals saying Cesare can predict the future. Cesare accurately predicts the death of someone, soon after that other murders start to happen and people turn their eyes towards Cesare. Francis, the narrator, tries to figure out who is behind the murders. 

2. The film uses flashbacks to tell the story, it occurs through Francis explaining the story jumping from past to present. The director also uses angles and lighting to portray a "dark" mood of the story. 

3. The film uses dark lighting and minimal information to the audience which leaves us in suspense. With the use of camera angles and darker lighting it also gives off horror vibes to the audience. 

4. In the end, the final plot twist is that nothing of the story was real and it was all in Francis' mind. Francis is in a mental hospital along with Cesare, while Dr. Caligari is the director of the hospital. 

5. The plot twist makes the audience rethink about the entire story and put everything together at the end. This shows how a director can play around with the audience's perspective and how we think about the film. 

6. The set design shows that in early filmmaking the sets were almost like a play. The directors did not have much to work with and directors back then probably couldn't imagine what they'd be able to do with all the technology and architecture used today. Directors needed to make use a lot more of lighting, angles, and different lenses. 

7. The set design shows the film is meant to be more of a horror/eerie and dark type of film. The directors make use of this design and allow it to add to the suspense of the film. 

8. From my answers to 6 & 7, it really shows how much set designs and the background to films have changed throughout history. For its time I think the director did a very good job of using the limited resources they had but obviously much has changed in filmmaking. 

9. The movie "Us" by Jordan Peele gives me similar vibes just with the plot twist ending and having to rethink and retrace the entire movie and the director just deceiving the audience during the film. 

10. They make the audience question whether certain things are even happening and allow the viewers to interpret the film in different ways. Everyone's mind works differently so by doing this it leaves the interpretation of each scene up the the audience.