Minutes for GERM  3160, 8 September 2003.

Written up by John Shafer.

Class begins with a short discussion of doppelgänger manifestations in early, silent German films, particularly in Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) and in Wegener’s Der Golem (1920).  This motif is recognizable in The Student of Prague as well, a film discussed and watched in an earlier class, in the splitting of the student into a “good” version of himself and an “evil” (his mirror image).

A short discussion of Caligari follows.  The following items are mentioned:

-Story concept began as an indictment of the power structures that put Germany into World War I and cost Germany so many lives.

-Originally, it equated madness and power.

-This didn’t pass the censors, so the director put the story into a “frame” (i.e. the mind of a paranoid madman) to reverse the message of the body of the film.

-Film features expressionist production design—distortion of set/image/acting to reflect the distortion of the state of mind of its main character.

The film clip from Caligari is shown.  The clip showed the sleepwalking monster Caesare as he enters his victim’s bedroom.  The scene shows the abstract nature of the set, contrast of monster and victim, and the abduction of victim.

A short discussion of Golem follows.  The following items are mentioned:

-The expressionist design here is slightly altered—rather than straight, oblique/diagonal lines, the distortion is rather rounded, and more natural. 

-The later Hollywood version of Frankenstein shows the influence of this film, especially the scene in which a little girl offers the monster a simple gift, winning his trust/love.

-Germany is the main country utilizing expressionism at this time—Sweden and the United States (the other major film-producing countries) both lean more towards realism.

The film clip from Der Golem is shown.

A short discussion of Nosferatu (1922) follows.  The following items are mentioned:

-This is a version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula—in fact, the producers of Nosferatu lost a lawsuit to the Stoker’s wife, resulting in many of the original copies of the film being taken out of circulation. 

-In most versions of Dracula, the vampire is at least in some form attractive—not so in Nosferatu.

-The monster is hideous to reflect his evil and even his loneliness (he can’t die—he’s cursed with this loneliness, a theme from Stoker’s novel).

-Actor who plays the vampire: Max Schreck—appropriately, this is a German expression for “maximum horror.”

The film clip from Nosferatu fails to be shown because of trouble with the computer.