Picasso’s interpretation of Velazquez’s Las Meninas cleverly illustrated how light was used as an organizing structure for the original composition, where shards of light and dark separated the picture plane into moments of action, calm, and mystery.  A similar graphic quality is apparent in the expressionist set design of Dr. Caligari.  Expanding on the narrative technique of Las Meninas, in which the focus of representation is faintly implied, Wiene immersed his audience into the disorienting world of Francis’ psyche, where the only clue to his state of mind were the jagged visual planes, dissected by light and shadows.  The true character of Francis is revealed after the audience completely believes in the story and identifies with the narrator, who is in fact insane.  Since the story is based on Francis’ consciousness, his object of affection, Jane, is always basking in soft, bright, white light while the villain, Cesare, appears as a dark black figure.  Wiene used painted sets to achieve the dramatic effects of light and dark to convey the exaggerated sensations of a world perceived by an insane mind.  At the time of production, artificial lights in German studios were very basic and limited.  It would be impossible for Wiene to produce the same disorienting graphic quality with real lights.  Thus, the painted sets were the answer to his desire of using light as emotionally powerful as that observed in paintings of Velazquez, Caravaggio, or de la Tour.  Three quarters of a century later, Rodriguez used a modified form of painted light for his black and white adaptation of “Sin City”.  In the example above, the forms of windows were depicted by crisp light cast onto the floor of a dark room, almost as inverse shadows.  The window lights were overlaid by a perfect diagonal band that represented flashes from the lightning.  The background and lighting effects were all layers added using digital post-production.  This layering of actors on computer generated environments and lighting created the 2005 version of Wiene’s disorienting painted sets.