“A murder becomes visible – as a play of shadows on a gray wall. And shows once again how something imagined is more horrible than anything shown. No cinema can compete with our imagination. […] ” - Kurt Tucholsky, 1920
In the 1920's, the works of German director's Robert Wiene and Paul Wegener demonstrate a new way of expressing space in films. Previously in silent films, the architectural set was treated as that of the theatre, as a backdrop or static frame. However, with the medium of film the filmmaker was able to move past this obstacle, representing physically their inner ideas of our “reality”. Thus architectural sets became a major means of artistic expression.
"Space – hitherto considered and treated as something dead and static, a mere inert screen or frame, often of no more significance than the pained balustrade-background at the village photographer's – has been smitten into life, into movement and conscious expression. A fourth dimension has begun to evolve out of this photographic cosmos ”[1]
Caligari
As such an expression of the unconscious mind, Wiene's Caligari created a window into the soul of the main character. Wiene's set designs were of particularly expressionist spaces which revealed the character's delusional visions. The film is told as a flashback by the main character Francis, telling the story of the deranged Dr. Caligari and his sleepwalking Cesare, who are both related to a string of murders. Caligari had been manipulating the helpless Cesare, who committed these murders on his behalf. Francis investigates and exposes Caligari's involvement, revealing Caligari's psychosis and sending him to an insane asylum. The twist at the end is that Francis' flashback is revealed to be his fantasy. All the characters of his story are actually his fellow inmates at the asylum, with Caligari being revealed as the director of the facility. Hence, the scenes acted as visionary nightmares, showing in Francis' mind the opposition of a healthy reality and his sick unreality.
The architectural spaces created in Caligari were extremely expressive of this “unreal dream world” of the narrative. They created abstract and distorted sets that were shot with extreme camera angles (as shown in above images). This created a range of distorted views in the film. To achieve these effects they would use various techniques, such as placing walls at odd angles to create a claustrophobic atmosphere or painting the shadows on the set to increase the contrasts between light and dark. Therefore, rather than imitating reality, the filmmakers created their own world through simple means of stagecraft. As such the spaces of Caligari:
“were at once solid and transparent, fissured and veiled, camouflaged and endlessly disappearing, and all presented in a forces and distorted perspective that pressed space both backwards and forwards, finally overwhelming the spectator's own space, incorporating it into the vortex of the whole movie” [2]
Golem
Similarly in Wegener's Golem the set was used to represent an expressionist vision of the city of Prague .
The plot of this film concerns itself with the legendary creation of the golem by a Jewish rabbi. The golem is created to help the Jewish people, who were under persecution by the cities rulers. Unfortunately, the golem is misused by the rabbi's evil assistant, who uses it to for personal gain and to perform sordid criminal acts, culminating in the kidnapping of the Rabbi's daughter, Miriam. As such, the golem becomes destructive and totally out of control. A small girl is the only one able to calm it down long enough for it to be stopped.
The film sets designed by architect Hans Poelzig were highly expressive of the filmmaker's ideas of class segregation and separation within the city. Poelzig turned the Jewish ghetto into a labyrinthine settlement of clay buildings, which were meant to symbolize notions of timelessness, closeness, and unity within the Jewish community (as shown in the images below). This is accentuated when one compares the architecture of the ghetto to that of the imperial court. The ghetto appears unified, without architectural hierarchies, where no house stands out against the others. In contrast the imperial court shows rich ornamentation and extravagance. Through this comparison one can see the filmmaker's commentary on the excessive opulence that comes with social standings.
“It is not Prague that my friend the architect Poelzig built. Rather it is a poem of a city, a dream, an architectural paraphrase on the theme of the Golem. The lanes and squares are not meant to recall anything real; they are meant to create the atmosphere the Golem breathes ” - Paul Wegner, 1920[3]
Therefore, both Caligari and Golem are quite significant in the development of film as a primary medium of artistic expression. They demonstrated how set design could support both a film's narrative, while participating stylistically in contemporary artistic discussions. Hence the surroundings in the film no longer merely surrounded, but entered the experience of the narrative as a strong presence.
1 Neumann, Dietrich. Film architecture : set designs from Metropolis to Blade runner . Munich ; New York : Prestel, c1999; pg. 15
