"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"

I am used to watching films in class because I have taken several film classes, but I have never watched a silent film before seeing, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.” I have seen an Expressionism film (Suspiria), so it was easy to tell that Expressionism was portrayed throughout with the use of shadows and irregular shapes.  All things were misshaped such as, the doors, windows, shadows of the people, and even the posters they carried at the fair.  The use of lighting is very distinct as well.  The lights and darks to create the shadows do make the film somewhat of a horror, as mentioned in the lecture. It shows the light and dark that people feel, the insecurities and anxieties people have especially in Germany during that time. They also reflect the dramatic mood of the characters (Dr. Caligari) and film.  Having dramatized the scenery in the film was brilliant, it really set the mood for what was trying to be portrayed. 

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is what starts the scene. You are looking at a crowd of people who gather in the tent of Dr. Caligari to watch the Somnambulist, who can “read the future.”  The scene is dark and you are unsure of what to predict just expected to believe.  The music adds to this unsure feeling of the crowd and also of Germany at that time.  Dr. Caligari tells them what is happening is real, pretty much they should believe what he is saying, they are all being brainwashed and no one questions or comments that what he says and shows may not be the case.  Hitler after WWI was the same, and could be related Dr. Caligari.  Making everyone believe and like his way and methods, he controlled people just as Dr. Caligari controlled the people watching and the somnambulist to murder.  

Passage from Siddharta:

"On the way, Siddhartha also remembered everything he had experienced in the Garden Jetavana, the teaching he had heard there, the divine Buddha, the farewell from Govinda, the conversation with the exalted one. Again he remembered his own words, he had spoken to the exalted one, every word, and with astonishment he became aware of the fact that there he had said things which he had not really known yet at this time. What he had said to Gotama: his, the Buddha's, treasure and secret was not the teachings, but the unexpressable and not teachable, which he had experienced in the hour of his enlightenment—it was nothing but this very thing which he had now gone to experience, what he now began to experience. Now, he had to experience his self. It is true that he had already known for a long time that his self was Atman, in its essence bearing the same eternal characteristics as Brahman. But never, he had really found this self, because he had wanted to capture it in the net of thought. With the body definitely not being the self, and not the spectacle of the senses, so it also was not the thought, not the rational mind, not the learned wisdom, not the learned ability to draw conclusions and to develop previous thoughts in to new ones. No, this world of thought was also still on this side, and nothing could be achieved by killing the random self of the senses, if the random self of thoughts and learned knowledge was fattened on the other hand. Both, the thoughts as well as the senses, were pretty things, the ultimate meaning was hidden behind both of them, both had to be listened to, both had to be played with, both neither had to be scorned nor overestimated, from both the secret voices of the innermost truth had to be attentively perceived. He wanted to strive for nothing, except for what the voice commanded him to strive for, dwell on nothing, except where the voice would advise him to do so. Why had Gotama, at that time, in the hour of all hours, sat down under the bo-tree, where the enlightenment hit him? He had heard a voice, a voice in his own heart, which had commanded him to seek rest under this tree, and he had neither preferred self-castigation, offerings, ablutions, nor prayer, neither food nor drink, neither sleep nor dream, he had obeyed the voice. To obey like this, not to an external command, only to the voice, to be ready like this, this was good, this was necessary, nothing else was necessary."

**I chose this passage because to me it basically sums up the point of the story.  It shows Siddhartha's moment of awakening, the first moment when he was no longer going through the motions but actually thinking, and realizing for himself.  I connect with this because I believe that everyone should experience life, and different experiences through out life for themselves, and I try to live my life that way.  If they are listening to what others have already put into their mind then they are already altered, and are not experiencing anything real through them selves, but in fact, through others.

Analysis: 

This story of Siddhartha is a spiritual journey to reach enlightenment and essentially find one’s self.  Many paths were explored and taken, and learned by Siddhartha and still none left him feeling satisfied, he was still hungry to learn and know more.  Siddhartha has a moment of awakening here where he has realized that there is nothing one person or teacher could tell him, he has to experience it all by himself, to be fully satisfied.  Not only to experience “it” himself, it referring to enlightenment, but he had to experience himself, find out and learn about himself.  In the passage he has the tools he needs, his thoughts as well as his senses.  Siddhartha is use to listening to a set of teachings and rules and following them through as they are supposed to, it’s only when he questions them that he starts his journey. 

Throughout the world now there are different religions, different beliefs that tell you how you are supposed to feel or carry out your life.  This is related to all the different bumps in the road Siddhartha hit, each one he lived through, and then later questioned, “Why is it like this?”  Or “why should things happen this way?”  In nihilism all these beliefs and ideologies are questioned or found untrue.  Just as Siddhartha had questioned these beliefs so do those who have nihilistic views. Also, those who living in Germany during the Dadaism movement, and who were a part of it also questioned and went against the views on how they should live.  In fact they did just the opposite.  It is better to be your own power and not be ruled by others’ beliefs or what people tell you is right, because you may never maximize YOUR full potential.   

Dadaism and the "Dada Manifesto"

It is fair to say people truly suffered from the First World War and that is what brought about this Dada “meaningless” art.  People wanted to stray away from everything that Germany now was and defy it, not just art but Germany as a whole.  Creating this anti-art was a way to express that.  To me it may not be considered “expressionism” and come from the soul as expressionism does, but it does show the feeling of the artists.  It shows the hate and anger they feel, just not expressed so dramatically and with color.

“The movement became famous for its use of "photomontage" as a way of creating a fragmented experience of art, that they believed reflected modern experience and for its "anti-art" stance in favor of depictions of unpleasant even ugly pictures. In Germany, the Dada movement was more consciously political than other Dada movements.”  I picked this passage because it explains Dadaism exactly how I see it.  Ugly art, yes.  So oddly put together like a collage, with so much going on, it is the first thing that came to mind when looking at the pictures.  I also picked this passage, because it is strange to me that in a time of them opposing the war and everything that followed, they seemed to take so much from the war and put it into their art.  To me their art looks like propaganda, which is what I thought it was a first.  It seems odd they would almost mimic it when they just went through such hard times. 

“How can one get rid of everything that smacks of journalism, worms, everything nice and right, blinkered, moralistic, europeanised, enervated? By saying dada. Dada is the world soul, Dada is the pawnshop. Dada is the world's best lily-milk soap. Dada Mr Rubiner, dada Mr Korrodi. Dada Mr Anastasius Lilienstein. In plain language: the hospitality of the Swiss is something to be profoundly appreciated. And in questions of aesthetics the key is quality.”

In Hugo Ball’s Manifesto he is pretty much saying that although the word itself does not have much meaning the movement does.  This movement will be everything, this movement will be a way to turn all that ugliness into something more.  Also, to “rid of everything that smacks of journalism, worms, everything nice and right…” was through the Dadaism movement. Nothing was nice and right after the war, and the view that people had to go back to things being “nice and right” was not one lived through “Dada.” You needed something different, something new, break away from what was before and express and defy as he is doing in his manifesto.  “Each thing has a word,” everything has a name but not only that it’s what that name possess and carries, and the quality in which it is delivered.  At the end of the passage I chose it says, “and in questions of aesthetics the key is quality.”  Pretty much saying what I just said previously, the process in which Dadaism is delivered can make things beautiful again through quality of it, the cooperation and feeling about it that he has.  This can relate to the world in any struggle really.  There is always a different outlook and different approach to see things and do things.  

Nihilism in Dadaism

"Republican Automatons"

George Grosz, 1920

The Artist and his Automatons...

This piece and artist were part of the  Dadaism movement.  I chose this piece because after doing the reflections and assignment for this week I have found Dadaism quite interesting.  A very creative movement that not only expressed the feeling of the artists, but was brought about to promote change in what they viewed as corrupt and wrong.  The picture is quote boring and lifeless especially in the back. The buildings are not very colorful, they almost look like cardboard box cut outs that you might have made to play with as a child.  Either way not very amusing, in general and especially in comparison to the previous paintings in the lecture, which really had beautiful colors and dramatics.  The only amusing piece to this painting is that of these odd figures.  Both men are dressed in suits, like they may be some sort of political figure, being that dadaism was very political.  Also they don't look very life like, stick figures with broken parts.  One with a wooden leg and one with a mechanical arm. Probably broken from the war.  In my opinion these men look like robots, or more like toys then can be wound up and controlled, which was the way in which many acted during and after the war.  They were machines urged by militarism and the former socialism that many dadaists felt betrayed by.  George Grosz witnessed the war first hand, so he had a true passion for the Dadaism movement.  Grosz also changed his named to show his dislike for German nationalism and growing love for America, where he later moved.  

"Grey Day"

George Grosz, 1921

This painting takes after the first one.  It's colors are dull and lifeless and there is not much going on in the picture.  Again a businessman is the star of his piece and in this picture a wall separates him from a wounded soldier. As if the businessman or politician should not be on the same side as the older, worn out soldier.  Factories in the back signifying life moving forward in an orderly manner, also a man going to work which signifies order as well.  If you really look in the back you can see a political figure possibly? Keeping eye on the "order" and life of the soldier and worker.  

"Eclipse of the Sun"

George Grosz, 1926

This picture very conveys a similar message as the other two, but it does look a lot different.  This painting is a live with color, bright colors.  It also has a lot going on like many Dada pictures have, but the first two did not.  It looks like a collage, pieces of importance to someone put together on one canvas.  The political figures are very apparent in this, and have come to life.  This picture is probably my favorite, it is so obviously portraying the corrupt Germany as George Grosz saw it.  There are two men with heads, probably the leaders, who are controlling the men with no heads, which we have seen before in Grosz's previous painting.  they are in a room that almost looks like a gambling room, as if they were about to play a game of cards.  Also one of the men in power is whispering to the other in his ear, also showing the corruption of the politicians. I am not sure what the animal is, maybe a donkey, signifying that they may all be jack@$$es, maybe not at all, but I wouldn't be surprised.  Lastly the "sun" is not only a sun, but it has a US dollar sign on it representing money profited from the war??

Nihilistic views...

All of three paintings and the painter were painted through nihilistic views, because after the War people became nihilistic.  Germany was moving like robots, and people were trying to do things orderly, what Dadaism brought out was more Dionysian .  People should not be limited and controlled by the corrupt system, just as the politicians are in the paintings. They should express themselves, just as Hugo Balls's Dada Manifesto did, so they can maximize their full potential.