M&M: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Dear reader,

I hesitated for a long time, to watch this movie. When I finally did it a couple of days ago, I knew by the end of it, which would be my next M&M movie: “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” from 1920. This film is a silent film and for the colour and spoken words spoiled viewers, this is certainly not a film for everyone to enjoy. With a running time of just a bit over an hour though, it's not taking up too much time and certainly shouldn't stop you from watching it! Also it's a german film, though english subtitles for the text cards do exist. So English-speaking readers of my blog can relax and go watch it, too, if you're interested!

Francis (Friedrich Feher) tells a friend of the very strange and scary experiences, he and his friend Jane (Lil Dagover) went through at the holstenwall fair. It was there when Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) exhibited the somnambulist Cesare (very brilliantly played by Conrad Veidt). Somnambulist is the more technical term for sleep walking, to sleep very deep and yet move around and do things as if in a waking state. Dr. Caligari says that Cesare is 23 years old and has been asleep for 23 years! Cesare isn't a wonder for just sleeping for 23 years though. He can also see into the future. When Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) asks him, for how long he, Alan, would live, Cesare tells him “Until dawn.” In fact Alan is dead the next morning. Francis suspects Cesare to be the murderer right away and starts spying after him. The next victim should be Jane. But when Cesare sees how beautiful she is, he can't stab her, but kidnaps her instead. Jane's father wakes up from the noise so that Cesare eventually puts Jane carefully on the ground, before he can flee. Dr. Caligari is able to run away from an inspection of his caravan. He finds refuge in a madhouse. Is that the right place for Francis, to find the truth behind Dr. Caligari's secrets? See for yourself!

The style of the film is much like that of a Tim Burton film. Many angles are just odd, also for example shapes doors. The character of Cesare bares close resemblance to Johnny Depp as Edward Scissorhands. Certainly Tim Burton found inspiration in this film for Edward. The film is quite similar to a theatre play in terms of the set design and, among other things, the fact that it is separated into 6 acts. A theatre stage, especially with odd angles, can create feelings of claustrophobia and restriction. In that respect this horror film is created in a very interesting way, especially since it was made when the history of film was still rather young. If you like Tim Burton movies and enjoy a bit of a fright, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” might be one for you. Don't be afraid of silent movies, be brave. I didn't regret it! If you should be afraid of Dr. Caligari is another question...

Thanks to Mark Gatiss (yes, “him” again...), who with his three part series "A History of Horror with Mark Gatiss" brought my attention to this movie.

Until next blog,
sarah

Holey logic

Dear reader,

I'm living in the ruhr area, which means it's an area shaped by mining. What wasn't much thought of at the time of coal mining back then, is the fact that by drilling shafts underground, the ground level will be changed and moving, too. There is especially a danger of old shafts collapsing and leaving deep holes in the ground. You can see that in my parents' home, when you look around for example in the living-room. There and in the other rooms, you'll see smaller or longer cracks in the walls. You shouldn't think about it too much. Otherwise your mind might create images of suddenly tumbling walls or the ground would open up and swallow it up! There's also an interesting crack in the parquet floor between the living-room and dining-room. Now in winter the crack is almost invisible and closed. In the summer it's clearly visible and has the thickness of a finger. Once I heard my mother say that we'll have to leave the house in any case in about 10 years or so, when the house will be collapsing or breaking apart from the mining. A scary though, that the house will suddenly just collapse or break apart like that and be impossible to live in.

As a fan of Mark Gatiss, I know he was born in county durham. So when in the end of august this year, one of my mails from the guardian had the article headline of “30 metre wide sinkhole appears in Durham”, I was all ears, of course. Sam Hillyard had been for a walk with her dog when she noticed the hole, which has even grown wider now. The bottom can't be seen. It's assumed that if someone falls in there, it would be impossible to get the person out again. Which is why there are warnings now to keep your distance. It's assumed that it comes from mining in that area.


I was practically speechless when I read the following article headline though: “Kiruna: the town being moved 3km east so it doesn't fall into a mine”. The swedish town lives from iron-ore mining. Now the mining resulted in so much damage in the city, that the citizens have to move. Typical for the civilised people to often start thinking about their actions and results of that, when their own life is at risk because of it. Maybe futuristic films like Twelve Monkeys aren't that unrealistic after all and the surface of the earth is contaminated with something or otherwise condemned as uninhabitable. Or everything is sunken in from the many drillings and mining of things inside the earth, that there simply isn't a surface anymore as we know it now.

Until next blog,

sarah

Pain be gone!

Dear reader,

a couple of years ago I had a contact on the internet. One evening he wrote to me that he has had a headache. I wrote him that I know something with pain that might quite likely help him. He didn't have any pain anymore, but wanted to know anyway what I would have written to him to help. So I told him that I give pain a shape, something spiky and edgy and then turn it into something round and smooth, as I already explained in more detail in my Pain control post. He was very interested and fascinated by that. Then I didn't see him for a longer time. When he was online again after several weeks, he told me that he has had a skin rash. His hands had been red and must have hurt a lot. But he remembered what I have told him before and because of that his hands barely hurt him at all. He was absolutely delighted.


Sidney Rosen has a in his collection of Dr. Milton Erickson stories “My Voice Will Go with You: The Teaching Tales of Milton H. Ericksona story called “Calluses”, in which Erickson helped a construction worker, who was in much pain and paralysed except for using his arms and in after a heavy accident. Erickson suggested to him to tell his family and friends to bring him comic books and to tell the nurse to get him paste and scissors. He was to create scrapbooks from the comics. And every time a fellow workman would land in hospital, he should send one of those book to him.


When I was little, I knew my aunt on my father's side always with a dog. These days she doesn't have a dog anymore. After the last one died, she decided against a new one, so she could travel a bit more freely. She does takes care of the dogs of neighbours regularly. In the newspaper my parents get there's always a Peanuts comic. I collected the ones with Snoopy and put them together to a thin scrapbook for my aunt for her birthday. An old lady doesn't necessarily read comic. But, as I wrote in a card I included, this wasn't a usual comic book. She called me then to tell me she reads a page or two every day and was very happy about it.


I can only recommend to everyone who wants to make a book like that too, to start collecting very early on. If that book should be finished at a certain date, like for a birthday or christmas. It takes time to have all the “right” comics together, possibly longer than you expect it to take. Even with thin books like I used them. Below you can see a really tiny book I was lucky enough to just have, which I filled with quotes for a friend of mine, also cut from the newspaper. Two pages inside as an example for you and the cover.

Until next blog,

sarah