Dr Caligari Narrative

The shot is from the film The Cabinent of Dr. Caligari, from 22:02 to 22:15. Leading up to this shot Francis and Alan went to see a spectacle at the fair of a somnambulist. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary a somnambulist has an, “abnormal condition of sleep in which motor acts (as walking) are performed”(“somnambulist”). He is said to be able to tell the future. When the somnambulist is awoken Alan asks him when he will die. The somnambulist answers that he will not live to see the morning. Alan goes home and falls asleep after this is when the shot begins.
The shot opens to the interior of an oddly designed home. Alan a young man with dark hair is asleep in his bed. The room is empty except for the bed with Alan in it and a chair

It was also a long shot which means that the shoot shows his full body, not cutting anything of. This is also known as a full body shot. Alan’s whole body is in the shot even though it is covered in blankets. The bed and Alan were in the slightly lower and center of the frame. Off to the the left of the frame is where the chair with five top rails is placed. Later in the shot when the shadowy figure emerges the shadow that is cast is in the upper right of the frame. The shadow figure is very big and higher up the shadow due to its position in the frame it seems much more powerful then Alan. Alan seems even less powerful because of his placement in the shot. the combination of being lower and smaller in the frame magnified how defenseless he was. The aspect ratio of the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was 1:33:1. The 1:33:1 aspect ratio is the the ratio which was used for the silent films of that time. This ratio was easy to achieve and dominated the big screen until films started moving more towards wide screen films when the talking movies came to be. The frame is fairly empty only showing the bed with alan, a strange chair, and a shadowed picture. This makes it easier to see and understand what's