‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’: the German Expressionist masterpiece that shaped Tim Burton’s gothic aesthetic
Noted for his unique visual style, Tim Burton’s oeuvre has harnessed a gothic aesthetic since he started making films in the 1980s, beginning with his first official short, Vincent. Shot in shadowy black-and-white and featuring sharp, angular lines as the backdrop for his stop-motion creations, the film planted the seed for the rest of his career, which would come to feature more elaborately designed sets and highly stylised characters and worlds.
Yet, the film was clearly inspired by a certain German Expressionist film from 1920, which emerged as a response to a post-war atmosphere of disorientation, distrust, and disillusionment. The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene, featured Werner Krauss as the titular character, a hypnotist who uses a somnambulist named Cesare to commit violent crimes on his behalf. The movie has been open to plenty of interpretations since it was released over 100 years ago, and it has endured as one of the most stylish and compelling movies of the German Expressionist era.
To many viewers, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is an allegory for war and totalitarianism. It’s a striking film that uses bold visuals to inform the narrative by creating a dizzying atmosphere, one full of sharpness and opposing light and dark shadows. In many instances, the set design is obviously painted, creating a disjointed contrast between reality and fantasy, emphasising the film’s themes of madness versus sanity.
Burton was evidently inspired by the movie, which also contained the first instance of a plot twist in cinema history, when he started making films and animations, drawn to this gothic underworld where distrust and uncertainty play prominent themes. While Vincent bears the most striking resemblance to Dr Caligari, the movie has shaped Burton’s overall approach to utilising style as a significant part of his storytelling.
How did The Cabinet of Dr Caligari shape Tim Burton?
If you’ve already seen Dr Caligari, watching Vincent, a six-minute short about a seven-year-old boy obsessed with wanting to be Vincent Price, will soon reveal obvious parallels to the classic horror film. The movie contains many similar uses of shadow and angular lines, with scenes like Vincent climbing up a massive flight of stairs that look like jagged teeth reflecting the harsh, fractured interiors in Wiene’s film.
Even the characterisation of Vincent looks just like Cesare, with his dark under eyes and black hair, suggesting that Burton took direct inspiration. What’s more, the exploration of a blurred line between reality and fantasy is apparent in both Vincent and Dr Caligari, with these nightmarish (or dreamlike?) worlds serving to emphasise a sense of destabilisation.
Years later, Burton made the stop-motion movie Frankenweenie, adapted from his 1984 live-action short film of the same name, which bore a resemblance to the style he introduced in Vincent. Once again, the influence of Dr Caligari is clear, with Cesare-like characters with shadowy under eyes and striking black-and-white cinematography serving to create a gothic atmosphere.
It’s no surprise that Burton has looked back to the angular world of German Expressionism so much. He is the most celebrated gothic filmmaker of the modern era, associated with accessible yet dark tales that have resonated with many adults and children, so what better period of cinema to look back on for inspiration than German Expressionism, specifically Dr Caligari? It was arguably cinema’s first proper gothic film, so for gothic enthusiasts like Burton, it’s practically a sacred text – one that has had an enduring influence over cinema.
