Editing The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (section)

===Development===
Many details about the making of ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' are in dispute and will probably remain unsettled due to the large number of people involved in the making of the film, many of whom recalled it differently or dramatised their own contributions to its production.<ref name="Barlow34">{{Harvnb|Barlow|1982|p=34}}</ref><ref name="Robinson7">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997|p=7}}</ref><ref name="Eisner17-18">{{Harvnb|Eisner|1974|pp=17–18}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Budd|1990b|p=25}}</ref> Production of the film was delayed about four or five months after the script was purchased.<ref name="Robinson11" /> Pommer originally chose Lang as the director of ''Caligari'', and Lang even went so far as to hold preparatory discussions about the script with Janowitz,<ref name="Robinson11" /> but he became unavailable due to his involvement with the filming of ''[[The Spiders (film)|The Spiders]]'', so Wiene was selected instead.<ref name="Eisner20" /><ref name="Peary50">{{Harvnb|Peary|1988|p=50}}</ref><ref name="Finler70">{{Harvnb|Finler|1997|p=70}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Kobel|2007|p=83}}</ref> According to Janowitz, Wiene's father, a successful theatre actor, had "gone slightly mad when he could no longer appear on the stage", and Janowitz believed that experience helped Wiene bring an "intimate understanding" to the source material of ''Caligari''.<ref>{{Harvnb|Janowitz|1941|p=228}}</ref>

[[File:The Cabinet of Dr Caligari Holstenwall.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The designers of ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' chose a fantastic, graphic visual style instead of a naturalistic one; this included twisted city scenes that were painted directly onto canvases.|alt=A sepia-tinted drawing of a city landscape, with several tilted buildings packed tightly together in sharp angles on a steep hill.]]
Decla producer [[Rudolf Meinert]] introduced Hermann Warm to Wiene and provided Warm with the ''Caligari'' script, asking him to come up with proposals for the design.<ref name="Robinson22">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997|p=22}}</ref> Warm believed "films must be drawings brought to life",<ref name="Kracauer76">{{Harvnb|Kracauer|1947|p=68}}</ref> and felt a naturalistic set was wrong for the subject of the film, instead recommending a fantastic, graphic style,<ref name="Barlow33" /><ref name="Robinson22" /> in which the images would be visionary, nightmarish and out of the ordinary.<ref>{{Harvnb|Barlow|1982|pp=40–41}}</ref> Warm brought to the project his two friends, painters and stage designers [[Walter Reimann]] and [[Walter Röhrig]],<ref name="Barlow33" /><ref name="Eisner19">{{Harvnb|Eisner|1974|p=19}}</ref><ref name="Thomson139">{{Harvnb|Thomson|2008|p=139}}</ref> both of whom were associated with the Berlin art and literary magazine ''[[Der Sturm]]''.<ref name="Barlow33" /><ref name="Kracauer76"/><ref name="Budd26">{{Harvnb|Budd|1990b|p=26}}</ref> The trio spent a full day and part of the night reading the script,<ref name="Eisner19" /> after which Reimann suggested an Expressionist style,<ref name="Barlow33" /><ref name="Eisner19" /><ref name="Brockmann60">{{Harvnb|Brockmann|2010|p=60}}</ref> a style often used in his own paintings.<ref name="Robinson22" /><ref name="Eisner19" /><ref name="Brockmann60" /> They also conceived the idea of painting forms and shadows directly onto the sets to ensure a dark and unreal look.<ref name="Barlow33" /> According to Warm, the three approached Wiene with the idea and he immediately agreed,<ref name="Barlow33" /><ref name="Eisner19" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997|p=23}}</ref> although Wiene has made claims that he conceived the film's Expressionist style.<ref name="Eisner19" /> Meinert agreed to the idea after one day's consideration, telling Warm, Reimann and Röhrig to make the sets as "crazy" and "eccentrically" as possible.<ref name="Robinson45" /><ref name="Eisner19" /> He embraced the idea for commercial, not aesthetic reasons: Expressionism was fashionable at the time, so he concluded even if the film received bad reviews, the artistic style would garner attention and make it profitable.<ref name="Robinson45" />

Wiene filmed a test scene to demonstrate Warm, Reimann and Röhrig's theories, and it so impressed the producers that the artists were given free rein.<ref name="Peary50"/> Pommer later said he was responsible for placing Warm, Reimann and Röhrig in charge of the sets,<ref name="Robinson20">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997|p=20}}</ref> but Warm has claimed that, although Pommer was in charge of production at Decla when ''Caligari'' was made, he was not actually a producer on the film itself. Instead, he says Meinert was the film's true producer, and that it was he who gave Warm the manuscript.<ref name="Barlow33" /><ref name="Eisner19" /><ref name="Robinson21">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997|p=21}}</ref> Warm claimed Meinert produced the film "despite the opposition of a part of the management of Decla".<ref name="Robinson22" /> Meinert said Pommer had "not sanctioned" the film's abstract visual style.<ref name="Robinson21" /> Nevertheless, Pommer claimed to have supervised ''Caligari'', and that the film's Expressionistic style was chosen in part to differentiate it from competing [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] films.<ref name="Brockmann60-61" /> The predominant attitude at the time was that artistic achievement led to success in exports to foreign film markets.<ref name="Kracauer65">{{Harvnb|Kracauer|1947|p=65}}</ref> The dominance of Hollywood at the time, coupled with a period of inflation and currency devaluation, forced German film studios to seek projects that could be made inexpensively, with a combination of realistic and artistic elements so the films would be accessible to American audiences, yet also distinctive from Hollywood films.<ref name="Kracauer65" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Budd|1990b|p=22}}</ref> Pommer has claimed while Mayer and Janowitz expressed a desire for artistic experimentation in the film, his decision to use painted canvases as scenery was primarily a commercial one, as they would be a significant financial saving over building sets.<ref name="Peary49" /><ref name="Eisner18">{{Harvnb|Eisner|1974|p=18}}</ref>

Janowitz claims he attempted to commission the sets from designer and engraver [[Alfred Kubin]], known for his heavy use of light and shadow to create a sense of chaos,<ref name="Kracauer67" /><ref name="Janowitz222" /><ref name="Budd32">{{Harvnb|Budd|1990b|p=32}}</ref> but Kubin declined to participate in the project because he was too busy.<ref name="Janowitz222" /><ref name="Robinson20" /><ref name="Eisner18" /> In a conflicting story, however, Janowitz claimed he requested from Decla "Kubin paintings", and that they misread his instructions as "[[cubism|cubist]] painters" and hired Reimann and Röhrig as a result.<ref name="Janowitz222" /> David Robinson argues this story was probably an embellishment stemming from Janowitz's disdain for the two artists.<ref name="Robinson20" /> Janowitz has claimed that he and Mayer conceived the idea of painting the sets on canvas, and that the shooting script included written directions that the scenery be designed in Kubin's style.<ref name="Janowitz222" /><ref name="Robinson20" /> However, the later rediscovery of the original screenplay refutes this claim, as it includes no such directions about the sets.<ref name="Robinson20" /> This was also disputed in a 1926 article by Barnet Braverman in ''[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]]'' magazine, which claimed the script included no mention of an unconventional visual style, and that Janowitz and Mayer in fact strongly opposed the stylisation. She claims Mayer later came to appreciate the visual style, but that Janowitz remained opposed to it years after the film's release.<ref name="Robinson21" />

The set design, costumes and props took about two weeks to prepare.<ref name="Robinson24">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997|p=24}}</ref> Warm worked primarily on the sets, while Röhrig handled the painting and Reimann was responsible for the costumes.<ref name="Barlow34" /> Robinson noted the costumes in ''Caligari'' seem to resemble a wide variety of time periods. For example, Caligari and the fairground workers' costumes resemble the [[Biedermeier]] era, while Jane's embody [[Romanticism]]. Additionally, Robinson wrote, Cesare's costume and those of policemen in the film appear abstract, while many of the other characters' seem like ordinary German clothes from the 1920s.<ref name="Robinson28">{{Harvnb|Robinson|1997|p=28}}</ref> The collaborative nature of the film's production highlights the importance that both screenwriters and set designers held in German cinema of the 1920s,<ref name="Barlow34" /><ref name="Eisner19" /> although film critic [[Lotte H. Eisner]] said sets held more importance than anything else in German films at that time.<ref name="Eisner19" /> ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari'' was the first German Expressionist film,<ref name="Barlow29" /> although Brockmann and film critic Mike Budd claim it was also influenced by [[German Romanticism]];<ref name="Brockmann64">{{Harvnb|Brockmann|2010|p=64}}</ref><ref name="Budd16">{{Harvnb|Budd|1990b|p=16}}</ref> Budd notes the film's themes of insanity and the outcry against authority are common among German Romanticism in literature, theatre and the visual arts.<ref name="Budd16" /> Film scholar Vincent LoBrutto said the theatre of [[Max Reinhardt]] and the artistic style of [[Die Brücke]] were additional influences on ''Caligari''.<ref name="LoBrutto61">{{Harvnb|LoBrutto|2005|p=61}}</ref>