what about the bears magnus what about the bears it's time to talk about the arts a little bit sorry for the dramatic change in lighting um i had to re-record this section because i had technical difficulties say lovey while all of this was going on politically it was being strongly reflected into the art styles of the weimar republic at the time one of the most prominent of these art styles was german expressionism expressionist art was visual chaos bringing the artist's inner world and therefore the reflection of german society outward into a visual form it was claustrophobic compositions inharmonic colors sharp angles dark shadows puzzle-like faces and bodies pain confusion despair it ran in conjunction with the dadaist movement which drew a lot of its inspiration from the urban metropolis itself and the social chaos that it provided loud noises confusing sights and the feeling that you're never NUMBER_TOKEN sure what's about to happen to you after all this period was not too long after the industrial revolution itself so the industrial world was still new to many people in the grand scheme of things it didn't feel quite solid or fully real yet especially in the aftermath of the chaos of world war one the war left people with broken cities as well as broken homes spirits and bodies the number of men and women who returned from war injured and amputated or disfigured was uncountable and with the rise of the film industries across the world the weimar republic was perfectly primed and ready to begin producing film masterpieces that reflected its unsettled and uncomfortable society german expressionist films such as metropolis starring my favorite girl brigitte helm who was super anti-nazi love her nosferatu the hands of orlock waxworks and the student of prague all had a dark and angst-driven look all of them filled with a high drama and despair as german film critic lotte eisner called it a sort of twilight of the german soul expressing itself in shadowy enigmatic interiors or in misty insubstantial landscapes the film that most people think of when talking about german expressionist film is one that defines the look itself in the most concrete way the cabinet of dr caligari often cited as the first real horror film caligari has something in common with many other german expressionist films including orlak student prague and waxworks they all star conrad vite one of the most well-known german actors of the era in caligari fight plays cesare the somnambulist a young man with a corpse-like appearance who has slept all his life and yet knows all future secrets because he's a somnombulist he is a highly suggestible sleepwalker and under the influence of the depraved hypnotist dr caligari he is made to commit murders it's later discovered that dr caligari himself is the director of the local insane asylum and he is convicted of his crimes the actual story of caligari is more complex than that though the story itself makes it hard to tell what reality is the true one at first it seems that the story is being told reliably as the memories of one of the main characters francis but at the end it is revealed in a twist ending that francis himself was a patient at the asylum and none of his memories ever actually happened dr caligari is just a normal
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