The Cabinet of Dr. Orsigari - Influences

[catbuglah]

The top image is from Jane Eyre, the bottom from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.


Orsigari Cabinet

[Harvey Chartrand]

It's a great pity that Orson Welles never directed a horror film, although there are horrific moments in his oeuvre: the impaling of Franz Kindler on the clock tower in THE STRANGER, the protracted hotel room murder in TOUCH OF EVIL, the aquarium and funhouse scenes in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI, certain sequences of surreal and claustrophobic imagery in THE TRIAL...
Instead of a full-length fright feature, all Orson left us with in the horror genre are his acting turns in Harry Kumel's MALPERTUIS and Bert I. Gordon's NECROMANCY.
Welles had such an eye and ear for horror, first revealed in THE HEARTS OF AGE. I wonder if he saw CALIGARI as a youngster and if it influenced him in some way...

[ToddBaesen]

Harvey:

Great observation, but of course, Welles was obviously limited by the very few films he could find backing for, but presumable, if he had worked in more commercial genres, maybe he could have made more pictures. Welles did speak about what a great movie Bram Stoker's Dracula would have made, which of course, he did so superbly on the radio back in 1938.

Unfortunately, Welles also never directed a Western, which might have been interesting, considering he watched Stagecoach 40 times while preparing Kane, and used western star Tim Holt in Ambersons.

[catbuglah]

The doctor is in

Top is from David and Goliath, bottom from Fritz Lang's Siegfried.

[Le Chiffre]

Interesting comparism, Catbuglah. I suppose if you're going to steal from somebody, you might as well steal from the best.

[catbuglah]

Thanky Mteal - I agree when they say Welles was influenced by German expressionism, although I find Welles tends to downplay it. I still feel that he's original though, even if he repeats his own themes and swipes from others, because he always puts on different twists, variations and transmogrifications and what not.

[Le Chiffre]

Welles was certainly influenced by Greg Toland, who was influenced by German expressionism. My impression is that, at least at first, Welles was more directly influenced by actors then by directors. He mentioned Douglas Fairbanks in interviews, and John Barrymore was an obvious influence with his larger-then-life hamming, but in his preoccupation with false noses and make-up, I suspect Lon Chaney was something of an influence as well. But one can't look at the deleted paintings Welles did for the funhouse sequence in LADY FROM SHANGHAI without thinking of CALIGARI. I think Welles said that HEARTS OF AGE was a parody of Cocteau's BLOOD OF A POET.

[catbuglah]

Interesting observation on Caligari and LFS -

There seems to be some general similarities with the banquet sequence in Lang's Kriemhild's Revenge and Welles' Macbeth...

http://albums.photo.epson.com/j....8&sp=73

[catbuglah]

A couple more frames of Siegfried - David comparisons -

Siegfried-David a

Siegfried - David b

It's probably an oblique assumption that because a frame in a movie Welles might have co-directed (although the recent article from Welles' secretary during David is pretty convincing) resembles a frame in Fritz Lang's Siegfried, therefore Welles is responsible - but that's what I'm guessing - that either Welles was specifically referencing Lang or that he was influenced more or less unconsciously based on memories of the film - the first frame not so much - but the second looks pretty suggestive.

[catbuglah]

KR-TOE

Same idea in both - Lang's Kriemhild's Revenge and Touch of Evil - Juxtaposing main character with a horned beast in background to make a psychological reflection on said main character.

Overall, there seems to be quite a few Lang references in Welles - although Welles tends to takes Lang's rather straight, symmetrical framing and puts a more fluid, subtle, organic spin on them - so I see Lang as an occasional, partial, influence, one among others - although I haven't seen Lang's american work, so it's just an initial impression...

Macbethish shot from K R

Although this shot is very brief, I find it very reminiscent of Macbeth's style.

[Roger Ryan]

Same idea in both - Lang's Kriemhild's Revenge and Touch of Evil - Juxtaposing main character with a horned beast in background to make a psychological reflection on said main character.

Catbuglah has drawn attention to my favorite moment in "Touch Of Evil": Quinlan sits in the bordello in front of a wall filled with framed photos of bullfighters. Suddenly, Vargas' face appears in a framed mirror also on the wall, briefly establishing him as one of the bullfighters. And who is he looking to "fight"? Quinlan stands up placing himself in the same frame as the bull's head!

Welles may have claimed that he didn't like symbolism, but he attains it here almost effortlessly and enriches the film all the more.

[catbuglah]

Thanks for passing that one along, Roger - astute observation - quite a brillant sequence on Welles' part - I have trouble swallowing his anti-symbolism statement myself (there's a whole gallery of recurrent 'Wellesian' symbolic images - mirrors, for example - bulls, even) - and as you say, it's done so fluidly and gracefully that it avoids the heavy-handed connotations that the word 'symbolism' evokes.

[Tony]

James Naremore pointed this out in his book in 1978.

Welles said "If I do symbolism, shoot me; I hate it."

[Glenn Anders]

Welles was saying what any true artist says: "Whatever emotional, historical, artistic, biographical, cross-cultural, or any other kind of meaning you find in my work is obviously valid. Just don't hold me for or against your interpretations." That's aesthetics 101.

We seem to be getting down to the basics.

So catbuglah, if you can justify your interpretation, go for it!

Roger Ryan is certainly a good mentor.

Glenn

[catbuglah]

I would tend to interpret the two preceding quotes as meaning: 'Don't go there.' Which is why I find the Welles memos that he wrote to the studios to defend against the mangling of his films to be so invaluable - he was kind of forced to lift the veil on his special secrets to a certain extant and expound upon the method to his madness...