Mise-en-scene in Caligari and Edward Scissorhands

The two films "Dr. Caligari's Cabinet" and "Edward Scissorhands" are two great films expressing differences and uniqueness in society, and in the way others think. "Dr. Caligari's Cabinet" is about a man telling another man a story of how his town was terrorized once by a cinambulist named Dr. Caligari and his sleepwalking attraction; Cesare. The town goes through a series of mysterious murders when Dr. Caligari comes to town and he is caught using Cesare to commit murder under his sleeping spell. Then, Dr. Caligari is put in an insane asylum and the main character is ok. However, there is a twist to the story because in the end, the main character telling the story is actually the mentally insane one and Dr. Caligari is the director of the insane asylum facility. Edward Scissorhands, is a film about a created man with hands that are razor sharp scissor- like objects, who is brought down from his distant tower by a friendly makeup sales woman and brought into her town to live with the whole family. The film covers a series of events that Edward goes through in the town and his encounters in that town. In the end he is banned from the town and almost killed because he became outcasted by the towns people. These films may sound very different, however they are ore alike than one might think.

The mise-en-scene in the film Edward Scissorhands is sort of dark and mysterious in the beginning, when the old woman is telling the story of Edward Scissorhands and when the camera shows Edwards background history, then it becomes dark and mysterious again in the ending. In Caligari, the overall mise-en-scene is neutral and as the film goes on it becomes more and more dark and eerie.A setting is just as important to note in a film as the mise-en-scene. The setting in the two films helped to contribute of the themes of both films. For example in Edward Scissorhands the overall setting was a small town that was very "cookie cutter" like with all the same size houses and cars, that were all painted the same pastel bright colors and matched their cars and everything was perfect and clean. In the back of that town is a single castle that really stands out because it's all grey and dark and its shaped very weird high metal gate. This setting already shows the mindset of the  community in which the people of the town live in because it displays signs of conformity to all living a certain way and the there's the castle and whoever lives there is outcast from the rest of the town because their environment is different than the rest, it is unique. In Caligari, the buildings are very slanted and rigid, everything is on wierd angles, including the shadows. This odd setting can display a sense of uneasiness or craziness to the film, which can link back to the characters who are in the film or the entire plot of the film. The man who is telling the story, Franciz, the audience comes to realize is a mentally disturbed patient in an insane asylum, so therefore that could serve as an explanation to the odd setting throughout the entire film.

 

The two setting in these films, though very unique and different, are similar in some ways. For example both films have these towns that all have this same look because all the houses in Edward Scissorhands are all the same position and size and shape, just like in Caligari, how all the buildings and streets are all ziz-zag, crooked and on odd angles. Both towns are have this effect that everything is the same. The characters in the films contribute to the theme and exaggerate the settings in both films. For example in Caligari two of the main characters, the girl is dressed in an all white costume that is a gown and Cesare is dressed in all black. Compared to the other men in the film, who are all in suits, Cesare stands out in this all black costume, symbolizing the disturbance in that community. The girl is really the only one in all white during that film in the climax, out of all the other females in the film.This made the girl seem so pure and Cesare seem so much more evil, emphasizing what the director wants the audience to think, yet it turned out that all of it was made up. This shows that everything is not always what it may seem, which can be one of the many themes in Caligari. This is similar to  Edward Scissorhands because, toward the ending of the film Edward sheds all of his clothing that the townspeople normally wear and was in this all black leather suit, meanwhile the girl he liked was in an all white dress. Those two characters stood out in that movie as sort of a symbol of normality and purity, clashing with a sort of uniqueness or difference in that community/society. Even the other characters in that film dressed alike in these sort of suits for the men and brightly colored, ridiculous outfits for the women in that movie. Also, all the men went to work while the women stayed at home and gossiped, yet Edward did not go to work. So, Edward being in that all black costume and being unemployed shows how he stood out all the more in that community. This connects to one of the themes of this movie, which is conformity to society and difference being outcasted in society.

   

The overall settings of these two movies do affect the meaning of both of them to some extent. For example if audiences think about it, how would the effect of Edward coming to that town be, if everyone was different  and all the houses and cars were different as well? The affect of him being in the town wouldn't be that ideal or as effective because he wouldn't be looked out as much of an outcast because they would've all been different like him. Also, if the setting of Caligari wasn't all these odd angles and and crooked lines, how could the audience possibly be able to tell between reality and fantasy in the movie, or wouldn't the mood of the film become not so mysterious as it is now that it has this 'off balance" setting?  The whole idea of the film might've been misinterpreted by the audience had they've left the setting normal and the audience wouldn't know how to feel about it. Which goes back into why the setting is so much of importance to, not just these two films, but all films in general. Without a meaningful setting there is no meaning to a film.