The Architecture of Cinematic Spaces

Armen Karaoghlanian, Mehruss Jon Ahi

Description

The Architecture of Cinematic Spaces by Interiors is a graphic exploration of architectural spaces in cinema that provides a new perspective on the relationship between architecture and film. Combining critical essays with original architectural floor plan drawings, the book discusses production design in key films from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Rope, Le mépris, Playtime, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Home Alone, Panic Room, A Single Man, Her and Columbus. Each chapter is accompanied by an original floor plan of a key scene, bridging the gap between film criticism and architectural practice. The book, written by the editors of the critically acclaimed online journal Interiors, will appeal to both film and architecture communities, and everyone in between. A must-read for fans and scholars alike, this volume prompts us to reconsider the spaces our favourite characters occupy and to listen to the stories those spaces can tell. 

01: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

02: Rope (1948)

03: Le mépris (1963)

04: Playtime (1967)

05: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

06: Home Alone (1990)

07: Panic Room (2002)

08: A Single Man (2009)

09: Her (2013)

10: Columbus (2017)

Sujets

• drawing
• drafting
• La habitación del pánico
• Playtime
• Película fotográfica
• Cristóbal Colón
• Home Alone
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Play Time
• Contempt (film)
• Panic Room
• The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• General officer
• Graphic design
• Christopher Columbus
• A Single Man
• Design
• Mépris
• General
• John Hughes
• Tom Ford
• Playtime (homonymie)
• Christophe Colomb
• Maman, j'ai raté l'avion
• Spike Jonze
• Robert Wiene
• Hitchcock
• Film
• Rope
• David Fincher
• Jean-Luc Godard
• Jacques Tati
• 2001, l'Odyssée de l'espace
• Stanley Kubrick
• Architecture

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 25 février 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781789382068
• Langue: English

Extrait

First published in the UK in 2020 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds,
Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2020 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright © 2020 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy editor: Amy Rollason
Cover and book designer: Mehruss Jon Ahi
Production manager: Amy Rollason
Typesetting: Contentra Technologies
Print ISBN: 978-1-78938-205-1
ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78938-207-5
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78938-206-8
Printed and bound by Gomer Press Ltd.
To find out about all our publications, please visit
www.intellectbooks.com .
There, you can subscribe to our e-newsletter, browse or download our current catalogue, and buy any titles that are in print.

CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
CHAPTER 2
ROPE (1948)
CHAPTER 3
LE MÉPRIS (1963)
CHAPTER 4
PLAYTIME (1967)
CHAPTER 5
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968)
CHAPTER 6
HOME ALONE (1990)
CHAPTER 7
PANIC ROOM (2002)
CHAPTER 8
A SINGLE MAN (2009)
CHAPTER 9
HER (2013)
CHAPTER 10
COLUMBUS (2017)

CHAPTER 1
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
DIRECTOR: ROBERT WIENE

Expressionism was born in Germany at the beginning of the twentieth century, originating in painting and theatre, and later making its way into cinema during the 1920s and 1930s as a reaction against realism. German Expressionism’s aggressive visual style was seen as an escape or break from reality.
The early German Expressionist films explored themes of paranoia, fear and schizophrenia through mise en scène, cinematography and lighting. F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922), The Last Laugh (1924) and Fritz Lang’s M (1931) are films whose worlds are consumed with fear and corruption. These films are also characterized by their expressive approach in externalizing human emotion and desire. They convey inner, subjective emotions and experiences through external, objective means. These emotions are visually translated onto the screen using deliberately exaggerated sets and dramatic lighting, highlighting the fear and horror of their narratives. These films consist of angular studio sets, rather than real-world locations, with distorted buildings painted on canvas backdrops reflecting the distress of their characters.
Robert Wiene’s silent horror film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), begins with Francis (Friedrich Fehér) recounting a horrific event. Francis shares the story of Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) and a somnambulist, Cesare (Conrad Veidt), whom the doctor keeps in a coffin-like cabinet and controls with hypnosis. Francis recalls the death of his close friend, Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) and believes Cesare murdered him whilst under Dr. Caligari’s control.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari expresses interior reality through exterior means with the use of extreme distortion in its production design. The film features the work of production designers Walter Reimann, Walter Röhrig and Hermann Warm – members of the group of artists associated with Der Sturm , a German art and literary magazine covering a variety of artistic movements, including Expressionism. The film’s artificial sets create an architectural paradox. The dark and twisted world of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari portrays a sense of chaos and confusion, and presents us with a grotesque perspective that consists of distorted shapes and harsh angles: buildings are slanted, doors and windows are bizarrely shaped, and floors and walls consist of eccentric patterns and designs. The excessive stylization also extends to the intertitles in the film. The texture, lettering and underscoring of certain words and phrases speak to the schizophrenic nature of the film.
In this and other German Expressionist films of the era, reality has lost its basis and has been invaded and plagued by the irrational and cynical thoughts of its characters. These emotions are also conveyed through heavy, high-contrast makeup. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari treats its characters not as real-life individuals, but as beings that simply exist in an unnatural world. Roger Ebert makes the observation that Cesare ‘is not very expressive [...] and is most often seen in long shot, as if the camera considers him an object, not a person’ (Ebert 2009).
The audience is also often confined to claustrophobic spaces. Wiene makes extensive use of iris shots, which were popular during the silent film era. The iris shot restricts the audience’s view by drawing their attention to a specific area. In scenes with close-ups, the space surrounding a subject’s face is often darkened, further disorienting the audience. This is seen with the introduction of Cesare, whose gruesome appearance is accentuated because the frame is occupied by just his face. Alan’s murder scene also uses harsh shadows and low-key lighting as a way of heightening the drama and spatially disorienting the audience. The audience never sees the actual murder; instead, our focus is directed to a nearby wall where the killing is played out in shadow.
‘THE SHAPE AND FORM OF DR. CALIGARI’S HOUSE COMMUNICATES THE PERVERSE NATURE OF HIS BEING.’
In a key scene, Francis and the doctor visit Dr. Caligari at his house and demand that he wakes Cesare up. Dr. Caligari’s house is a significant focal point throughout the film. This is his private space, where he distances himself from society and keeps Cesare hidden in a coffin. The exterior of the house, like many of the sets in the film, is uneven and unstable. The shape and form of Dr. Caligari’s house communicates the perverse nature of his being. The house is unusually small in size and contains a single room. The interior space consists of painted lines and harsh lighting that match the sharp angles on the floor and walls. Dr. Caligari’s only means to the outside world is a window. This window’s distorted shape – its twisted and deformed frame – conveys his point of view of the outside world. It is also important to note that the interior and exterior shots of Dr. Caligari’s house do not match. The width of the house from the exterior is no more than six feet in length, while the interior space is wider in size, further emphasizing the unnatural design of the space.
This space, however, is not an actual, physical space, as we later learn. The final scene of the film reveals that Dr. Caligari is not a murderer, but rather a doctor in an asylum where Francis is a patient. The narrative of the film is an extension of Francis’ fantasy. This suggests that Dr. Caligari’s house is a subconscious, imagined space created in Francis’ mind.
The distinct patterns on the floors, mainly in the asylum, are an indication of the fractured storylines in the film and suggest the various perspectives that exist within the story. Francis stands at the centre of these lines at the end of the film, reflecting the various strands of his fantasies.
Francis is an unreliable narrator in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , who has become alienated from reality and escapes the truth and burden of his guilt by slipping into a fantasy world. Moreover, the final scene of the film is not as stylized as the rest. The buildings are no longer sloping; doors, windows and building arches are evenly shaped; and the chairs at the right of the frame are realistic. This presents us with the notion that the surreal nature of the rest of the film and its excessive style is more than an aesthetic choice. It is an essential element of the narrative of the film, which captures the subjective mind of its protagonist and his schizophrenic personality.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, often considered one of the first horror films, paved the way for other German Expressionist films during this era. The film – with its twist ending, cinematography and set design – remains one of the most influential films ever produced, not just in the horror genre, but in the history of cinema.
TYPE OF SPACE:
EXPRESSIONIST RESIDENCE
(NOUN)
A STRUCTURE THAT USES EMOTIONS RATHAR THAN REALISM TO EXPRESS AN ARTISTIC IDEA.

Caligari Residence_Floor Plan (00:37:13)

CHAPTER 2
ROPE (1948)