The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) Dir. Robert Wiene

The artistic style of architecture featured is made to portray a twisted almost tortured landscape filled with harsh angles.

Many outdoor scenes such as the bridge chase scene are reminiscent of war like landscapes and often feature thickets of brambles and trees which are comparable to the sprawling fields of barbed wire that were deployed in the First World War. Other then that of where the actors are performing the sets are often filled with looming shadowed buildings which over hang the set, not only does this give the affect of the sets being far greater then they actually are but also gives a foreboding essence of what is to come. The use of this shadowed architecture creates a back alley feeling thereby portraying a constant perception of threat and predator on prey ambience. This play of perception on set size furthermore creates the illusion that whilst the the warped structures stretch into the distance the immediate pieces in the foreground often feel enclosed and claustrophobic around the characters as if listening in- perhaps indication of the growing totalitarianism of the state that was growing and continued to grow in Germany from 1920-1945.