Part 1
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari mainly tells its story through detailed cartoon-ish sets and exaggerated “theatrical-ish” performances, rather than relying on sounds or modern visual effects. For example, when describing a person’s death at the end, it uses extremely dramatic acting. Even without sound, it looks very scary. And the whole film’s set design is very different from today’s style, such as using two different colors to represent day and night.
The “story within a story” structure made me more interested in it. When it is revealed at the end that the narrator is an insane person, the horror story that has been described before suddenly turns into another feeling. This structure greatly increased the feeling of the film.
What surprised me most is that, as a film made 100 years ago, even though its environment design was outdated, it was actually very detailed. I can imagine how difficult it must have been to create this film with the technology at that time. Although the film felt very boring to me, and the lack of dialogue made it a bit difficult to understand, I could still get some of the filmmaker’s intentions.
Part 2 - The Scene of Cesare Abducting Jane
I would keep the original horror style, but the environment could be more detailed. I would build a retro alley with dark and horrifying lighting. When Cesare approaches, I would add low frequency heartbeat sounds and breathing sounds to make the audience feel scared. When Cesare lifts Jane, the background music would suddenly turn into high speed drumbeats. I would add some modern SFXs to create atmosphere. At the moment Cesare appears, I would first film the whole scene, then cut to a closeup of Cesare. After inserting some closeups of Jane as well, I would use a low angle shot of Cesare carrying Jane. Then I would use a monitor view camera perspective to shoot Cesare leaving. When Cesare collapses, the camera would pull back and rotate far. This kind of camera view design would allow modern viewers (such as me) to feel what the original author wanted, because the original design was too simple and hard to understand. Finally, I would insert some closeups of Cesare’s eyes or forehead, as well as adding some distortion effects to restore the feeling.