Robert Weine's 1919 film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, is destined to take on an expressionist form from the beginning. This is made evident by the jarring mise-en-scène and disturbing performances of the film's actors. These elements give the film an unrealistic and “dark” quality (Eisner, 1973: 10), which has been associated with films of the Expressionist era. The narrative structure created by the film's framing, however, does not support the expressionist style and therefore undermines the criticism of the film as an “acclaimed masterpiece of German expressionist cinema” (Andriopoulos 2009:13). This coincides with Andriopoulos's claim that "the conflict between [the] frame and the narrative [...] contradict each other" (2009:24) thus "erasing [the] structural uncertainty" (ibid) which would make the film must be expressionist. This essay will address Andriopoulos' views on the film by exploring expressionism and the use of expressionist style within The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari as well as the narrative structure and depiction of madness and illusion within the film in order to determine whether or not Andriopoulos's claim is valid. While it may be impossible to fully define German Expressionism, certain characteristics can be highlighted as inherent to the creative movement. Oxford Dictionary online defines expressionism as “a style of painting, music, or drama in which the artist or writer seeks to express the inner world of emotion rather than external reality” (2014). Expressionists use distortion and exaggeration to “oppose naturalism” (Eisner 1973:10), thus purposely creating a representation of the unreal. Expressionist works were often from… middle of paper… The plot turns much of the film into a flashback, with the exception of the prologue (mentioned above) and the epilogue in which we realize that “ Doctor Caligari is in fact the sane one and therefore undermines Mayor and Janowitz's original intent. The addition of framing scenes to the film changes the interpretations that arise when watching it in various ways In the screenplay without an epilogue, the story ends with Caligari in a straight jacket, locked up and therefore represents the triumph of good (Francesco) over evil (Caligari). therefore the authoritarian figure in his position of power is not limited to the expressionist style of the film