Ninety-nine years ago, a new form of storytelling emerged from the
ruins of World War I. Different in scope and power from theater or
literature, and unlike any film that had come before, F. W.
Murnau's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari addressed a direct challenge
to its audience, demanding to be viewed as something other than
what was immediately presented. Unfortunately, criticism has not
risen to the challenge. Relegating the film condescendingly to the
horror genre, or treating it merely as a case study in style,
critics have failed to look at it with due seriousness. On the
other hand, the film's ambiguity, structural devices, and
psychological depth gave cinema a number of tools that other
filmmakers were quick to start using. This book examines a spectrum
of narrative films that can be seen in new ways with methods
derived and evolved from the techniques of Caligari. The intention
is not only to offer new interpretations of classic and neglected
films, but to open further discussion and exploration. It is
written with optimism that movie lovers will see more in the movies
they love, that critics will find new paths of investigation, and
that filmmakers will benefit from greater awareness of what movies
can do. Secrets of Cinema began in 1994, in discussions among
friends after weekly movie nights hosted by the late Lawrence N.
Fox on the 73rd floor of the John Hancock Center in Chicago. The
movies selected are not necessarily the greatest ever made
(although some of them surely are), but rather movies that offer
new and useful lessons in how movies work. Among the secrets of
cinema revealed in this book are at least three movies that are
stealth remakes of The Wizard of Oz, hidden meanings behind films
made under political repression, and why Hitchcock's Psycho is a
remake of his Vertigo. Persistent enigmas are clarified, including
the logic of Persona, the riddle of Last Year at Marienbad, and the
endings of Blow-Up and The Shining. More importantly, by showing
how much there is to discover in movies, the book encourages its
readers to continue in their own ways the quest to see movies
whole.
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