My birth was but an arrival of doubts and suspicions. It was at an early stage that my ears encountered doubts about disabilities like people with disabilities possess an evil spirit inside them. Besides, some people labelled me as a curse to my parents while others went one step ahead and considered my parents' sins to be responsible for my situation. Despite all these bad encounters, I do not blame anyone for stigmatizing my existence because its something cultural and historical. The only disturbing thing, however, is that nobody dare to leave their comfort zone and use their energy to question these stigmas associated with disabilities. In order to avoid this big challenge of finding answers, people find refuge in stereotypes. In such an environment and being a victim of stereotypical cultural pathologies, I started looking at things from a really curious and questioning perspective since childhood. It is after a long experience with society as a disable person that I decided to talk about disabilities through the lens of a cultural tool-cinema.
Starting from doubts and suspicions, I believe that they give birth to creativity on one side and stereotypes on other side. These fundamental features of being doubtful and suspicious force humans to question each and everything around them. These doubts, however, become dangerous when people or society, in general, is not ready to question their own doubts and make it as a part of their behavior. Walter Lippmann called this behavior "stereotype". These are the premature judgements about a person or group of people. Such stereotypes do not only disturb the victim but also force him/her to that corner where he/she starts looking at his/her existence from this stereotypical or constructed image of society. Also, a person who follows cultural stereotypes without questioning it cannot make a rational decision based on his knowledge but an irrational decision based on the images that has been given to him by the culture.
As I already mentioned in the last blog that the authoritarian cinema plays bigger role in creating images and stereotypes, this blog would explain two films which brought the stigmatized version of people with disabilities to the public. However, before explaining those films, we must understand that film, basically, plays bigger role than any other art activity in image creation. A perfect example could be film titled Freaks (1932), wherein disabilities are considered morally questionable. Even though the theme of this movie was that the "constructed monsters" do not necessarily have to be frightening and that a "real monster" can hide behind a beautiful, smart and perfectly abled person. This theme was, unfortunately, rarely understood by the public because of the negative role played by dwarf people leaving the audience with a frightening image of people with disabilities.
German cinema, throughout history, left no stone unturned in making disability as nothing but a problem and a state of constant suffering. For instance, the Love of the Blind Woman (Das Liebesglück der Blinden 1910) was the first German movie which took Henny Poten to the level of national icon. It was at this early stage of cinema that disability became an important part of German films. Other movies represented disability as an instrument of humor, threat or misery. Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers' short film, Short-sighted Willi Gets Married (Der kurzsichtige Willi heiratet, 1913) plays on the figurative and literal meanings of "shortsightedness" for its humor. The New Desk (Der neue Schreibtisch, 1914) features Karl Valentin as an astonishingly tall, thin businessman taking delivery of new office furniture. A dwarf and another average-sized man deliver a ridiculously oversized desk, whereupon Valentin's character begins to shorten the legs of the desk until he has completely removed the legs of the desk and must now sit on the floor. The point of the film was admittedly not to raise public consciousness, but to make viewers laugh. Visible physical difference was a viable basis for early film comedy.
All these movies in the start of 20th century were based on expressionism which was an art movement that originated in Germany. It is defined as “a theory or practice in art of seeking to depict the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist.” The first name that comes to our mind in this epoch is the famous film Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari by Robert Wiene in 1920. I selected this film for many reasons. For instance, our association of different stereotypes with the outlooks of people like their physique, sexuality, dress, behavior and their way of thinking. Another reason is that this movie was a perfect example of showing disabled people especially mentally ill people in such a way that people get afraid of them.
The two main characters in the movie are Dr. Caligari and Cesare whose strange behavior and appearance made them completely different from other townsfolks. In other words, they are the "wanderers" in the town. The role assigned to Dr. Caligari is somehow connected with his disability. His difficulty with walking besides ragged hair and shifty eyes, somehow, also shows his weakness, helplessness and tricky nature. Besides, the different dressing style with various layers of dresses that Caligari wears also make him suspicious from the start of the movie and symbolizes that he is trying to hide his intentions. Besides, this outwardly appearance of Caligari is connected and stereotyped in a way that Caligari is blamed for all the crimes in the town till end of the movie.
Cesare, on the other hand, has pale, white, skin, who wears a black skin-tight outfit and his eyes are dark and highlighted by dark black rings. Ceseare is in a constant state of sleep and he is only awakened by Caligari. He says nothing and shows no emotions. Something must be wrong as no normal human being cannot function in this way. This mental problem put Cesare in the club of others. One thing that is really important about Cesare is that he predicts future. For instance, when he predicted the death of one man, the people in town started labelling him as the "outsider". Afterwards, each crime in the city is blamed on Dr. Caligari and Cesare, even in the absence of any supporting evidence. This fear comes from the age old belief that people with disabilities are possessed by supernatural forces. People in the past were afraid of disabled people because they believed that people with disabilities possess evil spirit and they are capable of harming others. The whole movie is full of suspicions regarding these two people. It was, however, proved at the end that the main narrator was actually the one with mental problem. The movie ends with a simple statement "and from that day on, the madman never left his cell" leaving behind a lot of stereotypes and images in the society which haunt people with disabilities till now.
The second movie is Orlac's Hand (1924) which represented disability in a way to create intrigue, mystery, or fantasy. This very popular film asked viewers to ponder whether morality was transported in the body and what danger ensued from dismemberment. The movie is about the tragic accident of famous pianist Paul Orlac where he lost his hands. His wife Yvonne couldn't imagine him without hands and she started pleading to the surgeon in these words, "His hands are life...His hands are more than life". It indirectly gives this message that there is no life without perfect body. The movie goes on and then arrive another point where he gets new hands from Vasseur- the criminal
It was after this situation that all the good and bad thoughts of Orlac were connected with his transplanted hands. After visiting him in the hospital, Yvonne sit beside him on the bed and started saying again, "Your eyes...(emotional music) how I love them..Your hair (the music gets intense)..and your hands...your beautiful, tender hands.. (the music turns from intense romantic to fear and dramatic). Even the newspaper statement was written in these words, "the terrible killing was committed by Vaseeur's murdering hands". In all these scenes, hands were the center of discussion and morality. In such situation, Orlac was struggling between rational knowledge and fear, believing that the forces of good and evil are now wrestling within his own body. He was completely occupied by confusion blaming his hands "damned, cursed...hands".
The real murderer took advantage of Orlac's susceptibility that the evil now dwells within him, and the success of his crime rests upon the meaning that he believes Orlac will attach to his newly disabled body. In other words, Orlac's Hands play on the fear that the body might in fact have power over the mind, that the disabled body might truly be dangerous. ". There was one act where Orlac went to doctor telling him, "Remove them now! I don't want them- these wretched things!" In another scene to the doctor," I am telling you...they demand blood...crimes...murder.."
Both these movies, besides other movies mentioned before, are all based on the historical and stereotypical understanding of people with disabilities. Such negative images do not only stay in the minds of people but also disturb people with disabilities. Watching such kind of movies as a disabled person did not only disturb me but also make me guilty for the stigmas that society or cinema associated with disabilities. Unfortunately, most of the German movies in this era were based on stereotypes which lead to inhuman acts of euthanasia in the Nazi era.
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