CALIGARI
173
lable and therefore demands to be observed rather than commanded,
realism on the screen and total organization exclude each other.
Through their "studio constructivism" no less than their lighting
the German films revealed that they dealt with unreal events dis–
played in
J
sphere basically controllable.
In the course of a visit to Paris about six years after the
premiere
of
Caligari,
Janowitz called on Count Etienne de Beaumont in his
old city residence, where he lived among Louis Seize furniture and
Picassos. The Count voiced his admiration of
Caligari,
terming it
"as fascinating and abstruse as the German soul." He continued:
"Now the time has come for the German soul to speak, Monsieur.
The French soul ·spoke more than a century ago,
in
the Revolution,
and you have
be~n
mute.... Now we are waiting for what you
have to impart to us, to the world."
The Count did not have long to wait.
