Aliyah's Archives

A Puppet Without Strings Movie Pitch

Logline:

This film is an adaptation or prologue to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. It delves into Cesare’s early life, his introduction to the circus, and the effects and development of his sleepwalking condition. He battles the complete loss of his autonomy and his dreams, forced to face the murders he never had control over.

Genre: 

Horror, thriller, tragedy

Characters: 

Cesare, the protagonist. A child who struggles with worsening sleepwalking. He wants to become a doctor, but has to wage a constant war against his condition.

Dr. Caligari. A man who is incredibly interested in Cesare’s condition, claiming to know how to cure him. 

Gisela. Cesare’s mother. She is supportive and loving, but cannot afford to maintain Cesare’s health conditions and slowly grows to despise him.

Franz. Cesare’s father. Works at a factory. Considers Cesare weak and lazy. 

Filmic approach: 

Black-and-white. Not silent like the original movie, narrated by Cesare. 

Summary: 

Cesare lives with his parents. They’re not poor, but they just nearly scrape by. They were lucky to inherit a family home on the outskirts of town. Cesare’s sleepwalking condition has been present his entire life and has worsened with age. He is around thirteen years old at the beginning of this story. His parents often find him standing at the edge of their bed, walking around outside, or cooking in his sleep, nearly setting the entire house on fire on multiple occasions. His mother is caring and understanding, finding various doctors to come visit him. His father is far less caring. He begins abusing his wife for spending all their savings on doctor’s visits. He is let go from his job and struggles to find work. He grows to despise his son for not working and claims his illness is simply laziness. 

Cesare begins seeing Dr. Caligari, who seems to be the most effective and involved doctor. He takes very little payment and makes things easier on the family by taking Cesare in for long periods of time. The Doctor has to travel for work and often brings Cesare with him, but a string of murders happen in nearby towns. Cesare begins waking up covered in blood and confused. He tries to ignore it and continue with Dr. Caligari’s treatment to please his parents, but the strange occurrences continue until he can no longer stand it. 

Cesare turns on Dr. Caligari after dozens of nights of coming home covered in blood. He decides to search through the Doctor’s notes and finds his obsession with controlling Cesare for malevolent purposes. He keeps quiet until they go to visit Cesare’s parents. Cesare tells his parents but they don’t believe him. He passionately begs them to listen, explaining to them how horrifying and confusing the situation is. He has lost all control of himself and is dealing with the emotions of a complete loss of autonomy combined with the betrayal of his parents. They tell him to never come back, and he promises to get his revenge and prove them wrong.

Sample Script (Beginning and climax)

INT. CESARE’S HOME. NIGHT.

GISELA and FRANZ sleep peacefully. The window is cracked, curtains slightly waving. Various animal sounds outside, crickets, owls, wolves. The window reveals a large yard and full moon. 

The camera pans the foot of the bed, where CESARE is standing, eyes closed, breathing rhythmically. His fingers twitch at his sides.

The Sun rises in the back and Cesare is gone, back in his room. The scene fades to daytime.

INT. CESARE’S HOME. MORNING.

GISELA is setting up the table for breakfast as CESARE walks in, visibly groggy with messy hair.

GISELA

Sleep well, honey?

CESARE, groaning and yawning, sits at the table.

GISELA

The doctor did mention the new treatment would make you feel quite tired. It seems as if you’re sleeping through the night though?

CESARE

I would have no way of knowing whether or not I was, mother.

FRANZ enters, sitting at the far end of the table. The room goes silent. 

CESARE (narrating)

My mother and father haven’t spoken much lately. They fought about what to do with me, whether my condition was real, and if I should get a job.

5 YEARS LATER – CLIMAX OF THE STORY

CESARE’S FRONT PORCH – DAY, WINTER

DR. CALIGARI stands, holding an older CESARE’S wrist. GISELA and FRANZ peek out from behind the door. 

GISELA

Has he been cured yet?

DR. CALIGARI

Not yet, Gisela, I must take him with me for more experimentation.

FRANZ

You can keep him. 

CESARE, loudly

What!

GISELA,lifts her hand to strike her son.

CESARE, flinching

You don’t understand! 

DR. CALIGARI’S hand tightens around CESARE’S wrist.

CESARE

You can’t leave me with him. Do you even know what these “experiments” are? Does he tell you anything? Do you even care enough to know?

DR. CALIGARI, calmly.

I apologize, it appears his condition has worsened greatly over the past few years. The medication has caused him to entirely misinterpret reality. He does not know what is real or fiction any more. 

CESARE

I know! I know what you are doing to me, what you want to make me do. You want every inch of my own flesh, to wear me like a mask! 

CESARE rips his arm away from DR. CALIGARI’S grasp

These are your own words, Doctor. You made me a puppet without strings, a blade without a handle-

GISELA strikes CESARE

Enough! You cannot lie to us any longer, we know what you are.

CESARE’S nose is bleeding. He lifts his hands to his face and covers them in blood, moving up to the door. He grabs his mother’s hands, smearing blood into her palm, then onto his father. 

CESARE

You see this? You see all this blood? This is not mine, this is the blood of dozens of innocent people. This is your fault.

DR. CALIGARI

I apologize, he has been speaking nonsense lately.

CESARE

Nonsense? Nonsense? I have come home drenched in blood every night with no wounds. I see headline after headline of violent murders each night in each town we visit. You parade me around like a toy, and I only get mere snippets of memory of my own life. Forgive me for speaking nonsense, that is all I know.

CESARE spits and DR. CALIGARI’S feet and glares into his eyes, lifting his wrists together. He turns to his parents while DR. CALIGARI grabs and binds his wrists together. 

CESARE

I will go, mother and father. I go with only the hope that I will come back one day, asleep. You will see what he makes me do, and it will be the last thing you ever see. Until then, may you live with guilt and ever-present consequence. You will feel that drop in your stomach every time you hear of murder. You will feel how I feel. You will know that it was your hands that held the dagger, and you have no way to stop it.