caligari carries over?

As was stated below, I felt that the framing device was a make it or brake it kind of addition to the film. However, instead of enhancing or depleting from the film's quality, I thought its intent to be a way to merge the kind of artificial reality created in Francis' delusion with the mindset of the German people: were they really submitting to an authoritarian rule that had them all figured out?

I think that Francis' realization of his "delusion" or when the film returns back to the insane asylum shows that he has in a way made his first step away from merely following authority, but at the same time he is afraid to delve completely into freedom because this could turn out equally as bad for him. I feel like this is the general attitude of the German people at the end of the war... they were willing to escape their previous state but they were unsure of where to turn to next.

-allison kanner