Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Plot synopsis:
As Francis (Friedrich Feher) sits on a bench with an older man who complains that spirits have driven him away from his family and home, a dazed woman named Jane (Lil Dagover) passes them. Francis explains she is his "fiancée" and that they have suffered a great ordeal. Most of the rest of the film is a flashback of Francis's story, which takes place in Holstenwall, a shadowy village of twisted buildings and spiraling streets. Francis and his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), who are good-naturedly competing for Jane's affections, plan to visit the town fair. Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) seeks a permit from the rude town clerk to present a spectacle at the fair, which features a somnambulist named Cesare (Conrad Veidt). The clerk mocks and berates Dr. Caligari, but ultimately approves the permit. That night, the clerk is found stabbed to death in his bed.
The next morning, Francis and Alan visit Dr. Caligari's spectacle, where he opens a coffin-like box to reveal the sleeping Cesare. Upon Dr. Caligari's orders, Cesare awakens and answers questions from the audience. Despite Francis's protests, Alan asks, "How long will I live?" To Alan's horror, Cesare answers, "Until dawn." Later that night, a figure breaks into Alan's home and stabs him to death in his bed. A grief-stricken Francis investigates Alan's murder with help from Jane and her father, Dr. Olsen (Rudolf Lettinger), who obtains police authorization to investigate the somnambulist. That night, the police apprehend a criminal in possession of a knife (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) who is caught attempting to murder an elderly woman. When questioned by Francis and Dr. Olson, the criminal confesses he tried to kill the elderly woman, but denies any part in the two previous deaths; he was merely taking advantage of the situation to divert blame onto the real murderer.
At night, Francis spies on Dr. Caligari and observes what appears to be Cesare sleeping in his box. However, the real Cesare sneaks into Jane's home as she sleeps. He raises a knife to stab her, but instead abducts her after a struggle, dragging her through the window onto the street. Chased by an angry mob, Cesare eventually drops Jane and flees; he soon collapses and dies. Francis also confirms that the caught criminal has been locked away and could not have been the attacker. Francis and the police investigate Dr. Caligari's sideshow and realize that the 'Cesare' sleeping in the box is only a dummy. Dr. Caligari escapes in the confusion. Francis follows and sees Caligari go through the entrance of an insane asylum.
Upon further investigation, Francis is shocked to learn that Dr. Caligari is the asylum's director. With help from the asylum staff, Francis studies the director's records and diary while the director is sleeping. The writings reveal his obsession with the story of an 18th-century mystic named Caligari, who used a somnambulist named Cesare to commit murders in northern Italian towns. The director, attempting to understand the earlier Caligari, experiments on a somnambulist admitted to the asylum, who becomes his Cesare. The director screams, "I must become Caligari!" Francis and the doctors call the police to Dr. Caligari's office, where they show him Cesare's corpse. Dr. Caligari then attacks one of the staff. He is subdued, restrained in a straitjacket, and becomes an inmate in his own asylum.
The narrative returns to the present, where Francis concludes his story. In a twist ending, Francis is revealed to actually be an asylum inmate. Jane and Cesare are patients as well; Jane believes she is a queen, while Cesare is not a somnambulist but alive, quiet, and, apparently, not dangerous. The man Francis imagines to be "Dr. Caligari" is in fact the asylum director. Francis attacks him and is restrained in a straitjacket, then placed in the same cell where Dr. Caligari was confined in Francis's story. The director announces that now that he understands Francis's delusion, he is confident he can cure him.

Tags: avant garde, gothic, murder, psychological, violence, flashback, good versus evil, insanity, psychedelic

Review:
Remembered mainly for its stunning sets, which featured crooked buildings and twisted landscapes, "Cabinet" also boasts one of the first attempts at a twist ending, something quite new and shocking for its time.Told mainly from the point of view of Francis, a young man who lives in the small village of Holstenwall, Germany, "Cabinet" tells the tale of murder and madness which seems to accompany the arrival of a carnival.
Francis and his best friend Alan go to the carnival and are presented with the sideshow attraction Cesare the Somnambulist, a gaunt and hideous young man who spends his life sleeping in a coffin-like cabinet and seems able to predict the future when awake.
The camera, stationary as in most early features, uses the mise-en-scene effectively, letting us identify with characters such as Francis and Jane, and disjointing us from Caligari, and the Criminal.The use of lines and stripes, not only in the sets but in small places like in the good doctor's hair and on his gloves, adds to the telling of the character.
The photography is beautiful and so crisp that it creates an eerie sense that this hellish scene is actually the real world, and that our everyday lives are the delusional Technicolor dream of a madman.While there are many better movies made in this period, I feel that this one is the pinnacle of the imagery that is characteristic of the expressionist art form.
Using violent contrasts of light and shadow, surreal settings and distorted camera angles to represent madness, chaos and psychosis, its influence is still seen even today in the likes of John Carpenter and the emerging actor and director Stephen Armourae, who has been also influenced by the film in his artwork and as the composer Stephen Armourae-Perry.
Right from the very opening scene, seemingly suspended in an otherworldly dimension, maybe somewhere in between life and death, in which the first line spoken is: "There are spirits everywhere", you realise you are in for a spooky ride (this is the ultimate Halloween movie, come to think of it!) Having studied theatre set and costume design at Rome's art school for a year before going to university, I was obviously completely fascinated by the set design choices here.
I am 23 years old and am rapidly becoming extremely bored with modern Hollywood.I am not a film student, I only came across this because I was going through the top 250 on here and was amazed at the year of this one, so I picked up the DVD.I would love a time machine to see something like this being made.It transcends time, and one could argue it has been "borrowed" from throughout this past century.Well worth a few slow moments, the plot style is years ahead of its time.
I'm sorry if this makes me sound ignorant, but today it plays rather slow-paced and un-scary, even compared to some of the other greats of Weimar cinema (such as "Nosferatu").Not a bad film by any means (I would recommend it), but "Caligari" seems more something of historical value and academic study to me..
Francis (Friedrich Feher) tells the story of Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss), who hosts a sideshow exhibit at a local carnival featuring Cesare (Conrad Veidt), a somnambulist who has been asleep for 23 years.
One of the great displays of German Expressionism, I especially felt the score (though added years later) was quite moody, bringing out all of the emotions one should experience in a film like this.
The result is a unique look that has the paranoid essence of nightmare, and the story links with the visuals to remarkable effect.A carnival has come to a small German town, and among its attractions is Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) and "sonambulist" Cesare (Conrad Veidt).
Because this somewhat weird, German-Expressionist film (with its original colour tinting) is now 94 years old, I really did try to be lenient and cut it some slack with my overall rating of it.But, with that said, I'm sorry to have to tell you ('cause I'm not going to lie), the best that I could ever possibly give as a score for this silent-era freak-show would only be a measly 3 stars, and that's all.
But of course the main reason that this and a handful of other early expressionist works from Germany continues to hold a tight grip over cineasts worldwide is that it's distinct style makes for a fascinating watch.Here the expressionist style is taken to extremes, and most of this early horror movie plays against a background of twisted and tortured buildings and labyrinthlike streets.
billed as "the first true horror film" by critic Roger Ebert, Das Cabinet is the first in the list of horror and Halloween-themed films i've watched this October to make me dread my own mortality, for the prospect that i might never view it again the settings are mesmerising and create the sense that you're looking at a feature-film-length stop motion Expressionist painting.
if i'd known nothing about it and you'd presented it to me as early Tim Burton, whose stylised settings and character designs bear strong resemblance to German Expressionist cinema of the 1920s, i'd have believed you and credited it as by far his best work inspired by the screenwriters' experiences during World War I and subsequent mistrust of authority, with Dr. Caligari representing, in the words of Hans Janowitz, 'the authoritative power of an inhuman state gone mad', the story is compelling even without the political subtext: a psychiatrist obsessed with an 18th century Italian mystic (Caligari) tries to emulate him by using a pathological sleepwalker to terrorise a German town i highly recommend the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung's 4K restoration with hypnotic musical accompaniment by composer John Zorn that's sure to leave a lasting impression pairs well with Gorilla Glue #4.
Despite the imitations, and despite (or in spite) or those who would dare to be inspired by the work (Tim Burton springs to mind without a flinch), it stands tall as a mammoth work - surprising since it's only 70 minutes long - by creating its own view of humanity and the world, of the way a civilization and houses and roads and places can or should or would ever look, and giving its own characters a mood of dread and the Gothic.
In fact, it's hard to tell which actor gives off the more horrifying aura: the scientist (Krauss, with a great crazy head of hair and catalog of evil facial expressions) or Veidt's cool demeanor.Another scene I should mention, which is simply one of the greatest scenes ever filmed and should be seen by anyone with a pulse: it's when Cesare, after seeing Jane Olsen come into the doctor's place to try to find her father and the two make bizarre eye contact, drifts into her bedroom at night.
I would watch this scene over and over, though it's not the only one that would continually fascinate.Cabinet of Dr. Caligari doesn't carry the same weight of its director's name as Murnau or Lang in German cinema (sadly, Wiene made only a handful of other films seen outside of his native country), but with one film and its standing in the expressionist movement (or, I would also add, surrealist to the degree of its importance in dream/nightmare cinema) it's just as important, and potent today.
This wonderfully radical German Expressionist work from director Robert Wiene is unusually wordy for a silent film but then it has quite an intricate plot with a surprise ending.
Which might be why this film is remembered as both an important milestone in the development of both art house fair and escapist entertainment pieces: its relevance as the first German expressionist film and its intellectual depth are well known but equally important is its role as a pioneer horror film; bringing all the Gothic shadows, psychological terror, and even giving birth to the famous "twist" ending.
In addition there are several special features of high quality, including an additional score, an image gallery, two featurettes detailing the before mentioned film restoration, and an excellent German documentary of the history of expressionism and how Germany went from the seat of modern art and culture to the tyranny of Hitler and how Caligari more or less predicted this would happen.
Well, just have a look at Cesare (Conrad Veidt) how he do his performance and go compare it with Peter Murphy.Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari is out there and from now on full uncut, restored and full of extra's on the Masters Of Cinema series, the best you can get for those old classics and a classic it is...Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 5/5 Story 5/5 Comedy 0/5.
From films of its day all the way to Tim Burton's "Nightmare Before Christmas", the German expressionist art movement put to film creates a strong impression in the stark black and white.The sets are what really make this film.
A German Expressionist classic with warped sets, lots of shadows, and heavy makeup, this is one of the first modern horror films.It is also one of the first serious films with a "twist" ending.
When a completely new killer is caught red-handed, it seems like everybody wants to get into the act "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is one of the most outstanding film productions of the silent era.
The perverse geometry of the expressionist age kicked into full swing here and would only survive for a decade or more and in the work of many an ace film-maker (like fellow German Fritz Lang, who could carry the form to new heights of symbolism): Tim Burton owes his crazy Gothic style to Caligari's demented visuals.What distinguishes this film from those that emulated it is that not only was it the first to explore a new visual style, it also did so in a way relevant to its plot (one must see the film to fully appreciate this).A pioneering work, from an age where just about anything was possible in cinema..
Born in the middle of the difficulties of post-WWI Germany, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" was part of an artistic movement known as "German expressionism", where highly symbolic and surrealistic imagery was used to create a highly theatrical and experimental form of film-making.
The challenge of low-budgets and the poverty of the studios ended up creating a visually arresting experience that became the trademark of films like "Der Golem", "Nosferatu", and specially, this now legendary movie.It all begins as a young man named Francis (Friedrich Feher) begins to tell what he claims to be, is the strange experience he has ever lived.
As probably the most representative of the "German Expressionism" movement, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" presents us a shockingly different interpretation of the world with its irregularly distorted set design and the highly artistic use of light and shadows, creating for the first a time a movie that defies reality by becoming probably the closest one can be to watching a moving painting.
While the credit for this brilliant display of creativity is almost never given to director Robert Wiene (due mostly to his irregular career), he makes an truly efficient job directing this movie, as if he was destined to do it.The brainchild of Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, the nightmarish tale of Dr. Caligari is still one of the most inventive and influential story of mystery ever put on film.
While the visuals are often the first thing that one notices in "Caligari", the screenplay is as influential (maybe even more) as the design, as the way the story is built (as a flashback), the thrilling climax and the even more surprising conclusion of the tale are now often imitated classics plot devices in suspense films.
Francis' story of madness and horror revolves not only around the mystery of Caligari's actions, but also around the suspense of who will be the next victim of the unknown serial killer."The Cabinet" is really one of the best acted silent films ever made, with an effective cast that makes a considerably subtler performance than what was the norm in the highly theatrical days of silent movies.
In fact, Wiene's bash has gone as far as it's often said that Wiene added the first and last scenes in order to please the government when in fact that addition was suggested by Lang himself.Probably nobody will ever know how exactly Robert Wiene achieved this marvelous movie, but what is know is that "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" went on to became the most important achievement of the "German Expressionism" movement and a movie that even now continues inspiring and influencing artists across the world.
Think that this was before the concept of travelling was even developed.Concerning the plot, yet it's true that it isn't really the great thing and that many people now a days find it boring, I got to enjoy it, further than its aesthetical function (I even got to laugh in a couple of scenes), and I highly recommend it, as a good old piece of art from which many of today's film makers may take some good lessons on how to approach movies.
Well, I was right, CABINET is not as good as any of those, but is still a very well-made film and is as stunning as it was in 1920.A man sitting in a park tells the story of Dr. Caligari and how he visited a small German village with the fair and terrorized the citizens of the city by sending out his somnambulist, Cesare, to kill people.
one of the greatest films featuring german expressionism,  this film mixes a psychological theme with strange surrealist settings, an idea that has been copyed ever since.the lack of sound no way interfered with the story and it almost seemed impossible to not look at the set and it's edgey unproportioned and warped edges.a great psychological thriller from the past in a time when this kind of stuff was amazing and awe inspiring..
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari seems to have set the standard for how a horror film should look and feel.
The uses of colors, framing, lighting, makeup, shadows, are all perfectly executed in order to give life to a nightmarish atmosphere.It is also important to note that it has the honor to be the film that founded the German Expressionist Movement, which would give us other treasures such as Nosferatu, The Hands Of Orlac, and Metropolis.Superb are also the performances, especially Conrad Veidt as Cesare and Werner Krauss as his master the doctor, who are already very creepy not only by their physical appearance, but also because they imbue an aura of mystery.And last but not least, the final plot twist (being also the pioneer film in using this device) encourages debate, and (why not?) further viewings.
By combining elements of romantic writings with expressionistic art this is a movie which really stands the test of time.Even more so since it has been restored and digitally scanned to shine in 4k resolution with new soundtrack and toned images like it was originally intended.Even if the cinematography may seem slow or even archaic to today's audiences "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari" can be seen as influential as its gets..
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 German film directed by Robert Wiene, written by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, and starring Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, and Friedrich Feher - about a creepy old man and his freaky fair sideshow and the mysterious murders taking place during their presence.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is among the greatest films of the silent era and one of the most influential films in the early years of the horror genre.
One of the most influential German silent movies from the 20's tells the story of Francis, who in his turn tells the story of Dr. Caligari, an insane director of a mental institution.Expressionistic designs and an interesting non-linear telling of the tale makes it a treat to watch, although some will lose interest after a while.
Robert Wiene's 1920 classic is one of the main representatives of German Expressionism, a movement that revolutionized film-making, and has influenced many later masters of the world cinema.
The avant-garde arts had arrived to the movie screens too, in the end, and the results achieved here could not be ignored ever again.So strong was the impact this film had, on audience and insiders alike, that many later directors drew inspiration from Caligari for their work.
This all-out expressionistic approach could easily have gone very wrong in lesser hands, but here it becomes an ideal way to set off the rest of the picture."The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" repays viewers who watch attentively, and who have an eye for subtlety, even more than most silent films do.
​I don't like horror, but I show "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" in my film architecture seminar, because the filmmakers hold graphic violence in check, present a good story well told, and conjure a brave visual work of art.Most of all, I like how this silent 1920 surreal thriller illustrates the unity of what I call Form & Story—a concept that helps me design my screenplays and my books, paintings, and buildings.Let me set up my commentary by laying some theoretical groundwork, using terms and concepts I've devised in my practice of architecture.Architecture is a silver coin.
Films like "Nosferatu", "Faust", "Metropolis", "Sunrise", and "The Golem" are all classic examples of this movement, but perhaps the most important entry of the German Expressionist movement is the haunting horror classic "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".With a surreal set design that truly adds to the strange beauty the film creates, it clearly has inspired the work of filmmaker Tim Burton, among many others.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an early German Expressionist film in which the main character, Francis, recounts his experiences with Dr. Caligari and his pet somnambulist, Cesare.
It played a huge part in establishing the horror genre(along with 'Nosferatu), and the unique language of silent film in general.Most of all, this is pure film ART.The distorted, painted sets, strange camera angles and even stranger plot contribute to Caligari's reputation as a true classic.