"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"**** (out of ****)
The doctor will see you now in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920).
Watching "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is more of a visual experience than anything else. This German silent movie, directed by Robert Wiene, is often considered the definitive example of German Expressionism in cinema, distinguished by the use of architecture and production designs consisting of sharp edges and slanted camera angles, which help emphasize psychological states of mind.
I first saw "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" when I was studying film in college, more than a few years ago. Ever since that time, the one thing that stuck with me was the look of the film. It will probably be the same for anyone else that sees this movie for the first time. That says something about the lasting impression this movie will make.
Nothing in "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" looks believable. More modern audiences might feel that shows how the movie is dated. Movies back than weren't as well made as they are now. Not so fast my friend. The movie resembles a dream, more appropriately, a nightmare. The movie involves a serial killer, a deranged doctor and an insane asylum. The movie's aesthetic is a representation of the character's mind. The question is which character? Exactly who is "normal" in this movie and who is insane? Each character seems slightly off kilter.
Some movie historians credit this movie as the first horror film. I'm not sure about that. What was "Frankenstein" (1910)? As far as I know, this was the first adaptation of Mary Shelley's novel. You can find it on YouTube in its complete 16 minute form. There was also D.W. Griffith's "The Avenging Conscience" (1914) inspired by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe, mainly "Tell-Tale Heart" and "Annabel Lee". That had horror elements to it. Of course, of the three movies, "Caligari" is the most popular and by extension may have been the most influential. Would we have "Frankenstein" (1931) if it weren't for "Caligari" or "Nosferatu" (1922)?
Others see more deeply into the film and comment on the social significance of the story. It has been interpreted the movie is about World War I and the characters are symbols. One character represents the working German people, the soldiers, that were trained to kill, while another character presents society's need for a menacing authority figure, even while the movie presents authority figures as untrustworthy.
The story is told in flashback as Francis (Friedrich Feher) tells us of an amazing experience he and his fiancee, Jane (Lil Dagover) have went through involving Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss). We are taken to the town of Hostenwall, where the townsfolk are getting ready for a big fair to take place. Francis and his best friend, Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski) attend the fair and come across an exhibit by Dr. Caligari which features a sleepwalker (called a somnambulist in the movie) named Cesare (Conrad Veidt), who has the ability to see into the future. Intrigued, Alan asks Cesare how long he will live. Cesare informs him until dawn. When the prediction turns out to be true, the remainder of the film involves Francis trying to prove it was Dr. Caligari and Cesare that were behind Alan's death as well as multiple other murders in the small town.
Another interesting visual element of the movie is the use of iris shots. Given that the movie deals with a character that is in a constant trance-like state and since the movie resembles a dream, it has been pointed out the iris, which begins and ends almost every scene, is shaped like an eye, opening and closing. Adding to the dream-like quality of the movie.
Over the years I have been reluctant to call "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" a "horror" movie, as it simply doesn't elicit any feelings of freight for me. However I suppose we can view it as an early example of the serial killer genre. I've always considered this movie dramatic and fall on the side of interpreting it as symbolic in its social critique. Of course the age of the movie may also play a factor in why I don't view it as a horror movie though it is equally as old, I do consider "Nosferatu" a horror movie and would argue it is the scarier of the two. And speaking of "Nosferatu" and vampires, it is interesting to point out that Cesare sleeps in a box which looks awfully close to a coffin.
Although overall movie visually is unsettling, the movie has some very effective death scenes that take interesting advantage of shadows. During one character's death, we see a shadowy figure on wall while the victim looks on horrified. We see the shadows of the characters on a wall as one stabs the other.
There is another effective "scary" scene with Cesare attempting to kill Jane in her sleep as he creeps into her bedroom. It is shot in an extreme long shot with Jane in the forefront and Cesare in the background. The audience sees the impending danger approaching Jane, which builds suspense. Will she wake up in time to defend herself? The entire movie of course was filmed in black and white but it is interesting to note Cesare wears all black and Jane is in white. In movie terms this signifies good versus evil.
Despite "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"'s reputation as a classic, the star of the movie, Conrad Veidt, may be best known to American audiences for his role in "Casablanca" (1942). Veidt was also in other German Expressionist films such as a pair of films directed by Paul Leni; "Waxworks" (1924) and "The Man Who Laughs" (1928). It is kind of difficult for me to comment on how good Veidt's performance is in the movie. Everything is so exaggerated that we have to use a different metric to judge the performances but I will say Werner Kraus does stand out giving an overly stereotypical portrait of a "mad scientist" / villain character.
Prior to this review, I watched two versions of this film, which leads me to want to comment on the importance of music in silent cinema. Music is so important to film in general but in particular to silent film. Music truly adds to the mood of a movie. In the case of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" the first version I saw had a score done with a guitar and synthesizer. The second version had a orchestra score by Timothy Brock. Of the two the one with the orchestra score was superior and added to my involvement watching the movie.
"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" helped establish so many of the movie cliches we have seen today and rightly deserves its place as an important film in the history of cinema. Some may not be aware but the movie's title was remade in 1962. I joke only the title was remade because the story is very far from what we see here. Watch this classic instead or at least, let this silent version be the one you see first.
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