“The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is a german silent horror film from 1920. This movie
is famous for its visually striking, twisted/distorted art style characteristic
of the german expressionism movement of the 1920’s, also as well for being one
of the first true horror movies ever. It is also the first to include a twist
ending in its story, something pretty groundbreaking for the time of its
release. It was directed by Robert Wiene, and starred Werner Krauss as the mysterious
Dr. Caligari and prominent actor Conrad Veidt as Cesare the somnambulist.
The film
starts with a man named Francis telling another man about some dreadful events
that happened on his hometown. He tells of how things turned eerie when a so
called Dr. Caligari arrives to perform in the town fair. His act is fortune
telling and is led by himself, who uses a somnambulist named Cesare (who lives
in a cabinet, mind you) to tell the future of the people who ask. Francis and a
friend, Alan go to the fair and enter Dr. Caligari’s tent. Alan has his fortune
read and is told he’ll die the next day. The prophecy comes true as Alan is
murdered in his bed. Francis wants to get to the bottom of it all, thinking
that Dr. Caligari and Cesare are the ones responsible for the crime. He stops
at nothing to discover what is going on as bad stuff keeps happening all around.
Then the story takes a slightly different course. What we see gets somewhat
confusing as the story unfolds, and you start to doubt the narrator Francis’
story, because stuff stops making sense even for him. And then there’s the reveal,
one of the, if not the first plot twist in horror movie history. (Spoiler alert
if you don’t know it). It so happens that Francis is a patient in a mental asylum,
where Dr. Caligari is really the head director, and all the other characters from
his tale are fellow patients.
“The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” has a disturbing, hypnotizing atmosphere that makes
you feel uneasy but you can’t take your eyes away. Its greatness is in the exaggeratedly
distorted physicality of everything it shows. From windows to doors, buildings,
lamps, and also people’s movements. Even shadows are painted directly on the
floors, walls and flat canvas sets to give higher accentuation to the deluded
state of mind of the protagonist. They’re all twisted in some way that represent
how the crazy mind of our storyteller perceives the world. It is the maximum
representation of the german expressionism movement that spawned many silent
horror films in 1920’s Germany.
This movie
has a pretty good legacy, said to have inspired the film noir look, and also
inspiring countless film makers throughout their careers. Two of them are: Tim
Burton who is very clearly inspired by it and tries to assimilate the atmosphere
it projects (not just this movie, but german expressionism in general) in his
own movies, and the other one is Martin Scorsese who used Caligari’s story as a
basis of inspiration on his movie “Shutter Island”.
I strongly
recommend “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” for anyone interested in german
expressionism or interested in horror movie history. It is visually mesmerizing
and it has a good story. The paper house mountain is awesome, and this is one of my
favorite movies. 8.5/10.
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