Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari (1920)
Directed by Robert Wiene

Film Review

It would be an understatement to describe The Cabinet of Dr Caligari as a masterpiece of German expressionistic cinema.  Whilst that epithet is undoubtedly true it does not do justice to the film's historical importance nor to its great artistic value and originality. It was the first significant film to have appropriated the German expressionistic style, which originated in painting and theatre set design, and consequently gave birth to a new style of cinema.  The German expressionist film, distinguished by its angular sets, stylised performances and exaggerated use of light and shade, provided the inspiration for filmmakers across Europe and in America, gradually evolving into the distinctive film noir style of the 1940s.   The success of Caligari contributed to the most artistic and successful period in German cinema, bolstered by similar works such as Murnau's Nosferatu (1921) and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927).

Thus, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari can rightly be classified as one of the most important films in cinema history.  It is also a surprisingly accessible film, since it combines a conventional narrative technique with some highly innovative devices.  This in-built schizophrenia, the fusion of the avant garde with the tacitly commercial, mirrors the film's story, which deals mainly with the theme of extreme psychological disorder or, put more succinctly, madness.   The expressionist sets, with their jagged edges, misshapen windows, crooked spiral staircases and general sense of disharmony, add to the disorientating impression of a world permeated by subconscious terror and mental instability.  The fear factor is heightened by the extremely stylised performances from Werner Krauss and Conrad Veidt, who play respectively Caligari and Cesare, the film's two chilling villains.  Both actors enjoyed great fame and successful careers as a result of appearing in this film.

The film was originally intended by its authors (Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer) to be a flagrant assault on all forms of authority, a popular reaction to the socio-economic disaster and human tragedy that was World War I.  In their story, Dr Caligari represents the standard bearer of the old guard, the deluded old man who uses his sleepwalking aide to perpetrate acts of grotesque evil.  The world is saved by a young hero, the character Francis, who exposes Caligari's crimes and has him committed to the very lunatic asylum he has been managing.  This was obviously too reactionary for the film's producer, Erich Pommer, who, at the last moment, requested that a final scene be added to reveal that it was Francis who was insane, not Caligari.  Thus, at a stroke, the meaning of the story is entirely reversed, by the simple device of framing Janowitz and Carl Mayer's original story within another story which, to all intents and purposes, cancels out any subversive messages.

Yet, in spite of this clever subterfuge, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari remains a profoundly complex and disturbing work.  It is rendered even more baffling by the fact that the framing story is itself partly contradicted by the main story.  The closer one examines this film, the more apparent become its inherent contradictions and ultimately nothing can be taken at face value.  Why do remnants of the expressionist sets appear in the final section of the framing story when the latter is supposed to be the sane “real” world, not the fantasy world of a mad man?  Why do we feel so uneasy when Caligari states, at the end of the film, his benign intention to cure Francis?  Why does the mysterious Cesare appear so differently in the main story and its frame?  Contextual contradictions lie at the heart of German expressionist art, so it is perhaps hardly surprising to find this represented in is cinematic equivalent.

The film's most important claim to fame is that it is the original horror film.  The Cabinet of Dr Caligari contains all the ingredients of the traditional horror film and was the inspirations of an entire genre, beginning with the early horror classics from Universal Studios in Hollywood, including Frankenstein (1931) and Dracula (1931).  Whilst this fact adds greatly to the film's appeal it does not dilute its value or impact.  It is no exaggeration to say that this is a unique work of cinematic art, as hauntingly beautiful as it is endlessly fascinating.

Film Synopsis

Seated on a park bench, a young man, Francis, tells an older man the tragic story of his fiancée.  It began some years ago, when he and his friend, Alan, were in love with the same young woman, Jane...  One day, Francis and Alain decide to visit a travelling fair at which one of the exhibits is Dr Caligari's cabinet.  The coffin-shape box contains an unconscious man dressed entirely in black.  Caligari awakes the man, Cesare, and tells his audience that he has been asleep for over twenty years, through which time he has acquired the ability to tell the future.   Alain asks the somnambulist how long he has yet to live.  Cesare replies that he would be dead by the following dawn.  Sure enough, the prediction comes true: Alan is the second victim of a nocturnal murderer.  The previous night, a town clerk was stabbed to death.  Francis is convinced that Caligari has something to do with the killings and so begins his own investigation.  A man is soon arrested, caught in the act of trying to kill an old woman.  Meawnhile, Jane, concerned by the disappearance of her father, pays a visit to the fair.  She is met by Dr Caligari who takes her into his caravan to show her his somnambulist specimen.   Jane flees in terror.  That night, whilst the young woman is a sleep, a shadowy figure enters her bedroom, his knife raised to claim victim number three...