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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
by Robert Wiene
Fascinating and bizarre; this week we bring you the quintessential work of German Expressionist Cinema.
It tells the story of an insane hypnotist who uses a somnambulist (sleepwalker) to commit murders. The film features a dark and twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, with shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets.
REASONS TO WATCH
– Made before Horror was a designated genre, this is sometimes cited as the first true horror film (although films with elements of the macabre were certainly made earlier). Also credited as the first feature film to incorporate a twist ending.
– Writer Hans Janowitz claims to have gotten the idea for the film when he was at a carnival one day. He saw a strange man lurking in the shadows. The next day, he heard that a girl was brutally murdered there. He went to the funeral, and saw the same strange man lurking around. He had no proof that the strange man was the murderer, but he fleshed the whole idea out into his film.
– It played at one Paris theatre for seven years – that’s how good it is!
– Producer Erich Pommer first approached Fritz Lang to direct, but it was Robert Wiene’s test scene that won the confidence of the studios. If you’ve been following #CinemaRevival you’ll get why that’s kind of a big deal.
– The earliest German film included among the ‘1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die’ and included on Roger Ebert’s “Great Movies” list.
– Sets were constructed for less than $800 (made out of paper, with the shadows painted on the walls) and the leading actors were paid $30 a day – true low budget filmmaking.
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Enjoy the film!