by Allan Fish
(Germany 1919 75m) DVD1/2
Aka. Das Kabinet des Dr Caligari
Awake for a moment from your dark night
p Erich Pommer d Robert Wiene w Carl Meyer, Hans Janowitz ph Willy Hameister art Hermann Warm, Walter Röhrig, Walter Reimann cos Walter Reimann
Werner Krauss (Caligari), Conrad Veidt (César the Somnambulist), Lil Dagover (Jane), Friedrich Feher (Francis), Hans Von Twardowski (Alan), Rudolf Klein-Rogge (criminal),
So was not only the somnambulist awoken by his master, but German cinema in general from its wartime malaise. Caligari is a film which has gone through a rollercoaster ride of critical approval, long venerated as the first masterpiece of the seventh art’s German expressionistic era and as a milestone in the development of cinematic horror, it went through a period during the eighties and nineties where it was, if not derided, then certainly attacked as dated, faded and even archaic. Not only were such attacks unjustified, they were not the fault of the film. For too long it was only available in a butchered 45 minute print of second generation degenerate quality (such was it released in the UK by Redemption video) and it wasn’t until the late nineties and the advent of DVD that a proper reconstruction and restoration showcased the film as, if still a little faded (wouldn’t you be after over eighty years?), a classic of cinema.
A man sits on a bench and tells how a fairground showman uses a somnambulist for murderous purposes while touring the town of Holstenwall. When his cultured friend Alan is the one killed, young student Francis sets off to prove the showman as the culprit. However, it turns out that the whole thing has been made up by Francis’ distorted mind and that the bench is in an asylum, presided over by the doctor he claims to be Caligari.
Wiene’s masterpiece was released in 1919, soon after the Treaty of Versailles, and the film most assuredly mirrors the German national psyche after the humiliating armistice which would ultimately leave behind the bitterness that flowered into the darkness of Nazism. The expressionistic touches are there for all to see, from the artificial sets to the distorted camera angles and exaggerated emoting of the actors. Clerks sit on crooked high chairs while guests such as the Doctor cower in the corner, which one could easily equate to the victorious Allies lording it over the defeated and crestfallen German nation. The town of Holstenwall is out of a demented fairy tale and looks forward to the town towered over by Chernabog in the Moussorgsky segment of Fantasia. Everything here is not what it seems, personified in the twist that finally turns the whole thing on its head. Or does it? Is it rather the asylum which is a nightmarish dream and is Francis actually telling the truth? Of course we’ll never know, but each repeated viewing brings new clues that help one pick the truth from madness.
It has long been the subject of debate what Caligari’s influence really was. Certainly it’s the purest vision of German expressionism, with later efforts such as Der Golem and Nosferatu equally owing their visual sheen to Gothic horror and myth. It was also the cheapest to shoot (for under $20,000) and at times resembles a carnival attraction, rather like the somnambulist himself. Though Caligari itself borrowed the somnambulist’s costume from the master criminals in Feuillade’s Les Vampires, it’s more influential than influenced by, with sequences looking ahead to later German films, as well as Dead of Night, the dream sequence from Spellbound and even Whale’s Frankenstein. Such a legacy may explain the film’s allure the best part of a century on; it represents our darkest fears as if shot like an eternal nightmare, its influences being those on our dreams and our mind. Wiene himself never succeeded to remotely the same level again, which tends to suggest that the genius came from the iconic photography and, in particular, the set design, which towers over everything. “There are spirits…everywhere they are around us” the first caption reads and, if Caligari neither upholds or disproves that fact, German expressionism itself would play with that notion for over a decade.
Has anyone ever staged Caligari? On a stage, I mean. Given the importance of set design and costume, it seems like it could be done to great effect. I don’t mean to say that the film’s main virtues aren’t cinematic because few films are as iconic as this one and cinema is very much a matter of iconography. I’m just saying that there’s a two-dimensionality to Caligari that seems easily adaptable to the three dimensions of the live theater. But having said that, I have to affirm that Krauss and Veidt, and their costumers, really elevate this film. They are the original icons of movie horror.
Weiner does use a static camera center-stage and flat internal lighting, so it was really filmed theater.
The insanity framing was not a part of the original script by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz. Some say that it was added by the producer Erich Pommer, others that Fritz Lang, who was involved in the early stages, was responsible, and is discussed by Siegfried Kracauer in his study of post-World War I German cinema, From Caligari to Hitler. The entry for Caligari at filmreference.com says:
“According to Kracauer this framing contrivance served to contain the inherent horror of the original story. A study of authoritative madness and abusive power was recast as the delusion of an insane narrator; the evil doctor was re-defined as a benign, ministering figure who can cure the lunatic. At the same time Kracauer sees the final film as a powerful expression of the inherent tensions of the collective German psyche of the period—the fear that individual freedom will lead to rampant chaos which can only be constrained by submission to tyrannical authority. If the original script depicted the potential abuses of absolute authority, the framing scenes concede to this authority and suggest it may be beneficial.”
I generally like questionable framing devices which cast the proper text into ambiguity. I tend to prefer Cuckoo’s Nest the book to the movie in part because the book is filtered through the Chief’s consciousness, and we can never be quite sure if he’s as insane as everyone thinks he is or if he’s the only one who sees what’s really going on. Likewise with Caligari – I don’t find that the “explanation” defuses the dream so much as adds another dimension, without robbing the experience itself of its primal power.
I even like the discarded framing device for “Forbidden Games.” The two kids are sitting on a log over a river in an idyllic pastoral landscape, reading the story of the film to one another. The girl cries on the boy’s shoulder and he comforts her and says it’s only a story, it isn’t true. This has been dismissed as a trite evasion of the film’s darkness but to me it has the opposite effect. The truth of the film’s story cannot be denied, hence these artificial bookends come off as a desperate childlike attempt, a wilfully naive gesture, to obscure a truth which cannot be hidden. They make the film even sadder, to my eyes. But I love that sort of thing.
Hi! Allan,
What more is there for me to say…What a very interesting review…in which you described the “birth” of German Expressionism …perfectly.
According to the author of this article over there at Greencine David Hudson…
… “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is the exemplary Pommer production. For starters, the story is right up the Expressionist alley. Set on a fairground, over city rooftops and in an insane asylum, the film tells the tale of one highly suspicious Dr. Caligari who hypnotizes Cesare, his ghoulish assistant, and sends him off to kill.
Allan said,”The expressionistic touches are there for all to see, from the artificial sets to the distorted camera angles and exaggerated emoting of the actors…”
But, of course…I think this film “laid the “groundwork” for future things to come…especially, when it came to…film noir,
but of course…the first film that come to mind is Boris Ingster’s…Strangers on the Third Floor.
…”Then there’s the look. The characters, with their exaggerated make-up and costumes, seem to be bolting around in some giant Expressionist painting. That’s intentional. The sets, by designer Hermann Warm and painters Walter Röhrig and Walter Reimann, are all slashing diagonal lines and stark angles while director Robert Wiene further accents the contrast between light and shadow.”
“In short, Caligari featured just about all the primary elements we associate with German Expressionist film:
•Anti-heroic (if not downright evil) characters at the center of the story…
•which often involves madness, paranoia, obsession and…
•is told in whole or in part from a subjective point of view.
•A primarily urban setting (there are exceptions, particularly in the case of Murnau), providing ample opportunity to explore…
•the criminal underworld…
•and the complex architectural and compositional possibilities offered, for example, by stairways and their railings, mirrors and reflecting windows, structures jutting every bit as vertically as they do horizontally so that…
•the director can play with stripes, angles and geometric forms sliced from the stark contrasts between light and shadow.
•Shadows, in fact, can take on an ominous presence of their own; think of the monster’s shadow ascending the stairs in Nosferatu, the shadow preceding the murderer in M or the pursuit and capture of Maria in Metropolis.
What’s more, Caligari, released in 1919, was a hit. Not just in Germany, but throughout Europe, and eventually, in the US as well. So soon after the war, when German film had been all but invisible to international audiences all those years, the world’s interest was suddenly sparked. “
Thanks, for sharing!
DeeDee 😉
You mount a good argument DeeDee of the influence on noir, and you are in the majority.
But I take the heretical view that the expressionist connection is tenuous. The sets are staged distortions with shadows painted on, and the action, as I say above, is filmed using flat internal lighting and a static camera center-stage. The film has little if any relevance to film noir in theme or filmic technique, apart from the use of flashback within a flashback.
Spot on. This film has been unfairly trashed by the realists. Its influence on surreal filmmaking is undeniable.Top review Allan.
One of Dee Dee’s most fascinating comments ever, and kudos to you for that! Fantastic historical context that greatly enriches this legendary film.
Likewise Tony, Movie Man, Samuel, great stuff!!
Ironically, this film has been mentioned as a possible influence on SHUTTER ISLAND for the obviou reasons.
Hi! Allan, Tony, Sam Juliano and WitD readers,
Here goes…
…”An unexpectedly intense indie visual remix of the 1920 silent original, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI. The updated version features backgrounds scanned from an original 35mm print combined with brand-new green screen footage of actors including Doug Jones (Hell boy, Fantastic 4, Pan’s Labyrinth, and the upcoming Rise of the Silver Surfer) as the sinister sleepwalker “Césare.” This classic tale takes place in the eerily beautiful, expressionistic world of the German original. Now, combined with a chilling script that expands on the silent yet twisted story of the original, the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has been opened once again in horrifying sight and sound!”
Cont…
Tony said,”You mount a good argument DeeDee of the influence on noir, and you are in the majority.
But I take the heretical view that the expressionist connection is tenuous.”
Hi! Tony,
Oh! yes, I’am totally…“surprised” by the fact, that you have taken a “heretical view”…(Note to Tony: I hope that my “sarcasm” is dutifully noted…Oh! minus the mocking or deriding tone that is usually associated with sarcasm, but of course!…My remark just mean the opposite of what it seems to say…Of course, I’am not “surprised” that you have taken a “heretical view” when it comes to Germanic Expressionism, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” and the film noir connection.)
…Tony said, “The sets are staged distortions with shadows painted on, and the action, as I say above, is filmed using flat internal lighting and a static camera center-stage. The film has little if any relevance to film noir in theme or filmic technique, apart from the use of flashback within a flashback.”
Oh! no, I wasn’t comparing the film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” to film noir. I was just pointing out the fact, that
director Boris Ingster, used “some” of the primary elements (listed below:) we associate with Germanic Expressionism in his film…Stranger on the Third Floor. Which of course…is considered by many to be the first film noir to his advantage. Hence, the reason that I said, “laid the groundwork…”
…For instance, he (Ingster) used
•Anti-heroic (if not downright evil) characters at the center of the story…
•which often involves madness, paranoia, obsession and…(Well, actor Peter Lorre’s character wasn’t evil, but mad (insane) and obviously, suffered with paranoia.)
•is told in whole or in part from a subjective point of view.
•A primarily urban setting •and the complex architectural and compositional possibilities offered, for example, by stairways and their railings, mirrors and reflecting windows, structures jutting every bit as vertically as they do horizontally so that…
•the director played with stripes, angles and geometric forms sliced from the stark contrasts between light and shadow. (I feel that he (Ingster) used these elements to his advantage in the dream sequence and in the courtroom scene in the film “Stranger on the Third Floor”.)
•His (Ingster) use of shadows, in fact, did take on an ominous presence of their own; in the courtroom scene in the film Stranger on the Third Floor.
Resources: In order for readers, to read additional information on…how director Boris Ingster, use German Expressionism to his advantage in the 1940 film Stranger on the Third Floor…
…I would suggest you pick up copies of…author (Alain) Silver’s and (James) Ursini’s book The Noir Style (See pages.162-165) and Film Noir by Eddie Robson. (See pages: 7-17… author Eddie Robson, truly focus(es) on the connection between Germanic Expressionism and Film noir on page 13 in his book.)
DeeDee 😉
The importance and influence of this film, in my opinion, warrants this to be ranked higher (at least top twenty). The film is still one of my favorites and I can’t think of ten better endings.
[…] The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (no 33) « Wonders in the Dark […]
This is one of my favorite silent films, and Allan, you may spoil the twist in the first paragraphs, but hey! it’s still an incredible piece on one of my favorite horror/german/silent/expressionism films of all time.
I love the shadows, the characters, how it all manages to tie down towards the end as a wonderful nightmarish vision into madness. I freaking love this! (*****)