3/4  80%
Action: 3/3 + Comedy: 0/2 + Good vs Evil: 1/1 + Love/Sex: 1/1 + Special Effects: 1/1 + Plot: 1/1 + Music: 1/1 = 8/10 or 80%.

This German silent film was so ground breaking and shocking that it ran successfully in theaters for 7 years (1... (read full)

5/5 question
  by Mohammad Naser Ahmad
isnt the image entertainment version dubbed in english though? and the kino version contains the original german soundtrack? could you please tell me if im correct? I want to buy the movie, but I want to watch it in its orginal german form, not a stupid english dubbed edition.

5/5 The stuff nightmares are made of, or made from!
  by William Dorfer
One of the first horror films in history, although not the very first (1896's two-minute silent film "La Manoir Du Diablo" and 1910's absolute original "Frankenstein" both beat this movie), "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is, to say the least, a landmark film in horror movies. Being that I watched it through the eyes of a younger horror fan, I noticed some interesting aspects. For one thing, this movie is way ahead of its time. The scenery and the use of it, something that I'll get to in a minute, is something that's rarely touched upon even nowadays, well over 80 years after the movie was made.

The scenery is really what makes this movie such a masterpiece and a film far beyond its contemporary time-frame. The settings in this movie make it like a film version of a Salvador Dali painting. All the buildings seem crooked and surreal, and the fact that whatever appears onscreen is surrounded by black even gives it the appearance of the classic "dream bubble" sort of imagery. The entire movie has a very dreamlike, actually more like nightmarish, quality to it, that takes you to another place and is, even today, unlike many many other horror films.

Another thing I find great about this movie is the acting. Silent films are usually considered movies where overacting is almost a given. However, I really didn't think there were any moments here where the acting was way too over the top. For a silent film, the acting was quite good, and the dialogue (for a silent film, which would be the words that appear on screen to read, of course) is quite poetic at times.

Bringing this review to a smooth ending, I'm glad that I was able to rewind far back in cinema time to an early and landmark horror film. Avid horror fans will hopefully be able to appreciate "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", with is both simplistic and extravagant at the same time. Although I haven't seen too many silent films, I definitely think this is a great one, and is recommended for horror fans, especially those that want to watch a piece of horror history! Thanks for the time, and peace.

5/5 An incredibly important and influential film that essentially jumpstarted the horror genre.
  by Robert Thompson (Under Your Bed!!!)
I don't usually write long movie reviews but I did a short paper on this film in my History of Film class so I thought I would share it with you all here as well. The first time I laid eyes on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari's highly stylized footage that we sampled in class I wanted to go home and watch it right away. The sets are perfect examples of the German expressionism era, it influenced storytelling through film, and the film greatly influenced the popular horror genre of film.

German expressionism was an incredibly important influence on film, and the Sets and Characters of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is, in my eyes, the perfect example of what German expressionism should be. The makeup is done perfectly, so that the characters look very pale with the exception of black makeup around the eyes. In my opinion this gives us an inner view of the characters' emotions and the overall feeling the director wanted you to get for this movie. The lighting not only benefits the set design, but I also feel like the it is also another layer of makeup for the actors. The sets are all highly creative and very twisted and dark looking. This again helps contribute to making you feel how the director wants you to feel. In most modern films the sets are simply a background or setting for the characters, but in films like this, the set is almost like another character in itself.

The way this film tells it's story while using absolutely minimal dialogue is amazing. Thanks to the superb directing by Robert Wiene it's always easy to see and understand what's going on up until the slightly confusing ending, and while that is partly the director's fault it's also the script's fault for being so convoluted. Aside from that one grievance which many critics and fans alike seem to share with me, it's very easy to follow along with the story despite there being no sound and almost no dialogue or narration. You can get a rasp of what people are feeling during certain scenes partly through set design, but largely from the actors themselves. Just peering into their faces you can almost know exactly what emotions they're feeling.

There is no arguing against the fact that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari helped to start the horror genre of film. More specifically, it pretty much created the extraordinarily popular subgenre of horror, "Slasher Films". Known for classics like Halloween, Friday the 13th, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has all of the basic elements of future films in the genre. It focuses around a mysterious killer who dresses in dark clothing and stalks his prey in the shadows. The main difference I see between this film and future films in the genre is that this one is generally much more deep than the majority of Slasher Films. Cesare actually shows feelings and emotion in this film, and backs out of killing Jane at the last minute. Although even this is sometimes present in more modern films like Friday The 13th Part II in which Jason shows emotion by hesitating when his victim wears his mom's sweater, he doesn't want to harm his mother. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is also deeper than many modern horror films largely because of the ending, which takes several psychological twists and turns that can easily confuse the viewer if they aren't paying attention. So while there are minor differences when it comes down to it The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari really was an extremely heavy influence on the horror genre.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a truly fantastic film that in my opinion was very far ahead of its time. It showcases exquisite directing and set design, and managed to attain its goal as an emotional and suspenseful film despite the obviously low budget. Most importantly this film greatly influenced the horror genre of film, and unintentionally invented slasher films which are now one of the most popular subgenres of film today. So despite the lack of modern interest in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, it really lives on through the horror movies still being made today.

P.S. The KINO version is by far the best version of this film on DVD.

5/5 Dark Film Noir: Beginnings of Horror Movie tradition as Expressionist art
  by Alberto M. Barral (new york)
The DVD that I watched is the Kino version. I must say that I found the intensity of the blue highlights around the figures in the very first scene in the garden very exaggerated, but did not dislike it, rather I thought it was painterly way of representing the scene. I read in the reviews here that this is a distortion that does NOT appear in the Image version of the film, so I will make a point of getting that one for comparison purposes.

The musical score feature offers two choices. Go for the traditional, the modern version does not work as well and eventually becomes very annoying.

The film is an excellent example of how the artistic currents and tendencies of the time were affecting film and each media was influencing the other. The images in the movie most certainly reminded me of paintings that I have admired by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, particularly 4 paintings that show urban landscapes and figures, all done before the movie when the artist lived in Berlin: Nollendorfplatz, 1912 Berlin Street Scene, 1913 Potsdamer Platz, 1914 Brandenburger Tor, 1915 also the angularity of the architecture reminded me of the style of Franz Marc and August Macke's workks, both of them were great Expressionist painters that died very young and are even less well known than Kirchner. All of them portrayed the anxiety,dehumanization, and sheer horror that 'modern' life was providing for the regular urban dweller of those difficult times in Germany, but that eventually became emblematic of the phenomenon worldwide. There is a famous coloured woodcut by another Expressionsit artist, Erich Heckel, Portrait of a Man, from 1919 that is the very face of Cesare, (played by Conrad Veit) the character that plays the murderous somnambulist in the film, it is tempting to think that the could have been the model. The makeup worn by Lil Dagover who plays Jane is very similar to the women portrayed by expressionistic artist Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.

Also do note that the shadow projected on to the wall as Cesare approaches, then murders his first victim, is a device that we are going to see again, with similar horrific implications in "Nosferatu" just two years later.
The device of using a story within a story, whereby at the very end we are led to believe that the whole thing has been an invention of Francis' deranged mind as we see that he, along with Jane and Cesare are patients of Caligari at a real-life assylum is straight from Kafka in sensibility.

This is a must see movie for all interested in the German Expressionist movement, but also for horror/thriller fans, as this movieis the parent of the genre. Aside from the historical or artistic merits, it is still a very interesting, fascinating movie and not at all a museum relic. We get drawn into the weird, fantastical and claustrophobic world of Dr. Caligari and can not wait for the next scene to advance the plot. It benefits immensely from the absence of dialogue, as the intensity of the characters, and the effectiveness of the decor are more than well suited to convey all the significance we need. It truly is a perfect example of why silent movies are still important and relevant as independent works of art .

One of the extra features is a 'condensed' 43 minute long version of "Genuine the tale of a Vampire", which I also enjoyed watching. It has similar sets and backdrops to Caligari.The plot revolves around a femme fatale (played by Fern Andra to the hilt and 'edge' of what was then known as vampism) called Genuine who is not a vampire as the title may suggest, but actually had been the high priestess of some cult.

She ends up in a slave market featuring surprising revealing nudity, and is eventually bought by an eccentric old man who is prone to doze off while being shaved daily, and who keeps the girl as a decorative souvenir in his mansion, as one can not possibly imagine his senility could be aroused to more action than admiring looks of worship. Whether the priestess arrived from a past life or the 'exotic' Middle East of 19th Century literature, is not clear.

The first time we see Genuine she steps-off a portrait in the sitting-room, wearing an outrageous costume more pertaining to Hollywood High Drama than any epoch of antiquity, while gesturing an walking in an uncannily similar way to Gloria Swanson descending the staricase in the very last scene of "Sunset Boulevard" where she believes she is Salomé in a De Mile epic. As an added feasture to the convoluted plot, the elderly gentleman has an Afro- Arabian servant, with painted bare chest, which looks like an unemployed extra from Diaghelev's Ballet Russe.

The barber and another young man, a nephew? of the elder gentleman, are somehow driven mad with sudden-first-sight catastrophic passion for this creature. She appears with each one in such fantastical, bizarre costumes one would assume they both had a fetish for circus performers, while we also understand why some birds surely went extinct at this time with such lavish use of feathers. The barber cuts the older man's throat because she suggests it as a sacrifice to their love and then wants him to commit suicide as another proof of love... the details aren't very clear - particularly with respect to the old man's nephew or her relationship to the servant, that can be controlled with a 'magical' ring. At some point one of them rouses the populace against her in a frenzy by calling her a witch. They rush in a fury and attack and trample the Nubian at the doorstep of the mansion, and in a scene which basically duplicates Cesare's fate from Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, she dies in the ensuing fracas after what looks like a short interpretative dance sequence.

I would have preferred a burning at the stake myself as a happier ending. However the movie would probably make more sense in the full version. The costume changes that Genuine undergoes for every single scene are worth every second of watching this oddity. Ms. Andra gave camp lovers (and drag queens) a solid and fertile basis for future developments with her showmanship, and at some moments in her performance she very much reminded me of the late Charles Busch in his Ridiculous Theater's production and interpretation of Gustave Flaubert's "Salambó", where he played the priestess to perfection in one of the most enchanting and absolute comical masterpieces of Contemporary theater that I was lucky enough to have seen, and remember always for its artistic and hilarious brilliance.

4/5 Innovative in many ways
  by wiredweird (Earth, or somewhere nearby)
The Expressionist sets in this movie really surprised me. Their off-kilter angles and surreal geometries create a suitably dream-like environment for the somnambulist nightmare to take place in. Those wild shapes certainly set the stage appropriately for this unusual movie, but figuratively set the stage for many later innovations in scenery design, as well. The ending, too, has an ambiguity that I didn't expect.

The version of Caligari that I saw wasn't the best restored. That, however, worked to my advantage this time. Between uncertain contrast in places and varying light levels, I suddenly realized why actors in the silent classics tended toward stark styles of makeup - it helped keep their facial expressions legible despite the erratic photography of the time.

Too many of its descendants have done too much more with movie-making for me to appreciate Caligari as its original audiences did, ninety years ago. In fact, many later movies surpassed Caligari by learning from it. Instead, I watched this as an historical artifact, the originator of ideas that have been developed since. That I found very enjoyable, and I'm grateful that this remarkable movie has survived to the current day.

-- wiredweird