The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
| release date | February 26 1920 |
| studio | Goldwyn Distributing Company |
| director | Robert Wiene |
| writer | Hans Janowitz, Carl Mayer |
| starring | Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher |
| tagline | You must become Caligari |
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I just watched this the other night and loved it. It’s like ‘watching’ a picture book. The sets were so creative and the characters looked awesome. Cesare is on the best characters I’ve seen from any silent movie. The only thing that I didn’t really care for was the ‘twist’ at the end.
ONE OF THE GREAT ONES
I’m not one to judge a film solely for its place in history, or its influence on the many motion pictures that may have followed. Quality, above all, certainly means a lot to me; and it should. One should critique, or appreciate, a film based on both personal taste and the overall observation of how good, how bad, or how “meh” a movie is. I thought it appropriate to say this now, as I review “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, because it’s films like this one which are often (unfairly) bombarded with harsh criticism from the beloved audience members of the modern age. It’s a horror film released in 1920, so there’s no blood, gore, sex, violence, or profanity; and the horror fanatics of today might not be able to fathom that. But I’m not here to offer a critique of our times and how unlucky I feel to be a part of them; I am here to tell you why I think the film is deserving of its landmark status.
In my opinion, one of the most frightening things on earth would be the inability to control our bodily functions; our bones, our movements, what we say, and everything else beyond. The story of the film deals with this theme, this fear; in the form of a rather unfortunate fellow named Cesare, who lives in a cabinet, awakened only by his master by the name of Caligari, who has enslaved his mind and body. Cesare is what one would call a somnambulist; and Caligari advertises his tragic “gift” as a carnival attraction. Caligari comes into town a stranger; but leaves behind him a legend. You’ll find out what I mean in just a bit.
Most of the story is told in a flashback; that of a man who appears in the beginning – and in the end – of the film, where he looks back on his experiences and encounters with the Doctor and his psychological slave. We see a woman, who he claims to be his fiancÃ