THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) B/W "silent" 72m dir: Robert Wiene

w/Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Lil Dagover, Friedrich Feher

This earliest German expressionist film features a scary plotline about a carnival hypnotist (Krauss) who uses his somnambulist (Veidt) for evil doings. The heavy stylization is still striking, particularly in the surprise resolution. From Georges Sadoul's Dictionary of Films : "Caligari was captivating mainly because of its visual experiments. Expressionism was born in Munich around 1912 and spread quickly in the defeated and chaotic Germany of 1919. It invaded the theater, billboards, streets, and shop fronts. Caligari 's series of tableaux and the colorful effect of its painted backdrops was almost a return to [George] Melies and filmed theater, but using entirely new esthetics that were in harmony with the postwar confusion. True film expressionism developed later in Germany; it was based less on the theater and can be clearly distinguished from its precursor, 'caligarism.' The scenario was based on the great German tradition of fantasy, on the tradition of the romantics, Chamisso and Hoffman, and on medieval stories. But it also contained the philosophic fable of a man fascinated by and made into a criminal by an all-powerful authoritarian master. It is in this sense that Siegfried Kracauer saw in it a trend leading from 'Caligari to Hitler' [sic], a sort of 'cortege of monsters and tyrants.' Although one shouldn't over-stress Kracauer's thesis, it must be admitted that as early as 1918, the brilliant scenarist, Carl Meyer, metaphorically portrayed in Caligari the fate of Germany from 1939 to 1949 (the first Nazis appeared in 1919). Some of the most famous scenes: the doctor unveils Cesare standing in his coffin; the white bedroom where Cesare kidnaps the young girl and the wall he rests against; his flight across the roofs and his capture on a little bridge; Caligari in prison. But these superbly composed pictures are often more striking in stills than on the movie screen. They are striking because of their excesses: the shots of Werner Krauss as Caligari in top hat and thick glasses, and, especially of Conrad Veidt, looking like a skeleton in his black tights."