The Cabinet of Dr Caligari takes the Glory and Rises from the Crypt

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari directed by Robert Weine, is a non-linear narrative about the accounts of Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) exhibiting his cabinet and its content at a local fair in Holstenwall. The film opens up with a line: “There are spirits…everywhere. They are all around us. They have driven me from hearth and home-from wife and child,” (The Psychologist, 1920).

This story is narrated by (the who) Francis (Friedrich Feher) telling his story to a fellow patient in what seems to be a garden or park while the ghost-like Jane Olsen (Lil Dagover), wearing a white gown, gracefully floats by ignoring the two men that are watching her. A mysterious man, Dr. Caligari wants to exhibit his cabinet in the fair, and while he is visiting (The where)Holstenwall a series of murders takes place, beginning with the town’s clerk and followed by Francis’s close friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), after receiving a foreboding premonition from the somnambulist Cesare (Conrad Veidt).

 Francis swore that he would not rest until he could solve the mystery while receiving justice for the loss of his close friend. A murderer (Ludwig Rex) was caught after an attempt on an old woman’s life, and he was blamed for the mysterious crimes while Dr. Caligari is free, but Francis suspects Caligari and stakes out his lodgings as (The what) Cesare attempts to murder Jane, but kidnaps her instead and carries her off through the town and over the bridge before dropping her at the foot of the bridge to escape in the shadows.  Francis discovers the Dr.’s true identity as the sanitarium’s director as well as his obsession of somnambulism, but the film spirals and twist to show that Francis is merely a patient in the institution.

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a staple for German Cinema as it pioneers the German Expressionism movement. The salient techniques of light and shadow used throughout the film as well as the set dressing, heavy reliance of symbolism,  and production design to convey the mental forays of Francis to express his distorted view of Holstenwall as well as his obsession, compulsion, and paranoia of Dr. Caligari and the content of the cabinet. The heavy use of vectors throughout the film to give the film its sharp lines and edges, juxtaposes the sharp object that is described to convey Cesare’s weapon of choice…a knife. For example, the sequence of the Night Visitor has heavy use of vectors (converging and diverging vectors) and how the use of shadow plays a salient part to create the atmosphere and mood. Cesare gracefully creeps along a wall and the window frame as well as the diamond shape iris on the camera (possibly to convey the first Dutch angle) frames Cesare creating an ominous composition before breaking the frame and trespassing into Jane’s room. Cesare looms over Jane about to plunge his blade into her, and stops before striking to as he is engrossed with Jane’s captivating beauty, only to abscond with her out of the busted frame. The function of the iris on the camera is to draw the spectator’s attention to the characters or events that are transpiring within the narrative, but the framing technique adds to the film’s mise-en-scene, and since there is a lack of sound or voice, the film becomes more visual as the actors use pantomimes to express the drama within the narrative, and thus the exaggeration of gestures and facial expressed within the film. The majority of the film used continuity editing as another recurring technique as far as the editing, although there is a scene that has captured my attention whether it is a minor glitch or intentional, but the scene is where Cesare appears in front of the window and disappears; reappears, making Cesare seem like a phantasmal apparition.

 The cinematography is dynamic, rather than static, as it captures close-ups and angles, its placement, and the use of the iris to manipulate the audience mental map and focus. The forced perspective through the production design’s background creates a pseudo-depth of field, especially, when Cesare is carrying Jane up the sharp angled hill while the man-made lines create the pathway that also inspire the diverging vectors as well as it forces the viewer to follow the path with their eyes and adding to the manipulation of motion and distance. This classic gem is unrated and I give an A+. The film is the foundation to every horror movie with its twisted narrative to its salient technique. If you have not seen it, do so, and if you don't own it, get it. This film is a must have for any horror film aficionado or cinephile.