The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Restored Authorized Edition)
by Robert Wiene
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Lil Dagover, Werner KraussDirector: Robert Wiene
Brand: Kino International
Cinematographer: Willy Hameister
Producer: Erich Pommer
Producer: Rudolf Meinert
Writer: Carl Mayer
Writer: Hans Janowitz
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); German (Original Language); Japanese (Dubbed)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC, Silent
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 67 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-09-24
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: 2542
Studio: Kino Video
Product features:
- DAS KABINETT DES DOCTOR CALIGARI (DVD MOVIE)
Movie Reviews of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Restored Authorized Edition)
Movie Review: Dark Film Noir: Beginnings of Horror Movie tradition as Expressionist art
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Summary of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Restored Authorized Edition)
CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI - DVD MovieA milestone of the silent film era and one of the first "art films" to gain international acclaim, this eerie German classic from 1919 remains the most prominent example of German expressionism in the emerging art of the cinema. Stylistically, the look of the film's painted sets--distorted perspectives, sharp angles, twisted architecture--was designed to reflect (or express) the splintered psychology of its title character, a sinister figure who uses a lanky somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) as a circus attraction. But when Caligari and his sleepwalker are suspected of murder, their novelty act is surrounded by more supernatural implications. With its mad-doctor scenario, striking visuals, and a haunting, zombie-like character at its center, Caligari was one of the first horror films to reach an international audience, sending shock waves through artistic circles and serving as a strong influence on the classic horror films of the 1920s, '30s, and beyond. It's a museum piece today, of interest more for its historical importance, but Caligari still casts a considerable spell. --Jeff Shannon
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