Week One: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

Director: Robert Wiene

Producer: Erich Pommer and Rudolf Meinert

Writers: Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer

Cinematographer: Willy Hameister

Music: Giuseppe Becce

Starring: Werner Krauss (Caligari), Friedrich Feher (Francis), Conrad Veidt (Cesare), and Lil Dagover (Jane)

You can watch The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari completely for free on YouTube
Also free if you have Amazon Prime

Before You Watch the Movie
(First make sure you have read the introduction to this series)

Originally released in Germany as Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari,  Robert Wiene’s most famous film makes striking first impression: as soon as we enter into the main part of the story we are introduced to the town of Holstenwall and its bizarre architecture. This is an example of the type of Expressionistic art that was a popular movement in Germany at the time of the film's production. Throughout film history, the contemporary trends in art, literature, music, and fashion are often reflected in the movies made at that time. For Caligari and much of twenties German cinema, that influence is Expressionism. This German brand of a wider Expressionist movement is characterized by heavily anti-real interpretations that appear dreamlike and often times nightmarish. (Think Edvard Munch's The Scream). The result in the film is heavily stylized visuals, including oblique angles, twisting oneiric designs, and even stylized title cards. It is important to note that, for those who have never seen a movie this old, the way Caligari looks is an artistic choice; all films in the early twenties did not look like this and none outside of Germany did. 

Caligari's expressionistic design includes highly stylized art... 

...and unusual sets...

...featuring oblique angles.

German Expressionism would spread eventually, however, and be expanded on in the future and extend most importantly to the non-traditional camera angles and tilts that would become common among twenties German directors and then ubiquitous during the Film Noir movement in the forties and fifties. Shadows are also a key piece of both German cinema and film noir that is used significantly in Caligari.

Caligari features typical expressionistic use of shadows.

Noir isn’t the only genre that owes a debt to Caligari either: the film is one of the first, if not the very first, horror movies. Caligari’s somnambulist (sleepwalker) Cesare is an eerie gaunt figure with the makeup of a living corpse. In future horror films, monsters would almost always be caked in make-up, to match their horrifying actions. 

Make-up is used to not only denote Cesare's sleepwalking but also make him more frightening.

Cesare moves around unseen at night attacking innocent victims, a precursor to any number of horror movie monsters and killers that strike from the cover of darkness (see: Dracula). Like so many other “monsters” that would follow him, Cesare is just as much of a victim as those he harms (see: Frankenstein’s monster) and is felled eventually by desire for a beautiful woman (see: King Kong). Women were often the target of monsters in movies, mostly due to poor gender beliefs but it does make some sense, since men at that time (and still today) see women as something that must be protected by them and women were able to place their selves in shoes of the female character. Thankfully, horror films have progressed in their portrayal of women though there is always work to be done.

Cesare menaces Jane. 

Also readily apparent when closely viewing the film is the restrictions of the camera at that time, but also the innovations that were developed to combat these inherent limitations. First of all, Caligari isn’t what most would consider to be black-and-white but is tinted in different colors to show different types of light: yellowish for daytime, green-blue for night, and a rosy hue for soft-light interiors. This was a common practice during the silent era.

Caligari uses tints to represent different types of light, such as green-blue for night...

...and rosy for soft interior light.

The camera in Caligari never moves on its own, it stays in one place and occasional cuts to a closeup. While not all cameras were quite so static at this time, camera movement was severely limited, until 1924's The Last Laugh and the invention of the "unchained camera" by cinematographer Karl Freund. Despite the camera not moving, attention is drawn to important moments by close-ups and blacking out other parts of the frame beside the point of emphasis. Initially, most scenes look like the filming of a stage production before key parts of the scene are singled out with a close-up.

A static and eye-level camera gives Caligari the effect of a filmed stage production...

...the camera only ever cuts in closer.

Important parts of each scene are highlighted... 

...with close-ups and narrowed frames.

After You Watch the Movie (Spoilers Below)

There are several very important storytelling elements that Caligari uses, some for the first time, that have been very influential on film. The first is the frame story which bookends the film: a frame is essentially a story-within-a-story, in this case it begins with Francis relating the troubles he and his fiancée went through. The audience becomes curious for an explanation, which will be provided by Francis' story-within-a-story. Frame stories usually have a hook to them like this, a technique that was perfected by horror writers like Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft, in which some great mystery or event would be introduced at the beginning then explained in a flashback.  

Francis and Jane appear at the beginning of the film, which supposedly takes place after the events of the main story.

Frame stories were a common literary device that Caligari not only incorporates but also enhances through the introduction of a twist ending. The reality that we think we are experiencing through Francis’ memories turns out to be the delusions of a mad-man residing in an insane asylum. In what would later be made famous in The Wizard of Oz, characters from Francis’ fantasy would turn out to be inmates of the asylum. The twist ending would become a huge part of storytelling in future films, from Film Noir’s ironic reversals of fortune to The Twilight Zone all the way to the modern films of directors like M. Night Shyamalan.

The frame story concludes with a twist that reveals the true nature of Francis...

...Jane...

...Casere...

...and Dr. Caligari.

In addition to the twist ending, Caligari has a number of other shocking moments, such as the discovery of the wooden doll imitation of Cesare or the reveal that Caligari is not an inmate of the asylum, but the director.

The surprise reveal of Dr. Caligari in the Asylum.

Caligari has a number of other daring storytelling moments as well. By focusing on deranged and deviant characters, it sets the stage for the future Film Noir genre, in which criminals are often the protagonists of the story. Additionally, Caligari gives us a stark look at insanity, both in real-life Francis and his imagined Dr. Caligari, for whom obsession is demonstrated uniquely with on-screen visuals. This idea of visually representing feelings was common among German films and would later make its way into film noir: Years later in the noir Murder, My Sweet (1944), a characters drugged and confused mind is represented by cobwebs on the film. 

Caligari's obsession is illustrated on the frame... 

...just as year's later, the result of drugs and torture is drawn on the screen in Murder, My Sweet.

Through the visuals, themes, and story construction, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari proved to be an important stepping stone in the development not just of Noir and horror but of cinema in general. Before 1920, D.W. Griffith was the premier director of film, but films like Caligari in 1920 marked a sea change that would lead to a creative explosion around the world in the decades to come that would take movies to places that early directors could only dream of.

See Also:

Nosferatu (1922) dir. F.W. Murnau

Murnau’s take on Dracula made even more extreme use of monster make-up and shadows to create a genuinely creepy masterpiece. (Nosferatu is also available to watch on YouTube, completely free)

Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler - Parts 1 and 2 (1922) dir. Fritz Lang

Mabuse is a Professor Moriarty-type criminal genius who’s plots are similar to Dr. Caligari’s but on a much grander scale. The sanity of characters is in question throughout the film and the focus on crime and criminal elements was even more of a precursor to Film Noir than Caligari. (Also free on YouTube: Part 1 and Part 2)

Let me know what you think either here or on Twitter @bottlesofsmoke