RogerBW's Blog

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari 23 January 2024

1920 surreal horror, dir. Robert Wiene, Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt; IMDb / allmovie. The mysterious Caligari sets up at the town fair, with his somnambulistic subject, and people start to die…

Arguably this is the work of German Expressionist film, and it's certainly much more willing to be self-indulgent than Nosferatu from a couple of years later. Even when things are meant to be "normal", before the advent of Caligari's influence, every set has its distorted and twisted perspective (and authority is always in high places). Acting of course is still very much in the stagey style of the era, but at least Caligari is less the standard Jewish stereotype than the Faustian magician who seems to get no particular joy of whatever bargain he's made for his powers. (On the other hand Werner Krause was virulently antisemitic by the standards of inter-war Germany, and went on to a triple role in Jud Süs, which it's hard to forget while watching him here.)

But this Caligari is hard done by too: someone has been knifed, he's a stranger in town, let's search his caravan first. He's the first to be blamed for anything that goes wrong, and he's only sometimes responsible. What really impressed me, though, was Conrad Veidt's early role as Cesare the somnambulist: his big reveal in the cabinet is obviously meant to be scary, but at the same time he manages to look scared.

The whole thing is visually gorgeous, but the story is weak: this happens, then that happens, then someone randomly drops dead. Yes, it's entirely plausible that Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, both veterans of the Great War, intended to write a piece about the untrustworthiness of authority (by this reading Caligari is the Kaiser, who forces Cesare (the people) to become a killer). But in the film as made, all this is then expanded out into the context of a frame story in which Francis the hero is the real madman, Cesare is another, and the man he sees as Caligari is the trustworthy head of the asylum where he's confined. (Janowitz asserted that this was forced on the writers against their will.)

Nonetheless, this is clearly a masterpiece for its influence, and viewed as an experiment in surrealism it succeeds on its own terms too: it's an enjoyable and disorientating experience even now.

At the time of writing, this was available on YouTube.

I talk about this film further on Ribbon of Memes.

[Buy this at Amazon] and help support the blog. ["As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases."]

See also:
Nosferatu

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 essen 2024 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1