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.
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