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THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
Review by Ed Nguyen
Stars:
Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Twardowski
Director: Robert Wiene
Audio: Dolby Stereo 2.0
Subtitles: English intertitles
Video: full-frame, color-tinting
Studio: Image Entertainment
Features: photo gallery, commentary track, short excerpt of "Genuine"
Length: 72 minutes
Release Date: August 14, 2002
"How
long do I have to live?"
"Till
dawn...tomorrow."
Film
****
Any
survey of the most influential silent films of all time must invariably include
the 1920 German masterpiece Das Kabinett
des Dr. Caligari (a.k.a. The Cabinet
of Dr. Caligari). A complex
film, and one whose secrets are only revealed after multiple viewings, The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the earliest examples of expressionism in
world cinema and arguably the most famous one.
The
film's main storyline, on initial glance, is a relatively simple one.
In fact, it is narrated almost entirely in flashback by the film's hero,
Francis (Feher). His flashback
begins a few years earlier - a carnival has settled upon the outskirts of his
German hometown. One day, a
mysterious stranger, dressed in a dark cloak and tall hat, comes to town - he
seeks a permit from the town hall to display his exhibit in the carnival.
The old man's name is Dr. Caligari (Krauss), and his exhibit, it turns
out, is a wooden cabinet bearing within...a somnambulist named Cesare (Veidt).
The mysterious doctor boldly claims that his sleepwalker has the ability,
when awakened, to predict the future. Francis
and his friend decide to attend one of Dr. Caligari's daily shows on the
carnival grounds and, hearing the doctor's challenge, ask for a reading.
Cesare is awakened. He peers
into the anticipatory audience and proclaims that one of the two friends will
die by sunrise. This is naturally a
very upsetting prediction, and one that is fully realized, to the horror of the
surviving friend, Francis. The
disturbing murder, coupled with an earlier unsolved death of a town hall clerk,
causes Francis to suspect that perhaps Dr. Caligari and his mysterious
somnambulist are somehow linked to the new reign of terror that has settled upon
his town. Fearing for the safety of
the heroine, his beloved Jane (Dagover), Francis determines to solve the mystery
of his friend's death. The
remainder of the flashback concerns the search for the true identity of the
murderer.
As
a film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
can be viewed in several ways. As a
murder mystery, it works surprisingly well and makes for a truly compelling
story with its many sub-plots. A
violent man has been captured attempting to kill an old woman; is he the serial
murderer? A shadowy presence stalks
the heroine, Jane; is he the murderer? The
prime suspect, Dr. Caligari, despite his ominous appearance, has been under
careful surveillance and is clearly not the murderer, either.
As for the prophetic somnambulist, he sleeps constantly, and the
mysterious doctor never lies his side. So,
who is the murderer? The various
sub-plots and plot twists are all skillfully inter-woven and will leave the
audience in suspense until the very conclusion.
But,
certain elements in its design and structure ultimately reveal this film to be
more than just a murder mystery. It
can also be viewed as an early horror film (and a psychological one at that).
To better understand the film's true nature, we must be aware of the
revolution in contemporary art that was occurring around the time of the film's
release. Experimentation in
Dadaism, cubism, and surrealism all emphasized distortions and fragmentation of
images. The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari represented a successful bridge between this art
world and that of commercial film.
Many
films around the time of The Cabinet of
Dr. Caligari sought to unfold a story in a realistic, straight-forward
manner. Even the narrative style
and editing for The Cabinet of Dr.
Caligari, though complex, feels conventional and very contemporary.
But, its dramatic use of abstract imagery and its juxtaposition of
darkness and light across the frame's composition introduced a new cinematic
language of expression. In applying many of the theories of modern art to advance its
story and to establish the film setting, The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari helped to popularize a new artistic style in cinema
- German Expressionism.
German
Expressionism was a highly visual and successful experiment in film.
It involved the creation of bold imagery through the contrasting
interplay of shadows and light upon a film's sets.
Cinema now had a new thematic language for communicating visions of the
mind's eye and its dreamworld as never before.
Films no longer needed to be static and conventional narrations.
They could be fantasies or tales of horror. Not surprisingly, after the release of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, German Expressionism's influence could
be seen in many subsequent silent films, most famously in Nosferatu or Metropolis.
But, it could also be seen in the later sound films as well, such as the
Universal horror films of the 1930's or as in the film noir style of the 1940's.
Even the early films of Alfred Hitchcock were heavily indebted to this
expressionistic style.
Much
has been written about the visual look of The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. First
of all, there probably is not a single right angle in the entire film.
The town is an artificial patchwork of jagged corners and leaning walls.
Buildings have a decidedly menacing appearance, with angular corridors,
unbalanced furniture, and crooked windows all about.
For outdoor scenes, even the backdrop, and sometimes the landscape too,
is clearly a surreal painting. The
overall effect is one of a nightmarish world, where reality and fantasy are no
longer separated.
The
actors' disturbing makeup and costuming only serve to enhance this impression.
For instance, the somnambulist's makeup makes him appear as a
flesh-and-bone version of Edward Munch's famous painting The
Scream. Or, like an anemic, gaunt version of a contemporary,
off-the-wall pop singer. The
heroine's initial appearance is an unsettling one - as though in a trance, she
wanders among the skeletal branches of trees like an apparition.
Dr. Caligari, with his painted gloves and ominous cape, almost seems to
foreshadow famous creatures of the later horror films, such as the Phantom of
the Opera or Dracula. These are not
the faces of a normal world. Instead,
they are inhabitants of a netherworld in which, as one character puts it,
"there are spirits everywhere...they are all around us."
On
an interesting side note, the look of the film was not entirely voluntary.
There was not enough financial support during production to afford
naturalistic sets. As a compromise,
a more theatrical, abstract approach was utilized for the set design.
The end result is one of those fortunate accidents of cinema that works
brilliantly. This avant-garde
design in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari can
be said to have created a visionary, new vocabulary for the horror genre, one
that persists even today in modern films.
Any
film that can still retain its visual power after eighty years is rare indeed
and not to be missed. The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a film for the ages!
Video
**
The
film is extremely old, so expect the usual amount of scratches, frame skips or
jumps, dust marks, and minimal degradation.
Still, as far as silent films go, this is an excellent print, with
generally good clarity of detail and contrast.
In addition, this particular print has been color-tinted, a processing
technique that helps to enhance the impact of various scenes.
The hand-drawn English intertitles reproduce the sharp, angular
appearance of the original German intertitles.
The best news, however, is that the film has been mastered at its proper
projection speed of 18 frames per second, so all movements in the film are quite
fluid and natural in appearance. Thank
the lucky stars!
On
the other hand, something which may irritate a few viewers is the presence of a
fairly persistent translucent-black bar at the top of the frame.
This bar is not due to poor mastering but is rather a "flaw" inherent
to the source reels themselves (a Russian 35mm print).
Silent films were not always uniform in the manner by which the frames
were printed onto reels. An irregular alignment of the frame, in relation to the
position of the sprocket holes, can cause this black bar during projection.
Current projectors cannot adjust for this non-standard alignment, so we
are stuck with it.
In
fact, there is no simple way to remove this bar. Films with this problem have most commonly solved it by
cropping the frame inward so viewers simply never see the bar. The obvious drawback is that a tremendous amount of film
information is lost along all edges, most embarrassingly when people's faces get
cut off. A modern solution would be
the digital removal of the bar; however, the technical requirements for such a
job would be exorbitantly expensive and impractical. Producer David Shepard has chosen (1) to keep the black bar
in the frame to retain as much film information as possible and (2) to crop the
film to eliminate the bar only if no
important visual information is lost in the process. This is why the bar doesn't always appear throughout the DVD.
It's not the optimal solution, but it is the best compromise.
Audio
** 1/2
Composer
Timothy Brock's music mirrors the visual imagery. I don't think there is a single melodious chord in the entire
chamber music score! The music is
utterly eerie and discordant. In
other words, it truly complements the already off-kilter, somewhat nightmarish
world of Dr. Caligari.
Overall, it is a very good score, though it certainly will not tax your
speakers or subwoofer. Then again, booming bass has never played much of a role in
silent film soundtracks, anyways.
Features
***
The
extras include a gallery and a film excerpt.
The photo gallery is small and forgettable; blink and you'll miss it.
The excerpt shows three minutes of another Robert Wiene film, Genuine
- a Tale of a Vampire. To
summarize it, a man falls asleep. A
woman steps out from a nearby painting, enters his dreamworld, and seduces him.
The excerpt ends abruptly when she demands that he be killed and evidence
of his death delivered to her. Bizarre.
Consider it a silent film trailer, even though it is really too short to
judge.
The
best feature is the commentary essay by Mike Budd, a noted Caligari scholar and author. It
provides an enlightening examination of the structure and design of the film and
as well as relevant developments in the art and film world of the time.
Film students will love the commentary, while the casual viewer will
develop a much better appreciation for the film's influence and well-deserved
universal praise.
Summary: