Dr. Caligari’s Lasting Mark on the World of Film
Warning: Contains Spoilers
If you were to discuss German Expressionism in film circles, it’s doubtful the conversation would go more than two minutes without someone mentioning The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). In addition to the fact that it’s one of the earliest films of the genre, it’s one of the most marked examples of German Expressionism’s propensity for focusing on the darker aspects of the human psyche. Moreover, the film utilizes what is perhaps the most extreme example of the dramatic, stylized aesthetic that became a calling card of the German Expressionist genre.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (directed by Robert Wiene) is the story of a young man named Francis, who goes with his friend Alan to a carnival. While there, a presenter named Caligari introduces a man, Cesare, who has supposedly been sleeping his entire life, but who is capable of answering any question put to him. When Alan asks what the date of his own death will be, Cesare responds, “At first dawn.” Sure enough, Alan is found dead the next morning, and what follows is a horrifying thriller in which Francis puts himself and his fiancée Jane in danger as he tries to expose Caligari’s secrets.
There have been countless essays written on this film and, in particular, whether it and other films of the German Expressionist genre predicted the rise of Nazism. It is, of course, difficult to prove, but there was significant social, political, and economic unrest in Germany between World War I and World War II, and Caligari, along with other films of the genre, certainly appear to have tapped into this upheaval.
Another topic often discussed is the controversial change to the film’s beginning and ending. The film’s writers, Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, intended this film to be—as Lotte H. Eisner describes it in her book, The Haunted Screen—a statement about “the absurdity of asocial authority.”1 Despite the writers’ wishes, the film’s producers convinced Wiene to bookend the film with two new scenes that drastically change the plot. Instead of Caligari being the evil character he was written to be, he becomes a sympathetic doctor in charge of the main character’s care at a mental hospital. In the end, the film’s message is subverted by turning the horrors of the plot into the delusions of a mentally ill man.
Regardless of this controversial change to the film, which certainly bears repeated discussion, the film is a masterpiece because of the lengths the filmmakers went to in order to create the dark, twisted world that the characters inhabit. Unlike most other films of the German Expressionist genre that alter the world we know with lighting, artwork, and makeup, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari creates a foreign, impossible world from scratch. The entire set is artificial, giving the landscape a two-dimensional, nightmarish quality (see figs. 1-4).
(Figure 1)
(Figure 2)
(Figure 3)
(Figure 4)
As a result, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari confronts the real-world issue of abusive authority in an onscreen world that is wholly invented.
Many filmmakers since the release of Caligari have drawn successfully from the film’s aesthetic for their own work. For instance, numerous critics and historians have cited The Penguin from Tim Burton’s Batman Returns (1992) as being directly influenced by the character of Dr. Caligari (fig. 5), and the look of Edward Scissorhands‘ (1990) titular character as being inspired by the look of Cesare (fig. 6).
(Figure 5)
(Figure 6)
Whether or not you’re a fan of German Expressionism, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a must-see if you’re interested in film history. Not only has the film influenced many of the world’s great filmmakers, it has made an indelible mark on the film-loving community across the globe. For instance, over 1,000 users on the popular website IMDb.com have added Caligari to their lists of must-see movies. If you’re interested in seeing the film, I suggest getting the version from Kino International:
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, from Kino International
It’s an excellent transfer, has two different scores to choose from, and includes original sketches from the planning of the film’s revolutionary set pieces.
1. Eisner, Lotte H. The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press, 2008.
