LogFAQs > #946641419

3. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (27 points)
Nominated by: Great_Paul (0/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAtpxqajFak

Importance: 10
Fear: 7
Snake: 10

The ultimate essential work of German Expressionism, I tend to think of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari as the true start of horror cinema. Yes, films like 1910's Frankenstein and the partially lost The Golem from 1915 had given audiences nightmares before Caligari, but none of them quite changed the game and started a new era much like Caligari did. It's a silent film, natch, and thus will rely on your tolerance and attention span towards no dialogue, but I tell you it's worth it and in my slightly biased opinion actually one of the best gateways into other silent films of the era. Every shot of the film feels like something out of a pop-up storybook, and given dreamlike qualities thanks to a vignette look playing up darkness, shadows literally painted on the set, and various frame coloring, it's intimate and voyeuristic in a sense, as if you're a fly on the wall. Geometry is pointed and jagged, like the disorienting canals of one's frantic mind, and this even extends to the inter-titles with its purposeful slapdash encompassing letters of all different sizes, like peering into one's uncollected thoughts. The story follows Dr. Caligari, a crazed hypnotist who uses a somnambulist, or sleepwalker, named Cesare, for murder. Caligari was released only a few years after the end of World War I, and is thus a strong commentary on German society and authority at the time. Dr. Caligari is the stand-in for these authoritative figures and the iron grip of rigid routine they held over the people, as Cesare, representing these people, is just a tool to allow Caligari to only tighten that stranglehold further. The film also comments on mental health and the poor conditions of asylums, as doctor misuse and mistreat their patients. Sets are done up to appear as nightmarish battlefields reflecting the actual war. In the end you find a reason for all this symbolism, and it's one of the earliest examples of a twist ending. Dr. Caligari set the stage for a whole century of groundbreaking filmmakers, both in the short term with films like Nosferatu and up to this very day with films like The Lighthouse and Nightmare Before Christmas, hell even influencing the way slashers work, especially a film series like Friday the 13th. If there were a Mount Rushmore of horror, this film would be on it, no question. Silent film fan or not, this is absolutely essential watching and will transform the way you see movies from then on out.

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Bare feet on the tile with my head up in the clouds
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