Plot Details: This opinion reveals everything about the movie's plot.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919) is the movie often cited as the apogee of the German film movement called Expressionism. It's also a silent film that stands up pretty well for modern audiences, with enough innovative, modernistic visual style that it can still pass for avant garde in some respects.
Historical Background: German director Robert Wiene was born in 1881 in Sasku, Germany. After a career in theater as both actor and director, he turned to cinema in 1914, as screenwriter and director. Most of his work was rather mediocre but he reached international prominence with the brilliant The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). Since none of the films that he made either before or after this one were very remarkable, film historians tend to attribute the innovative qualities of Caligari as much to the writers and set designers as the director. Wiene emigrated to France after the rise of the Nazis, where he died in 1938.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has special importance in the history of cinema for a couple of reasons. First, it broke open the floodgates of the expressionistic style of filmmaking that dominated German cinema from 1919 until the ascension of Hitler, around 1934. Expression took its cue from the preexisting movement of the same name in painting, through which distortions of external form and color were used to better connote inner emotional states. Expressionism had some influence on the French style called Poetic Realism as well as the horror genre, right down to the present time. The influence of expressionism was also highly evident in so-called film noir. Among the other great films in the expressionistic style were Paul Wegener's The Golem (1920), F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) and Faust (1926), Paul Leni's Waxworks (1924), and Fritz Lang's Between Two Worlds (1921), Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen (1924), and Metropolis (1927). It is a safe assumption that the careers of such great directors as Murnau, Lang, and Hitchcock would have all been quite different had The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari never been made.
This film was released shortly after the World War I armistice and the highly punitive Treaty of Versailles, which buried Germany under a mountain of war reparations. Germany and Germans were still quite unpopular in America, France, and elsewhere. When The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was released in America, several notable critics hailed it as extraordinary and a guide to the direction that filmmaking would inevitably need to take, but the Hearst owned newspaper in Los Angeles launched a campaign against the film's screening, based on jingoistic appeals to the public to reserve their support for American made films. Two thousand protesters marched to Miller's Theater on May 15th, 1921 in opposition to the film's scheduled premiere. The theater's owner duly responded by withdrawing the film. In the long run, the controversy merely helped to ensure the film's international reputation.
The Story: The bulk of the story takes place within opening and closing framing scenes, as an extensive flashback. In the opening framing sequence, two men are sitting on a park bench swapping stories. An older man has just completed his tale and the younger man, Francis (Friedrich Feher), begins his story as a kind of topper.
In the German town of Holstenwell, a traveling fair has come to town. Among the performers is a mountebank (charlatan or fraud) by the name of Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauß), a white haired, somewhat sinister looking old man. Caligari stops by the office of the town clerk to obtain a permit for his exhibition. He is made to wait and then accorded rather rude treatment, before ultimately getting the necessary permission. That night, the clerk is found stabbed to death under mysterious circumstances.
The fair is a festive event, with a pretty fair sized crowd actively milling about. Caligari's act consists of exhibiting a somnambulist – a man named Cesare (Conrad Veidt), who Caligari claims sleeps continuously, only awakening for a few moments at a time at Caligari's command. Francis (the man telling the story) had gone to the fair with his best friend, Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), and the young lady, Jane (Lil Dagover), with whom both young men are in love. They are friendly rivals, however, swearing to stay friends no matter which of them Jane might ultimately choose. Francis and Alan enter Caligari's exhibition tent, along with other patrons, to observe Cesare, in his eternal sleep. Cesare looks like some kind of creepy zombie. At Caligari's command, Cesare's eyes slowly flutter open. Caligari asserts that Cesare is clairvoyant and asks if anyone in the audience has a question for him concerning the future. Alan, who impulsively asks how long he has to live, finds the answer somewhat disconcerting: "The time is short. You die at dawn." That night, the town is sent into a turmoil by a second stabbing murder. It is Alan, and the prophecy has been fulfilled.
Francis immediately suspects Caligari as the serial killer and takes his concern to the police. Soon, however, a criminal is captured by the townspeople, just as he was about to stab and old woman to death. The police conclude that their prisoner was responsible for the two earlier murders as well. The criminal admits to the attempted murder, but denies the two earlier murders, claiming that he was hoping that his crime would be pinned on the other killer. Francis decides to stake out Caligari's residence to see for himself whether either Caligari or Cesare emerge during the night.
That night, Cesare appears in Jane's night chamber, knife in hand. Jane had earlier gone to Caligari's tent, looking for her father and, apparently, that visit had been enough to excite the interest of Caligari and/or Cesare. It looks for a moment like her doom is nigh, but Cesare is so taken by Jane's beauty that he opts to abduct her instead. Despite her vigorous resistance, he whisks her away into the night. The ruckus is enough to waken her father and some others, who are soon in pursuit. Cesare has to abandon his captive to keep out of the reach of the pursuers. Ultimately, he perishes, plummeting into a ravine.
Jane reveals that her assailant was Cesare, which surprises Francis, since he had observed that Cesare remained in his cabinet all evening. The police search Caligari's residence and discover a dummy in the Cabinet instead of Cesare. Caligari flees. Francis follows him to a mental institution, but looses sight of him. He asks a couple of doctors if they have a patient named Caligari, but he's told that only the director can furnish such information. The director turns out to be – naturally – Caligari.
That night, as Caligari sleeps, Francis, with the aid of several of the doctors, searches Caligari's office. Caligari's specialty is somnambulism. They discover incriminating evidence. First, they find a book about an Italian monk, from 1093, named Caligari, who traveled around northern Italy with a somnambulist named Cesare, who he caused to commit heinous crimes in his sleep. Then, in Caligari's diary, they find evidence of Caligari's fascination with the same idea: "Can he be made to commit murder? I must know. I will become Caligari!" In the morning, Caligari is confronted with the body of the dead Cesare, who had been found in the ravine. Caligari goes crazy and has to be tossed into a straightjacket.
The film now turns to the closing framing segment, which presents a final plot twist. We see that Francis and the man with whom he is conversing are inmates in an asylum. The various characters in Francis's story are actually either patients or a physician at the institution. Jane is a psychotic young woman, Cesare is a catatonic patient, and Caligari is the head doctor. When Frances takes a turn for the worse, it is he who has to be thrown into the straightjacket. As he rants his delusions, the pleasant doctor says, "At last I recognize his mania. He believes me to be the mythical Caligari. Astonishing! But I think I know how to cure him now."
Themes: The writers of the script for this film, Hans Janowitz and Carl Meyer, had one theme in mind but that theme was effectively reversed by the producer and director, much to the writers' chagrin. I think, however, that when one considers both the film itself and the circumstances by which it came about, the writers' theme is the one that prevails. The screenplay did not include the opening or closing framing segments. Those pieces were added by the director, Robert Wiene, at the demand of the producer, who was, in turn, responding to pressures from governmental authorities.
Janowitz and Meyer had written their script at the end of World War I as protest against the German leaders and aristocracy who had brought disaster to the country. In their version, Cesare represented the German people and/or Kaisar Wilhelm II and Caligari the bellicose aristocracy and profiteers. Their point was that German leaders had incited the sleepwalking German people to commit crimes for them. German society had a long history of solemn respect for authority that made the people easy prey to the ambitions of wealthy industrialists and aristocrats, crudely disguised as nationalism. The name "Cesare" derives from "Caesar," used for Roman emperors, which is also the origin of the words "Kaiser" in German and "Czar" in Russian, so the writers may have also had Kaiser Wilhelm II in mind, when they wrote Cesare's role. Wilhelm II had come to power in 1888 when his father died early in life of a hereditary disease. He was just twenty-nine and anxious to establish his authority. He wanted to expand German power and interests and was highly militaristic. His ambitions included making the German navy the equal of Britain's and the army the strongest in Europe. He dismissed Otto von Bismarck as German Chancellor in 1890 so that he could pursue more aggressive policies, spurred on by Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz and the industrialist. In 1908, Wilhelm suffered a nervous breakdown and thereafter played a less active role, coming increasing under the influence of his advisors. In 1914, Wilhelm and German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg helped incite their ally Austria-Hungary into issuing an infamous ultimatum that then led inevitably to World War I. Thus, the "Cesare" of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari can also be seen as the mentally-troubled Kaiser, too readily manipulated by his powerful advisors. It's a situation all too reminiscent of present day America, where a rather weak-minded President is manipulated by oil corporation CEO's and neo-conservatives. Caligari's agenda, in the film, is driven by whims of revenge, power, and lust and devoid of good sense or reason. The film was originally intended to be warning to the masses against governmental brainwashing.
Under pressure, Wiene essentially reneged on the message, adding the framing segments that turn Francis into the paranoid lunatic and Caligari into a trustworthy healthcare professional. The revised film reinforces the same German mentality that had led to World War I – the belief that the authorities know best and must be unquestioningly obeyed. When one understands that this message was forced on the filmmakers by those very authorities, however, it turns the film into a case in point. Not only should the public not trust authorities, they should especially not trust governmental propaganda promoting blind adherence to authority.
Setting aside the political context, the addition of the framing segments adds to the films artistic merit in at least two respects. First, it adds an element of ambiguity that encourages viewers to debate exactly who is crazy, in this film. Second, it makes the film something of a treatise on mental derangement, which is nicely supported by the expressionistic elements. Since Expressionism intends to depict internal mental states, it would be especially appropriate for memory segments (i.e., a flashback), dreams, or delusions. Wiene was able to introduce an effective gimmick, by letting us believe that we were watching remembered events before finally exposing it all as delusional. The last minute addition of the framing segments introduced one stylistic inconsistency, however. Since the final framing segment is no longer being recounted by Francis (placing the camera back in the more conventional objective stance), the expressionistic stylistic elements should disappear (if they represent Francis's interior delusions), but they don’t.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari can be seen as not only looking backward at the causes of World War I, but also as anticipating the rise of Nazism and Hitler. Hitler certainly used Caligari-like tactics to manipulate the minds of the German people and, once again, they responded by committing horrendous crimes at the behest of their master. One film critic went so far as to suggest that Expressionism contributed to the rise of Nazism by fatally distracting the German populace from socio-political realities with an empty artistic formalism. That, I think, is a bit strong. Art is powerful as an expression of its time and place, but doesn't typically create its time and place. Expressionism was an imitation of the instability and psychological trauma of post-war Germany, but not its cause. Caligari reflects a world in turmoil and chaos.
Production Values: The plot elements for this film presage most of what later became standard fare in thrillers and horror films. There's the mad doctor/scientist, murders, an abduction, the inept police, and the naïve busybody who repeatedly wanders into the thick of danger. It's the stylistic elements of the film that deepen its impact by carrying it into the levels of political allegory and psychodrama. Very few early films utilize a subjective viewpoint to the extent that this one does. Caligari is told almost entirely from one person's vantage point, except the final framing segment that returns to the more conventional objective or omnipresent perspective.
What are the components that make this film expressionistic. First, there're the sets, which are angular, distorted, and cramped, suggesting disorder and claustrophobia. There are lots of dizzying swirling effects suggestive of derangement. Shadows were actually painted onto the cardboard backdrops to add an eerie atmosphere. Second, the actors wear mainly dark costumes and their facial features are accentuated by heavy makeup. Cesare's eyes and eyelids are blackened, for example, as they flutter open for the first time. Physical movements, postures, and mannerisms are greatly exaggerated to reveal the emotional states of the players. This was commonplace in silent films, because the images had to tell almost the entire story, but even more so in Expressionism. The odd shaped construction of the sets severely constrained camera movements, since many of the sets could only be effectively shown from one camera placement. Willy Hameister nevertheless kept the visuals interesting by relying on an unusual number of zoom-ins and iris fades.
Werner Krauß is magnificent as the menacing Dr. Caligari. Ironically, he remained in Germany after the Nazis came to power and actively contributed to their anti-Semitic propaganda efforts, playing an anti-Semite in a notorious piece called Jud Suss (1940). His more reputable work included The Three Wax Works (1924), in which he played Jack the Ripper. Conrad Veidt, who played Cesare, also became famous as a result of his role in this film. In contrast to Krauß, Veidt fled German, with his Jewish wife, and made his way to America, via Great Britain. He later appeared in such Hollywood classics as Contraband (1940), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), and Casablanca (1942). The film's "hero," Friedrich Feher, who played Francis, more or less disappeared from sight.
Bottom-Line: You want to choose carefully when buying or renting this film. If at all possible, go for the Kino DVD, which gives you a nicely restored transfer, the original color tinting, and full-frame format. You get optional subtitles in French, English, or Spanish, underneath the title cards. There's a choice of two musical scores with this version, the traditional one written by Rainier Viertblock and a more modern, jazzy alternative by Donald Sosin. There's a small assortment of extras, including a short directed by Wiene called Genuine: Tale of a Vampire. You can buy the Kino DVD singly or as part of a boxed set called German Horror Classics. There's another DVD version as well as VHS versions. I've also seen one of the VHS versions and it is not nearly as satisfying. Many frames are worn and indistinct.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the most influential films of all time and holds up fairly well for modern viewing, though not as well as, say, Metropolis or Passion of Joan of Arc. If you love horror films, this one is must-see because it's pretty much where all that scary atmospheric aspect of horror films originated. This is a silent film with English title cards and/or subtitles.
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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Germany:
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