Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari [VHS]

This haunting classic of the silent screen is familiar to every graduate of Film 101. Like Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, Godard's Breathless, and Welles's Citizen Kane, Caligari helped define a cinematic school... and forever changed the way the world made movies. It's also great fun, even for modern audiences. The film begins with two men trading horror stories. One promises the other a terrifying true tale--the harrowing story of his fiancée's narrow escape from death. Here's the story: an amoral asylum director wants to see if he can order somnambulist patient Cesare to commit murder. To this end, the nefarious doctor masquerades as a traveling showman and picks victims from the gawking carnival crowds. He sends his sleepwalker out to execute bloody deeds by night--crimes of which Cesare is barely aware. Soon, Cesare abducts the narrator's girl and is caught ... which is only the beginning of the surprises. Caligari's world became the textbook example of 1920s German Expressionist cinema--a cockeyed dreamscape, where black-clad actors feverishly chase each other across moody, barely-realistic sets. Think of films such as Dark City or the Nightmare Before Christmas or Saturday Night Live's Sprockets sketches. Here's where it all began. --Grant Balfour

Cabinet of Dr Caligari [VHS]

A milestone of the silent film era and one of the first art films to gain international acclaim, this eerie German classic from 1919 remains the most prominent example of German expressionism in the emerging art of the cinema. Stylistically, the look of the film's painted sets--distorted perspectives, sharp angles, twisted architecture-- was designed to reflect (or express) the splintered psychology of its title character, a sinister figure who uses a lanky somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) as a circus attraction. But when Caligari and his sleepwalker are suspected of murder, their novelty act is surrounded by more supernatural implications. With its mad-doctor scenario, striking visuals, and a haunting, zombie-like character at its center, Caligari was one of the first horror films to reach an international audience, sending shock waves through artistic circles and serving as a strong influence on the classic horror films of the 1920s, '30s, and beyond. It's a museum piece today, of interest more for its historical importance, but Caligari still casts a considerable spell. --Jeff Shannon

Cabinet of Dr Caligari [VHS]

A milestone of the silent film era and one of the first art films to gain international acclaim, this eerie German classic from 1919 remains the most prominent example of German expressionism in the emerging art of the cinema. Stylistically, the look of the film's painted sets--distorted perspectives, sharp angles, twisted architecture-- was designed to reflect (or express) the splintered psychology of its title character, a sinister figure who uses a lanky somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) as a circus attraction. But when Caligari and his sleepwalker are suspected of murder, their novelty act is surrounded by more supernatural implications. With its mad-doctor scenario, striking visuals, and a haunting, zombie-like character at its center, Caligari was one of the first horror films to reach an international audience, sending shock waves through artistic circles and serving as a strong influence on the classic horror films of the 1920s, '30s, and beyond. It's a museum piece today, of interest more for its historical importance, but Caligari still casts a considerable spell. --Jeff Shannon