Francis (Friedrich Feher) and an old man are sitting and Francis begins to tell him a story, hoping to top the one the man just told him. The story is about a fair that came to his hometown of Hostenwall and a man, Dr. Caligari who was one of the vendors. Caligari's submission to the fair is his somnambulist, Cesare (Conrad Veidt) who has been asleep for 25 years and, under Dr. Caligari's willing, is about to awaken. He does and Dr. Caligari tells the crowd to ask him a question, for he knows the future. Francis is there with his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), and Alan walks up and asks Cesare how long he'll live, to which Cesare replies that he'll be dead by dawn.
Alan and Francis both long for the same woman, Jane (Lil Dagover) and after they all three go home, we see, inside Alan's house, the shadows of he and his killer fighting on his bedroom wall. Francis goes to tell the police after he realizes the somnambulist's prophecy has come true. Back at Dr. Caligari's place, we see him feeding gruel to Cesare as he lay in a coffin. Another attempted murder takes place but turns out to be the work of a common crook not involved with Cesare and Dr. Caligari. More happens that's not really important. Francis goes to an insane asylum to see if the fled Dr. Caligari is a patient there but the worker he speaks with tells him he must go see the head of the institute for patient information, as he's not allowed to divulge that sort of thing. So Francis goes to the head's office (a skeleton stands upright in the corner) and it turns out to be Dr. Caligari himself.
Francis gets the police over there and after looking through his books, they discover a historical book about the mythical Caligari, who did just what Dr. Caligari is doing now, back in 1093. When Dr. Caligaru arrives he goes insane, saying he must become Caligari and doctors in the institute put him in a straight jacket. Then the telling of the story is done. The film adds a framing device, though, in the present with Francis and the man he's told the story to.
The two go back to the institute, Cesare is in the corner and Francis warns the old man not to accept one of his prophesies, for he should surely die. Jane is there also, and when Francis asks her to marry him, she says she cannot marry someone not of royal blood (huh?). Then down the stairs comes Dr. Caligari, whom Francis quickly gets in a scuffle with. He's grabbed by the doctors and taken upstairs. Dr. Caligari comes to the conclusion that Francis is manic and that his mania is caused by his delusion that Dr. Caligari is in fact the mythic Caligari who would wander from town to town with Cesare killing townsfolk. The last scene is of Dr. Caligari saying he has a sure-fire cure for Francis' mania.
So was Francis the real Caligari? Did Francis kill Alan in the hopes of getting Jane to marry him? (After all, we never do see his killer.) With this appended narrative twist, the entire story comes into question. I have a feeling a lot of people would hate this but I found it very interesting, maybe even historic.
The film is very dreamlike. All silent films are sort of spooky, but this one is more otherworldly. Everything is distorted and the camera, with that strange blackening, gives it an unstable touch like our most vivid dreams have. It's like something's been placed over the lens in order to highlight certain characters or visuals and cover up something else. I'm assuming the film used on-set camera tricks.
The expressionist sets consist of slanted walls, crooked doors, weirdly misshapen glasses, paint splashed on stairs that bend. A background that is clearly a wall with painting. Trees that look like wires. The characters' faces are all pale white and the blacks are all stark. Cesare, specifically, looks like a cross between Frankenstein's Monster and Edward Scissorhands. The houses don't look like houses, they look like pieces of wood painted to look like a stage set.
I can see influence from this film in the set designs of Tim Burton especially, and the narrative twist at the end must have influenced David Lynch in "Mulholland Drive."
The print I saw was from 1992 and for a movie that's 83 years old, I was very impressed. There was very little grain and the lighting was fine. The only complaint I had was that some of the handwriting from Dr. Caligari's writings was a bit difficult to read and that has nothing to do with the print. The music is all organ that comes booming in whenever something evil -- usually Dr. Caligari -- is onscreen.
It's hard to judge movies like these, but the visuals are wonderful, the music is spooky, the acting suitable and the pacing fine (it's a little over an hour). I would say this is an essential film, and unlike many "groundbreaking" classics, it's like nothing else you've seen.
***1/2
Alan and Francis both long for the same woman, Jane (Lil Dagover) and after they all three go home, we see, inside Alan's house, the shadows of he and his killer fighting on his bedroom wall. Francis goes to tell the police after he realizes the somnambulist's prophecy has come true. Back at Dr. Caligari's place, we see him feeding gruel to Cesare as he lay in a coffin. Another attempted murder takes place but turns out to be the work of a common crook not involved with Cesare and Dr. Caligari. More happens that's not really important. Francis goes to an insane asylum to see if the fled Dr. Caligari is a patient there but the worker he speaks with tells him he must go see the head of the institute for patient information, as he's not allowed to divulge that sort of thing. So Francis goes to the head's office (a skeleton stands upright in the corner) and it turns out to be Dr. Caligari himself.
Francis gets the police over there and after looking through his books, they discover a historical book about the mythical Caligari, who did just what Dr. Caligari is doing now, back in 1093. When Dr. Caligaru arrives he goes insane, saying he must become Caligari and doctors in the institute put him in a straight jacket. Then the telling of the story is done. The film adds a framing device, though, in the present with Francis and the man he's told the story to.
The two go back to the institute, Cesare is in the corner and Francis warns the old man not to accept one of his prophesies, for he should surely die. Jane is there also, and when Francis asks her to marry him, she says she cannot marry someone not of royal blood (huh?). Then down the stairs comes Dr. Caligari, whom Francis quickly gets in a scuffle with. He's grabbed by the doctors and taken upstairs. Dr. Caligari comes to the conclusion that Francis is manic and that his mania is caused by his delusion that Dr. Caligari is in fact the mythic Caligari who would wander from town to town with Cesare killing townsfolk. The last scene is of Dr. Caligari saying he has a sure-fire cure for Francis' mania.
So was Francis the real Caligari? Did Francis kill Alan in the hopes of getting Jane to marry him? (After all, we never do see his killer.) With this appended narrative twist, the entire story comes into question. I have a feeling a lot of people would hate this but I found it very interesting, maybe even historic.
The film is very dreamlike. All silent films are sort of spooky, but this one is more otherworldly. Everything is distorted and the camera, with that strange blackening, gives it an unstable touch like our most vivid dreams have. It's like something's been placed over the lens in order to highlight certain characters or visuals and cover up something else. I'm assuming the film used on-set camera tricks.
The expressionist sets consist of slanted walls, crooked doors, weirdly misshapen glasses, paint splashed on stairs that bend. A background that is clearly a wall with painting. Trees that look like wires. The characters' faces are all pale white and the blacks are all stark. Cesare, specifically, looks like a cross between Frankenstein's Monster and Edward Scissorhands. The houses don't look like houses, they look like pieces of wood painted to look like a stage set.
I can see influence from this film in the set designs of Tim Burton especially, and the narrative twist at the end must have influenced David Lynch in "Mulholland Drive."
The print I saw was from 1992 and for a movie that's 83 years old, I was very impressed. There was very little grain and the lighting was fine. The only complaint I had was that some of the handwriting from Dr. Caligari's writings was a bit difficult to read and that has nothing to do with the print. The music is all organ that comes booming in whenever something evil -- usually Dr. Caligari -- is onscreen.
It's hard to judge movies like these, but the visuals are wonderful, the music is spooky, the acting suitable and the pacing fine (it's a little over an hour). I would say this is an essential film, and unlike many "groundbreaking" classics, it's like nothing else you've seen.
***1/2