The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Caligari's mysterious friend

Review on The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Plot (Spoilers!):

Francis, a young man, recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through.

   It is the annual fair in Holstenwall. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep. When Alan asks Cesare about his future, Cesare answers that he will die before dawn. The next morning Alan is found dead. Francis suspects Cesare of being the murderer, and starts spying on him and Dr. Caligari. The following night Cesare is going to stab Jane in her bed, but softens when he sees the beautiful woman, and instead of committing another murder, he abducts her. Jane's father awakens because of the noise, and he and some servants follow the fleeing Cesare. When Cesare cannot outrun his pursuers anymore, he gently places Jane down on the ground, and runs away. Francis and the police investigate the caravan of Dr. Caligari, but the doctor succeeds in slipping away. Francis follows the fleeing Dr. Caligari, and sees him disappear into a madhouse. Francis enters the madhouse, where he is sure he will find the truth behind all these mysterious events.

    When he finishes the story we realise that he was in the madhouse all this time and Dr. Caligari is the director of the institute.

Review

A slightly fragmented narrative does the trick and lures the audience into believing that the narrator is completely reliable. Who would think that the young, innocent Francis is at the realm of madness?

The famous kidnapping/ chasing scene

The actual story being a mixture of horror and detective genre is quite exciting and original. However, for today’s viewer, who is accustomed to the so named ‘talkies’, it is really hard to keep concentrating for such a long time without dialogues and sound effects other than orchestral music.

The figure of the somnambulist Cesare could be associated with a dead, horroristic creature. The raise and awakening from a coffin conventionally is a (rather cliche-ish) element of vampire movies.

The probably most interesting and mysterious character is Dr. Caligari himself. Is he a magician in the fair, crazy scientist or an experienced psychiatrist? It is very likely that he’s all of them at once as he is smart enough to play around with citizens, detectives and even doctors.

He might have influenced great characters in literature such as  Cipolla in Thomas Mann’s Mario and the Magician (1930).

The actual hook-up in the end that reveals the unreliability of the narrator, Francis and makes the film a real classic, resembles in a lot of ways to Shutter Island (2010) by Martin Scorsese, which is also built around a madhouse and its serious patient.

Apart from the story there are many aspects that deserve our attention, such as fictional, mysterious lighting and the absolutely artistic decor.

Dreamlike setting

Sources:

• www.imdb.com
• www.german-films.de
• www.exha-le.blogspot.co.uk