The film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is a 1920’s silent horror film directed by Robert Weine. It is credited with being one of the greatest horror movies of the silent film era. The movie stars Friedrich Fehér as the protagonist, Francis, Hans Heinreich von Twardowski as Alan, Lil Dagover as Jane, Werner Krauss as Dr. Caligari, and Conrad Veidt as the somnambulist, Cesare. The story is told mainly in flashbacks in the German town of Holstenwall. In the film, Francis recounts the story of many brutal murders in a small German town. In his memory, he and his friend Alan visit a carnival, where they go to a show in which Dr. Caligari presents “Cesare the Somnambulist” who has the ability to predict the future. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare answers with the chilling response, “Till dawn, tomorrow.” The next morning, Alan is found murdered in his house. Francis has his suspicions about Cesare and Dr. Caligari, seeing as they predicted his death, but another man is falsely accused of the crime. Soon after, Caligari sends Cesare murder Jane, Francis’ fiancée. When the somnambulist arrives at Jane’s house, he cannot go through with the murder thanks to Jane’s beauty, so he kidnaps her and runs away. A group of townspeople chase Cesare until he puts Jane down and dies due to exhaustion. During this time, Francis is searching for clues at a local insane asylum, and discovers that Dr. Caligari is the director. Caligari was obsessed with a different man named Caligari that used a somnambulist to murder innocent people, and is trying to recreate the murders. When the flashback ends, a terrible realization comes to light. During many scenes in “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, a spooky feeling comes across in the set, acting, and appearance of many of the actors. For example, in the flashback, the shapes of the buildings are distorted and jagged, and the faces of Caligari and Cesare are overly made up and seem to never blink. Although the sharp font and background used on the dialogue cards fit the tone of the film, the duration that they were shown onscreen was far too long. In addition to the lengthy dialogue cards, the scenes building up to large moments in the plot were far too drawn out. By the first few seconds of a suspenseful moment, I could predict what was going to happen, and I got bored with the waiting. As well as the parts building up to the important scenes, the reactions of the characters were far too drawn out. For example, Alan’s reaction when told his fate lasted far too long, and I got distracted by other things while waiting on the shot to change. Overall, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” was extremely well done for its time, but I did not enjoy it. The plot was predictable and drawn out, and I was bored within the first 15 minutes. The twist ending was the only part of the film that I did not foresee happening. I will not be rewatching this film, and I would only recommend it to a person with a good attention span and the ability to keep up with twisting plot lines.
The film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” is a 1920’s silent horror film directed by Robert Weine. It is credited with being one of the greatest horror movies of the silent film era. The movie stars Friedrich Fehér as the protagonist, Francis, Hans Heinreich von Twardowski as Alan, Lil Dagover as Jane, Werner Krauss as Dr. Caligari, and Conrad Veidt as the somnambulist, Cesare. The story is told mainly in flashbacks in the German town of Holstenwall.
In the film, Francis recounts the story of many brutal murders in a small German town. In his memory, he and his friend Alan visit a carnival, where they go to a show in which Dr. Caligari presents “Cesare the Somnambulist” who has the ability to predict the future. When Alan asks how long he has to live, Cesare answers with the chilling response, “Till dawn, tomorrow.” The next morning, Alan is found murdered in his house. Francis has his suspicions about Cesare and Dr. Caligari, seeing as they predicted his death, but another man is falsely accused of the crime. Soon after, Caligari sends Cesare murder Jane, Francis’ fiancée. When the somnambulist arrives at Jane’s house, he cannot go through with the murder thanks to Jane’s beauty, so he kidnaps her and runs away. A group of townspeople chase Cesare until he puts Jane down and dies due to exhaustion. During this time, Francis is searching for clues at a local insane asylum, and discovers that Dr. Caligari is the director. Caligari was obsessed with a different man named Caligari that used a somnambulist to murder innocent people, and is trying to recreate the murders. When the flashback ends, a terrible realization comes to light.
During many scenes in “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”, a spooky feeling comes across in the set, acting, and appearance of many of the actors. For example, in the flashback, the shapes of the buildings are distorted and jagged, and the faces of Caligari and Cesare are overly made up and seem to never blink. Although the sharp font and background used on the dialogue cards fit the tone of the film, the duration that they were shown onscreen was far too long.
In addition to the lengthy dialogue cards, the scenes building up to large moments in the plot were far too drawn out. By the first few seconds of a suspenseful moment, I could predict what was going to happen, and I got bored with the waiting. As well as the parts building up to the important scenes, the reactions of the characters were far too drawn out. For example, Alan’s reaction when told his fate lasted far too long, and I got distracted by other things while waiting on the shot to change.
Overall, “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” was extremely well done for its time, but I did not enjoy it. The plot was predictable and drawn out, and I was bored within the first 15 minutes. The twist ending was the only part of the film that I did not foresee happening. I will not be rewatching this film, and I would only recommend it to a person with a good attention span and the ability to keep up with twisting plot lines.