For this, our final Silent Sunday, I am once more digging into the history of German cinema for a delightful treat from 1920. This is The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.
I could go into depth about how this film is a surrealist nightmare that delves into insanity and still causes discomfort with its startling visuals. If you have never seen this film and consider yourself a film connoisseur, you will be glad to watch this. German cinema gave us the horror film, and this is a prime example of how and why. With no real “monster” to speak of this film delivers a deep seated terror that few modern films can surpass.
Click on the cover below to obtain a copy and read below for the official synopsis.
Synopsis: In 1920, one brilliant movie jolted the postwar masses and catapulted the movement known as German Expressionism into film history. That movie was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a plunge into the mind of insanity that severs all ties with the rational world. Director Robert Wiene and a visionary team of designers crafted a nightmare realm in which light, shadow and substance are abstracted, a world in which a demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in a small community. This authoritative edition of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 4K restoration scanned from the (mostly) preserved camera negative at the German Federal Film Archive.
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