Du musst Caligari werden: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and the Beginnings of Horror

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Dir. Robert Wiene. Perf. Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Frederich        Feher. Decla -Bioskop, 1920.

Film is a progressive medium. Each moment of enlightenment, such as the advent of  sound technology with 1927's The Jazz Singer, advances the next generation of movies, steadily expanding the boundaries of filmmaking and making possible revolutions that have lead us to the exciting possibilities of the modern motion picture industry.

Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one such moment of enlightenment. It has been acknowledged as both the beginning of the German Expressionist movement and one of the first true horror films, and has allowed for the development of the modern horror genre as well as being extremely influential in the advent of film-noir. 

Caligari recounts the tale of Francis, a young protagonist who encounters a sinister man called Dr. Caligari operating a sideshow exhibit at the Holstenwall fair. The exhibit is a somnambulist, Cesare, who has allegedly been asleep since birth, awakening periodically to operate as a soothsayer.  The arrival of Caligari coincides with a series of brutal murders, including that of Francis's friend Alan, an event which was predicted by Cesare. Dr. Caligari and Cesare soon fall under suspicion. After some investigation, Francis learns that Caligari is in fact a madman who induces Cesare to commit the murders by proxy, and the man is admitted into an insane asylum, where he will presumably remain for eternity.

Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) 

Of course, as a modern, film-going audience, we are almost trained to suspect a "twist ending." Here, in Caligari, the twist was completely innovative, and was actually imposed by producers who desired a less horrific experience. In the last ten minutes of Caligari, we are informed that the entire narrative was actually Francis's delusion. There is no Caligari. All of the players are actually residents in the mental institution where Francis is also a patient, and the man whom Francis believes to be Caligari is actually Francis's psychiatric doctor. 

Cesare (Conrad Veidt), the sonambulist, and Jane (Lil Dagover)

Considering that the film actually inhabits the headspace of a psychotic, the set design proves itself absolutely appropriate, and is vital to the film's success. As created by designer Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann, and Walter Rohrig, the sets exist at slanted right-angles; everything is distorted, as if the viewer is gazing into a funhouse mirror. Shadows are painted directly onto the sets, emphasizing the horrible two-demionsionality. The psychological result in the viewer is emotional unrest and psychological dread, paralleling and perhaps even compounding the mental state of the protagonist, Francis.

 The atmosphere of Caligari is created not as a direct and faithful representation of reality, but as an assertion of emotion, a window into the interior mind and soul that would otherwise be unreachable. As Caligari employed this technique, it became the first and most prominent example of movement of German Expressionism, and served as an example for later expressionist films such as M, Nosferatu, and The Golem.

Shadows and angles in Nosferatu

It has been suggested by scholars and academics that this development was a reaction to the state of Germany during and immediately preceding the first World War, as film noir was connected to the horrific impact of World War II. Film noir has obvious roots in the German Expressionist movement, as exaggerated lighting was used to create high-contrast, angular shadows that reflected the internal turmoil of angst-ridden detectives as well as the overall vileness of human nature. Directors such as Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder, Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Curtiz, and Carol Reed, using their experience in the German film industry, injected elements of  German Expressionism into their work, creating a genre that is indebted to films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Off-kilter set pieces in Carol Reed's The Third Man

Indeed, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari allowed the use of lighting and set as an expression of psychological and emotional state, which contributed greatly to the cinematic element of "mood." This specific influence is traceable through to today's films- without Caligari, the dark, thickly melancholic atmosphere of David Fincher's films, Se7en, Zodiac, and  Gone Girl in particular, would not be possible.

This film is innovative in its technique and its form, and its influence can be traced through almost a hundred years of film history.As the father of horror and a primary example German Expressionism, the guiding hand of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is visible from the modern films of Fincher and Tim Burton to the noirs of the forties and fifties to the monster movies of the thirties and its close German Expressionist cousins.