Film Review 1: Das Cabinet des Dr.Caligari

The review

The first film we watched for the space oddities program was Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari or in English the Cabinet of Dr.Calligari. This is an old German film from the 1920s, directed by Robert Wiene. Being made in the 1920s the film is in black and white as well as being silent with the exception being the orchestrated music in the background. Any story developments that needed to be shown was done in the form of text that comes up on the screen. This film is a horror and mystery film that was a product of its time that relies heavily on expressionism. I feel very mixed on whether I liked or hated this film for reasons that I will be talking about in this review where I will be talking about its twists, set design and clothes.

First however, a brief synopsis of the films story. The story revolves around the protagonist telling a story to another man about Dr. Caligari and his Somnambulist called Ceaser that can predict people’s future. A Somnambulist is a sleep walker; the film doesn’t actually tell you what a somnambulist is I assumed it was some kind of zombie while watching. By predicting the future as part of a side show act, it is more accurate that he predicts when they will die which leads to a string of murders that drives the film forward. One the first to die was the protagonists friend, the reason I am referring to the main character as the protagonist is because the film doesn’t tell you his name. At this point I assumed it was the Somnambulist that murdered him but the film introduces another man that again isn’t named as the murderer which I assumed the twist in the film was that it wasn’t him which the film quickly made obvious and that it was in fact Ceaser which ends up attempting to abducting his next victim instead which end with Dr. Caligari running back to an institute he works at. Here he was discovered by the protagonist and ends up being put in a straight Jacket. That is where I assumed the film would end but instead the real twist is shown. The entire film to this point was a story told by the protagonist that is in the mental institute and all the characters he used in his story are based on other patience. Being described by Anna Smith from empire.com as “Cinemas first ever twist ending” (Anna Smith n.d). To be honest the twist completely went over my head and left me confused at the end.

I thought the set design for this film was fascinating to look at, majority of the locations where constructed in a studio out of what I assume was wood and card board. Its hard to tell with it being black and white. Most of these had solid back drops for the backgrounds when they needed them. Doing it this way meant the Director had greater control over where the cameras can be placed as well as the lighting which helps set the tone and mood in the film. The set are very expressionist in nature as described by Peter Bradshaw from the Guardian “the Distorted perspective of its expressionist sets” (Peter Bradshaw 2014). Expressionism is typically seen in art and theater up to this point but in my opinion this film has more in common with theater then cinema. The Expressionist movement is more about portraying emotion over real life which can be seen every where here. When you know what the twist is suddenly it becomes a lot more obvious why the sets are designed as they are. All the sets that are outside the institute are distorted to represent how the protagonist likely hasn’t seen much of or forgot what the buildings look like outside of the institute. This could represent paranoia, confusion and importantly fear as all the distorted sets had a lot of jagged edges, strange shapes and sizes. The only sets that where not distorted was ones with a lot of nature such as trees or the mental institute itself which could represent that this is where he is calmest.

I didn’t like the costume design in the film as I at times found it to be confusing to tell characters apart. This was probably due to the make up and the lack of character introductions. The only will clue I had to tell peoples role in this film was there hats and clothes, I immediately could tell who was a policemen based of there hats and who was a doctor based of there lab coats. As M.B. White said from the Filmrefrence.com “The basic tone of the decor extends to the costume design” (M.B White n.d). The distorted nature of the sets gave of a dark fantasy vibe which is reflected in some of the characters. Ceaser being portrayed as the monster being tall and slim with a black suit not that unlike how Frankenstein’s monster is portrayed as a dark and imposing figure. Dr Caligari in the black suit and top hat much like how the penguin is portrayed in Tim Burtons Bat man as the ring leader. The protagonists love interest in a gothic pure white dress to show here innocence. This was likely all necessary to show the audience peoples roles on the film as the lack of sound and limited narration from the text could only do so much. This all also helps shows the films theme of expressionism.

In conclusion, as I said in the introduction I have very mixed feelings about this film. In one hand I love how the sets look being very distorted and generally fascinating to look at which helps increase the surprise the twist has. On the other hand, I feel the hints of the twist where too subtle which meant the first time watching this film I didn’t understand the twist. The costume design fit in well with the expressionism the film was using but also meant I had trouble telling characters apart. The main problem was there where a lot of times that I felt like a blinked and mist something which perhaps show that either the film was too slow for a modern audience or the lack of sound and color was the problem. This film was very much a product of its time using tropes such as the tall slender monster in a film that was likely considered scary at the time but now pales in comparison to modern day movies of the same genre. Relying of tropes isn’t something that has stopped however but changed. These days’ horror films use jump scares and gore which are considered tropes today.

References

Bradshaw, P. (2014). The Cabinet of Dr Caligari review – occult scary-movie touchstone from 1920. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/aug/28/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari-film-review [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].

Filmreference.com. (n.d). Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari - Film (Movie) Plot and Review - Publications. [online] Available at: http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Jo-Ko/Das-Kabinett-des-Dr-Caligari.html [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].

Smith, A. (2014). The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari. [online] Empire. Available at: https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cabinet-dr-caligari-review/ [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].

Interiors. (n.d). The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) — Interiors : An Online Publication about Architecture and Film. [online] Available at: https://www.intjournal.com/0813/the-cabinet-of-dr-caligari [Accessed 2 Oct. 2019].

A poster for the film the cabinet of Dr.Caligari. (n.d). [image] Available at: https://www.darkcitygallery.com/Cabinet_of_Dr_Caligari_The_Movie_Poster_p/rr8.htm [Accessed 11 Oct. 2019].