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Released by: Kino Lorber
Released on: November 18th, 2014.
Director: Robert Wiene
Cast: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher
Year: 1920
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The Movie:
Robert Wiene made The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari in 1920 and even almost a full century since the picture debuted, this bizarre silent picture retains its power to engross and enthrall cineastes from all walks of life.
When the film begins, a conversation between two men is interrupted by the arrival of a beautiful woman in a white dress. From here we flash back to events prior where a man named Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) is set up at a town fair. Here he coaxes the crowd assembled in front of his display to come witness his somnambulist, a very pale and gaunt looking man named Cesare (Conrad Veidt) who has the ability to see into the future. This ability catches the curiosity of two of the fair attendees, Francis (Friedrich Feher) and Alan (Hans Heinz von Twardowski). When Alan asks him to predict his death, Cesare tells him it will happen that very night and sure enough, a short time later Alain is no more.
Francis is sure that Caligari had something to do with his friend's death. He recruits the assistance of a woman named Jane Olsen (Lil Dagover) to help him try to figure out exactly what that is, but Caligari is no fool. Once he realizes that Francis and Jane are tailing him, he commands Cesare to take care of the problem for him, permanently. When Cesare heads out into the night to murder Jane, Caligari figures his problems will soon be over but Cesare winds up falling for the beautiful woman and he kidnaps her. Jane's father, Dr. Olsen (Rudolf Lettinger), wakes up but fails to stop Cesare. Soon enough, Francis and the local police find themselves in a race against time to save Jane and stop Caligari and Cesare before it's too late.
What at first stands out about this film are the sets. Rather than shoot on location or on realistic sets, Wiene and his crew put together some notably skewed design work into play. As such, everything in the background of the characters is off, be it a staircase that goes off in a strange direction or a building that zigs and zags as it moves from earth to sky. This gives the film an immediate tone of unease, we know right from the beginning that something is wrong here and this style, combined with some unorthodox lighting choices and occasionally unsettling camera angles helps to give this near-century old film an agelessly macabre atmosphere unlike anything made before or since. It's this atmosphere and wicked visual style that keeps the film so enthralling. The story is decent enough, if occasionally disjointed, but it doesn't hold a candle to the visuals.
Performances are also interesting. Obviously as a silent film the actors' ability to recite dialogue isn't that important, leaving body language and physical movement to take the place of talking. All involved do fine work here but Werner Krauss and Conrad Veidt excel. Krauss is a lot of fun to watch as the very animated doctor while Veidt is just downright creepy looking, the black makeup under his eyes accentuating his already long, gaunt facial features.
What's accomplished here is quite amazing. Without the aid of much in the way of effects work and armed with what was likely a pretty modest budget, Wiene and his cast and crew create an incredibly effective sense of horror. By unsettling us early in the film we're setup to accept that strange things can and will happen here, it keeps us in suspense and the visuals ensure that our eyes have always got something to be drawn to. Wiene's tendency to transition from one scene to the next by using the opening and closing of his camera's iris acts as our own eyes - the movie blinks, we blink with it. We're pulled into this world and as are, it becomes all too easy to see how and why this picture would go on to become so incredibly influential in the annals of cinema.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Kino presents The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari in its original fullframe aspect ratio in an AVC encoded 1080p high definition presentation taken from a 4k restoration of the original camera negative performed by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and the results are exceptional. Although the documentation included with the disc notes that those in charge of the restoration had to use different elements to take care of various element related problems (something that can often times lead to glaring discrepancies when a transfer jumps from one source to another) this is done pretty seamlessly. While it is understandable that some age related damage would be impossible to completely eliminate (this movie is almost an entire century old!) the print damage that does appear throughout the film is rarely distracting. Detail and texture are both remarkably improved over past DVD issues of the film and there's a lot more depth and noticeable dimensionality to the picture here than most of us will have ever seen prior. Given the age of the elements used the picture is surprisingly stable and the lack of noise reduction and edge enhancement results in a pretty film-like presentation. The film really does look beautiful here, fans of this masterpiece should be suitably impressed.
This silent film is presented with your choice of two scores, the first a fairly traditional piece performed by the University Of Music in Freiburg, Germany and the second by Paul D. Miller (also known as D.J. Spooky), both of which are presented in DTS-HD 2.0. The two tracks are fairly different in nature, but both have their merits. As to their quality, again, this disc scores full points. There's wonderful clarity and depth to both tracks with very succinct instrumentation clearly audible throughout. Levels are perfectly balanced from start to finish and there's not a trace of hiss or distortion to note for even a split second. The film is presented with its original German intertitles with optional English subtitles.
The main extra on the disc is a fifty-two minute documentary featurette entitled Caligari: How Horror Came To The Cinema. This well put together piece does a great job of laying out the history of how this film came to be and at the same time explaining how the political layout of the Germany of the era in which it was made had a hand in how it turned out. The documentary then goes on to make the case for the tremendous influence that it had not only on German films to follow in its wake but on films made around the world, and not just specifically horror pictures.
The disc also includes two restoration demos running two and three minutes each respectively. Those who appreciate and enjoy seeing what goes into restoring old films will certainly appreciate both of these, they're quite interesting. Aside from that we get a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other Kino classics, menus and chapter selection. Inside the Blu-ray keepcase (which fits inside a nice slipcover) there's a booklet of liner notes from Kristin Thompson that talk up the expressionism that is such a key part of the film.
The Final Word:
The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari holds up remarkably well and it's easy to see how this did and still continues to inspire filmmakers around the world. It's a film like no other, a creepy masterpiece of arthouse and expressionist styles with plenty of genre appeal to go along with it. Kino's Blu-ray is a stunner, offering up the film in fantastic condition with great sounds and some very nice supplements as well. Essential!
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
