The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
I love the expressionist style of this film, although I find it to look much more like surrealism than expressionism (think Monet and Degas). And ultimately it’s the film’s most interesting feature. The whole film looks like a mix of a cartoon and a theatre play, and a wonderfully stylish one at that. I also find it amazing that they were able to produce this film so cheaply, I guess it’s cheaper to produce backgrounds with slightly less detail than “real” looking ones. Nevertheless, I am impressed by the artistic richness of the film.
Apart from that, there was not so much that I found gripping about the story. Sure, the directing was not bad and the acting felt quite solid too; unlike Nosferatu, I also felt that Caligari had a very nice and steady pacing. But overall, the story itself pales next to the style of the film. I wouldn’t stay the story was boring or anything, it was far from that; it was not just nothing special for me. This could partially be due to the somewhat boring music accompanying the film. I can definitely say that I disliked it, and seeing how often Caligari has been re-interpreted musically, I would love to see how different I might think about the film with different, perhaps more modern or jazzy music.
It seems that I have seen the big all three famous (expressionist) German silent films “Metropolis”, “Nosferatu” and “Caligari” now. Curiously, I only know a lot about Murnau and Lang, but practically nothing about Robert Wiene. Perhaps it’s because he never survived into the sound film, and makes me realize yet again how little I know about silent films in general. It really is sad that most of them have disappeared by now.