Not being a newbie this year, it was fun to take people to the see the Procession of the Ghouls, at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine…this year the film was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The original (Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari) was a 1919 German, silent film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer and is cited as having introduced the twist ending in cinema.
The best part of the film is the set, which makes you feel like you are trapped inside a German, Expressionist painting.
I love that it’s so obvious that the look of this film has clearly influenced so many horror films that have come after it…
“The deranged Dr. Caligari and his faithful sleepwalking Cesare are connected to a series of murders in a German mountain village, Holstenwall. Caligari presents an example of a motion picture “frame story” in which most of the plot is presented as a “flashback”, as told by Francis.
The narrator, Francis, and his friend Alan visit a carnival in the village where they see Dr. Caligari and the somnambulist Cesare, whom the doctor is displaying as an attraction. Caligari brags that Cesare can answer any question he is asked. When Alan asks Cesare how long he has to live, Cesare tells Alan that he will die before dawn tomorrow – a prophecy which is fulfilled.
Francis, along with his betrothed Jane, investigate Caligari and Cesare, which eventually results in Cesare kidnapping Jane. Caligari orders Cesare to kill Jane, but the hypnotized slave refuses after her beauty captivates him. He carries Jane out of her house, leading the townsfolk on a lengthy chase. Cesare falls to his death during the pursuit, and the townsfolk discover that Caligari had created a dummy of Cesare to distract Francis.
Francis discovers that “Caligari” is actually the director of the local insane asylum, and, with the help of his colleagues, discovers that he is obsessed with the story of a monk called Caligari, who, in 1703, visited towns in northern Italy and used a somnambulist to murder people as a traveling act. After being confronted with the dead Cesare, Caligari reveals his mania and is imprisoned in his asylum.
A “twist ending” reveals that Francis’ flashback is actually his fantasy: he, Jane and Cesare are all inmates of the insane asylum, and the man he says is Caligari is his asylum doctor, who, after this revelation of the source of his patient’s delusion, says that now he will be able to cure”
The original film of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is actually in the public domain, you can watch it on youtube or download it for free from the internet archive.
Oh, a bizarre, 2005 film-noir-y remake that green screens a lot of the old footage of the original set is available on netflix streaming :D
