The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Encyclopedia
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920
silent
horror film
directed by Robert Wiene
from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz
and Carl Mayer
. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist
films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as having introduced the twist ending in cinema.
The deranged Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss
) and his faithful sleepwalking Cesare (Conrad Veidt
) are connected to a series of murders in a German
mountain village, Holstenwall. Caligari introduces the main narrative using a frame story
in which most of the plot is presented as a flashback, as told by Francis (one of the earliest examples of a frame story in film).
The narrator, Francis (Friedrich Fehér), and his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
) visit a carnival
in the village where they see Dr. Caligari and the somnambulist
Cesare, whom the doctor is displaying as an attraction. Caligari hawks 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 (Lil Dagover
), investigates 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 dies of exhaustion after discarding Jane at the end of 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 in a similar fashion. 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 Francis.
and Carl Mayer
met each other in Berlin
soon after World War I
. The two men considered the new film medium as a new type of artistic expression – visual storytelling that necessitated collaboration between writers and painters, cameramen, actors, directors. They felt that film was the ideal medium through which to both call attention to the emerging pacifism
in postwar Germany and exhibit radical anti-bourgeois art.
Although neither had associations with any Berlin film company, they decided to develop a plot. As both were enthusiastic about Paul Wegener
's works, they chose to write a horror film. The duo drew from past experiences. Janowitz had disturbing memories of a night during 1913, in Hamburg. After leaving a fair he had walked into a park bordering the Holstenwall and glimpsed a stranger as he disappeared into the shadows after having mysteriously emerged from the bushes. The next morning, a young woman's ravaged body was found. Mayer was still angered about his sessions during the war with an autocratic, highly ranked, military psychiatrist
.
At night, Janowitz and Mayer would often go to a nearby fair. One evening, they saw a sideshow "Man and Machine", in which a man did feats of strength and predicted the future while supposedly in a hypnotic trance. Inspired by this, Janowitz and Mayer devised their story that night and wrote it in the following six weeks. The name "Caligari" came from a book Mayer read, in which an officer named Caligari was mentioned.
When the duo approached producer Erich Pommer
about the story, Pommer tried to have them thrown out of his small Decla-Bioscop studio.
But when they insisted on telling him their film story, Pommer was so impressed that he bought it on the spot, and agreed to have the film produced in expressionistic
style, partly as a concession to his studio only having a limited quota of power and light.
and painters Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig, whom he had met as a soldier while painting sets for a German military theater. When Pommer began to have second thoughts about how the film should be designed, they had to convince him that it made sense to paint lights and shadows directly on set walls, floors, background canvases and to place flat sets behind the actors.
Pommer first approached Fritz Lang
to direct this film, but he was committed to work on Die Spinnen (The Spiders
), so Pommer gave directorial duties to Robert Wiene
. Wiene filmed a test scene to prove Warm, Reimann, and Röhrig's theories, and it was so impressive that Pommer gave his artists free rein. Janowitz, Mayer, and Wiene would later use the same artistic methods on another production, Genuine
, which was less successful commercially and critically.
The producers, who wanted a less macabre ending imposed upon the director the idea that everything turns out to be Francis's delusion. In so doing, they produced the first cinematographic representation of altered mental states, similar to sensory distortions produced by recreational drugs
.
The original story made it clear that Caligari and Cesare were real and were responsible for a number of deaths.
Filming took place during December 1919, and January 1920. The film premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin
on February 26, 1920.
, one of the earliest horror film
s, and a model for directors for many decades.
Siegfried Kracauer
's From Caligari to Hitler
(1947) postulates that the film can be considered as an allegory
for German social attitudes in the period following World War I
. He argues that the character of Caligari represents a tyrannical figure, to whom the only alternative is social chaos (represented by the fairground).
However, in Weimar Cinema and After, Thomas Elsaesser describes the legacy of Kracauer's work as a "historical imaginary". Elsaesser argues that Kracauer had not studied enough films to make his thesis about the social mindset of Germany legitimate and that the discovery and publication of the original screenplay of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari undermines his argument about the revolutionary intent of its writers. Elsaesser's alternative thesis is that the filmmakers adopted an Expressionist style as a method of product differentiation, establishing a distinct national product against the increasing importation of American films. Dietrich Scheunemann, somewhat in defense of Kracauer, noted that he didn't have "the full range of materials at (his) disposal". However, that fact "has clearly and adversely affected the discussion of the film", referring to the fact that the script of Caligari wasn't rediscovered until 1977 and that Kracauer hadn't seen the film for around 20 years when he wrote the work.
, he was approached during the early 1930s by director Robert Wiene
about playing "Cesare" in a sound remake, which was never made. In 1936, Bela Lugosi
, while filming in England, was offered the part of "Caligari" in a sound remake, but returned to work in the U.S. During the 1940s, writer Hans Janowitz
seemed close to selling his rights in a script to be directed by Fritz Lang
, but neither that nor his plans for a sequel, Caligari II, came to fruition.
In 1991, the film was loosely remade as The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez by director and writer Peter Sellars
. The production included significant development during filming, leading the primary actors to also receive writing credits (Mikhail Baryshnikov
, who played "Cesar"; Joan Cusack
, who played "Cathy"; Peter Gallagher
, who played "Matt", and Ron Vawter
, who played "Dr. Ramirez"). This remake was an experimental film that was screened only at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and never theatrically released. Like the original film, it was silent with only intertitles and a musical score.
The 1990 film Edward Scissorhands
used the aesthetics of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in creating the look for the main character of Edward Scissorhands.
The film was adapted into an opera in 1997 by composer John Moran. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, in a production by Robert McGrath.
Also, during 1997, playwright Susan Mosakowski adapted it to drama, performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
.
Numerous musicians have composed new musical scores to accompany the film. The Club Foot Orchestra
premiered the score penned by ensemble founder and artistic director Richard Marriott
in 1987. During 1994, jazz
bassist Mark Dresser
led pianist Denman Maroney
and trumpeter Dave Douglas
in his compositions for the film, which they performed live at the Knitting Factory
and released on CD in 1994. The British
electronica
band In the Nursery
created an ambient
soundtrack for the film, which was released on CD in 1996. In 2000, the Israeli Electronica group TaaPet made several live performances of their soundtrack for the film around Israel. These were recorded, edited, and released as TaaPet's second album for FACT Records. Rainer Viertlböck composed a new score for the restored version that is available from Transit Film. In 2002, British musician and composer Geoff Smith composed a new soundtrack to the film for the hammered dulcimer, which he performed live as an accompaniment to the film. Also in 2002, Belgian musicians Thomas Desmet, Joris van Eeckhoven, Stefan Vanlokeren and Alexander Kerkhof formed the temporary band 'Caligari' and composed a complete score to the original film. Their effort was recorded by producer Pierre Vervloesem and performed during the International Film Festival of Flanders in Ghent and some other occasions. During 2006, Peru
vian rock group Kinder composed a soundtrack to the film, performing it live during the screenings at "El Cinematógrafo", a film club in the district of Barranco. The composer Lynne Plowman wrote a score that was toured by the London Mozart Players
in Wales during April and May 2009.
In 1981, Bill Nelson
was asked by the Yorkshire Actors Company to create a soundtrack for a stage adaptation of the movie. That music was later recorded for his 1982 album Das Kabinet (The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari).
A radio version is published by Blackstone Audio featuring John de Lancie
as "Franz", Tony Jay
as "Caligari", Jane Carr, Robertson Dean, Kaitlin Hopkins, James Otis, and Lorna Raver, written, produced and directed by Yuri Rasovsky
.
On October 26, 2008, BBC Radio 3
broadcast a dramatization entitled Caligari, adapted from the film by Amanda Dalton and directed by Susan Roberts. According to the description on the BBC Radio 3 web site, "[Ms. Dalton's] adaptation builds on the film's themes: the madness of society, the inner workings of the human mind and the paranoia of a country in the aftermath of a war." The cast included Tom Ferguson as "Franzis", Luke Treadaway as "Allan", Sarah McDonald Hughes as "Jane" and Robin Blaze as "Cesare".
In 2005, the Chicago
-based Redmoon Theater
performed a Bunraku
adaptation of the film. The only dialogue throughout the 80 minute production was the thoughts of Cesare as played through a Victor Talking Machine
at the base of the stage. The stage was made up of many small stages, each being a drawer or cupboard in a large cabinet.
A film with a very similar title, The Cabinet of Caligari
, written by Robert Bloch
, was made in 1962, claimed to be inspired by the original film.
A sound remake
, directed by David Lee Fisher, was released in 2005 and won several awards at horror film festivals. It attempted to reproduce the look of the original film as closely as possible, and the backdrops used in the remake were digitally enhanced backdrops from the original film.
The final episode of the children's television series Count Duckula
, titled "The Zombie Awakes", is a parody of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A mad psychologist, named Dr. Quackbrain sends a somnambulist named Morpheus to bring Duckula to Quackbrain's castle, which is designed inside and out with the same extreme lights, shadows, angles and shapes characteristic of Caligaris expressionist style.
There is strong influence of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on the concept of the 2009 fantasy film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, by Terry Gilliam
as well as on the book Shutter Island
by Dennis Lehane
on which the eponymous movie by Martin Scorsese
is based. Scorsese was surprised that Lehane hadn't seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari whose story has many similarities with that of Shutter Island .
wrote Superman's Metropolis
, a trilogy
of graphic novel
s for DC Comics
illustrated by Ted McKeever
, the second of which was entitled Batman: Nosferatu
, most of the plot derived from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Caligari himself appears as a member of Die Zwielichthelden (The Twilight Heroes), a German mercenary
group in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
by Alan Moore
and Kevin O'Neill
. Also, in The Sandman issue "Calliope" written by Neil Gaiman
and pencilled by Kelley Jones, a character, Richard Madoc, writes a book "The Cabaret of Dr. Caligari", an obvious pseudonym.
has a song entitled "Caligari's Mirror". Goth rock group Bauhaus
used a still of Cesare from the film on early t-shirts for their popular single "Bela Lugosi's Dead
". The band Abney Park
has a cut "The Secret Life of Dr. Calgari" on their album Lost Horizons (released 2008).
The 1998 music video
for Rob Zombie
's single "Living Dead Girl
" restaged several scenes from the film, with Zombie in the role of Caligari beckoning to the fair attendees. In addition to artificially imitating the poor image quality of aged film, the video also made use of the expressionistic sepia, aqua, and violet tinting used in Caligari. The film also inspired imagery in the video for "Forsaken" (2002), from the soundtrack for the film Queen of the Damned
.
Hard rock
group Rainbow
used the film as inspiration for the music video to "Can't Let You Go", a single from their 1983 album Bent Out Of Shape
, vocalist Joe Lynn Turner
being made up as Cesare. The director was Dominic Orlando. The video for Coldplay
's "Cemeteries of London" included clips from the film. The video for the song "Otherside
" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
off the album Californication
, briefly used the film as a reference to its visuals.
1920 in film
The year 1920 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* November 27 - The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks opens.-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1920:U.S.A. unless stated*The $1,000,000 Reward...
silent
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
directed by Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene was an important film director of the German silent cinema.Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also...
from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz was a Bohemian-born German author.Janowitz was an officer in World War I, but returned from it as a pacifist. Shortly after the war ended, he met the similarly minded Carl Mayer in Berlin, who suggested he work as an author. Together they wrote the script to The Cabinet of Dr...
and Carl Mayer
Carl Mayer
Carl Mayer was an Austrian screenplay writer who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Haunted Castle , Der Letzte Mann , Tartuffe , Sunrise and 4 Devils , the last five being films directed by F. W...
. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist
German Expressionism
German Expressionism refers to a number of related creative movements beginning in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin, during the 1920s...
films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the silent era. This movie is cited as having introduced the twist ending in cinema.
Plot
Werner Krauss
Werner Johannes Krauss was a German stage and film actor.-Early life:Krauss was born at the parsonage of Gestungshausen in Upper Franconia, where his grandfather was Protestant pastor. He spent his childhood in Breslau and from 1901 attended the teacher's college at Kreuzburg...
) and his faithful sleepwalking Cesare (Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
) are connected to a series of murders in a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
mountain village, Holstenwall. Caligari introduces the main narrative using a frame story
Frame story
A frame story is a literary technique that sometimes serves as a companion piece to a story within a story, whereby an introductory or main narrative is presented, at least in part, for the purpose of setting the stage either for a more emphasized second narrative or for a set of shorter stories...
in which most of the plot is presented as a flashback, as told by Francis (one of the earliest examples of a frame story in film).
The narrator, Francis (Friedrich Fehér), and his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
-Biography:Twardowski was born in Stettin , Pomerania. He made his first film appearance in the 1920 Robert Wiene-directed horror movie Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari which starred Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. He would go on to appear in over 20 movies in Weimar Germany during...
) visit a carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
in the village where they see Dr. Caligari and the somnambulist
Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness...
Cesare, whom the doctor is displaying as an attraction. Caligari hawks 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
Prophecy
Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...
which is fulfilled.
Francis, along with his betrothed Jane (Lil Dagover
Lil Dagover
Lil Dagover was a German stage, film and television actress whose career spanned nearly six decades.-Early life:...
), investigates 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 dies of exhaustion after discarding Jane at the end of 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
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and used a somnambulist to murder people in a similar fashion. After being confronted with the dead Cesare, Caligari reveals his mania
Mania
Mania, the presence of which is a criterion for certain psychiatric diagnoses, is a state of abnormally elevated or irritable mood, arousal, and/ or energy levels. In a sense, it is the opposite of depression...
and is imprisoned in his asylum.
A "twist ending" reveals that Francis' flashback is actually his fantasy
Fantasy (psychology)
Fantasy in a psychological sense is broadly used to cover two different senses, conscious and unconscious. In the unconscious sense, it is sometimes spelled "phantasy".-Conscious 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
Delusion
A delusion is a false belief held with absolute conviction despite superior evidence. Unlike hallucinations, delusions are always pathological...
, says that now he will be able to cure Francis.
Cast
- Werner KraussWerner KraussWerner Johannes Krauss was a German stage and film actor.-Early life:Krauss was born at the parsonage of Gestungshausen in Upper Franconia, where his grandfather was Protestant pastor. He spent his childhood in Breslau and from 1901 attended the teacher's college at Kreuzburg...
– Dr. Caligari - Conrad VeidtConrad VeidtConrad Veidt was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Man Who Laughs , The Thief of Bagdad and Casablanca...
– Cesare - Friedrich Fehér – Francis
- Lil DagoverLil DagoverLil Dagover was a German stage, film and television actress whose career spanned nearly six decades.-Early life:...
– Jane Olsen - Hans Heinrich von TwardowskiHans Heinrich von Twardowski-Biography:Twardowski was born in Stettin , Pomerania. He made his first film appearance in the 1920 Robert Wiene-directed horror movie Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari which starred Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. He would go on to appear in over 20 movies in Weimar Germany during...
– Alan - Rudolf Lettinger – Dr. Olsen
Uncredited
- Rudolf Klein-RoggeRudolf Klein-RoggeFriedrich Rudolf Klein-Rogge was a German film actor. Klein-Rogge is known for playing sinister figures in films in the 1920s and 1930s as well as being a main-stay in director Fritz Lang's Weimar-era films.- Biography :...
– Criminal - Hans Lanser-Rudolf – Old man
- Henri Peters-Arnolds – Young doctor
- Ludwig RexLudwig RexLudwig Rex was a German film actor of the silent era. He appeared in 55 films between 1918 and 1927.He was born in Berlin, Germany and died in London, England.-Selected filmography:...
– Murderer - Elsa WagnerElsa Wagner-Selected filmography:* The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari * Satanas * Daphne and the Diplomat * The Private's Job * Fracht von Baltimore * Heimkehr * Our Willi Is the Best...
– Landlady
Development
Writers Hans JanowitzHans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz was a Bohemian-born German author.Janowitz was an officer in World War I, but returned from it as a pacifist. Shortly after the war ended, he met the similarly minded Carl Mayer in Berlin, who suggested he work as an author. Together they wrote the script to The Cabinet of Dr...
and Carl Mayer
Carl Mayer
Carl Mayer was an Austrian screenplay writer who wrote or co-wrote the screenplays to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari , The Haunted Castle , Der Letzte Mann , Tartuffe , Sunrise and 4 Devils , the last five being films directed by F. W...
met each other in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
soon after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. The two men considered the new film medium as a new type of artistic expression – visual storytelling that necessitated collaboration between writers and painters, cameramen, actors, directors. They felt that film was the ideal medium through which to both call attention to the emerging pacifism
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
in postwar Germany and exhibit radical anti-bourgeois art.
Although neither had associations with any Berlin film company, they decided to develop a plot. As both were enthusiastic about Paul Wegener
Paul Wegener
Paul Wegener was a German actor, writer and film director known for his pioneering role in German expressionist cinema.-Stage and early film career:...
's works, they chose to write a horror film. The duo drew from past experiences. Janowitz had disturbing memories of a night during 1913, in Hamburg. After leaving a fair he had walked into a park bordering the Holstenwall and glimpsed a stranger as he disappeared into the shadows after having mysteriously emerged from the bushes. The next morning, a young woman's ravaged body was found. Mayer was still angered about his sessions during the war with an autocratic, highly ranked, military psychiatrist
Military psychiatrist
A military psychiatrist is a psychiatrist — whether uniformed officer or civilian consultant — specializing in the treatment of military personnel and military family members suffering from mental disorders that occur within the statistical norm for any population, as well as those disorders...
.
At night, Janowitz and Mayer would often go to a nearby fair. One evening, they saw a sideshow "Man and Machine", in which a man did feats of strength and predicted the future while supposedly in a hypnotic trance. Inspired by this, Janowitz and Mayer devised their story that night and wrote it in the following six weeks. The name "Caligari" came from a book Mayer read, in which an officer named Caligari was mentioned.
When the duo approached producer Erich Pommer
Erich Pommer
Erich Pommer was a German-born film producer and executive. He was involved in the German Expressionist film movement during the silent era as the head of production at Decla, Decla-Bioscop and from 1924 to 1926 at Ufa responsible for many of the best known movies of the Weimar Republic such as...
about the story, Pommer tried to have them thrown out of his small Decla-Bioscop studio.
But when they insisted on telling him their film story, Pommer was so impressed that he bought it on the spot, and agreed to have the film produced in expressionistic
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
style, partly as a concession to his studio only having a limited quota of power and light.
Production
Pommer put Caligari in the hands of designer Hermann WarmHermann Warm
Hermann Warm was a German art director for films. Born on 1889 in Berlin, Germany, Warm was an important figure in the expressionist movement of the 1920s. Warm entered the German film industry in 1912 after working on-stage for a while. As well as doing set work with on films such as The Cabinet...
and painters Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig, whom he had met as a soldier while painting sets for a German military theater. When Pommer began to have second thoughts about how the film should be designed, they had to convince him that it made sense to paint lights and shadows directly on set walls, floors, background canvases and to place flat sets behind the actors.
Pommer first approached Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
to direct this film, but he was committed to work on Die Spinnen (The Spiders
The Spiders (film)
The Spiders is a adventure film directed by Fritz Lang. It was released in two parts in 1919 and 1920.-Synopsis:In San Francisco, well-known sportsman Kay Hoog announces to a club that he has found a message in a bottle with a map drawn by a Harvard professor who has gone missing. The map tells of...
), so Pommer gave directorial duties to Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene was an important film director of the German silent cinema.Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also...
. Wiene filmed a test scene to prove Warm, Reimann, and Röhrig's theories, and it was so impressive that Pommer gave his artists free rein. Janowitz, Mayer, and Wiene would later use the same artistic methods on another production, Genuine
Genuine (film)
Genuine is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene. It was also released as Genuine: A Tale of a Vampire....
, which was less successful commercially and critically.
The producers, who wanted a less macabre ending imposed upon the director the idea that everything turns out to be Francis's delusion. In so doing, they produced the first cinematographic representation of altered mental states, similar to sensory distortions produced by recreational drugs
Psychedelic drug
A psychedelic substance is a psychoactive drug whose primary action is to alter cognition and perception. Psychedelics are part of a wider class of psychoactive drugs known as hallucinogens, a class that also includes related substances such as dissociatives and deliriants...
.
The original story made it clear that Caligari and Cesare were real and were responsible for a number of deaths.
Filming took place during December 1919, and January 1920. The film premiered at the Marmorhaus in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on February 26, 1920.
Responses
Critics worldwide have praised the film for its Expressionist style, complete with wild, distorted set design. Caligari has been cited as an influence on Film noirFilm noir
Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...
, one of the earliest horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
s, and a model for directors for many decades.
Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer was a German-Jewish writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist...
's From Caligari to Hitler
From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film
From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film is a book by film critic and writer Siegfried Kracauer, published in 1947. The book is considered one of the first major studies of German film between World War I and World War II...
(1947) postulates that the film can be considered as an allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
for German social attitudes in the period following World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He argues that the character of Caligari represents a tyrannical figure, to whom the only alternative is social chaos (represented by the fairground).
However, in Weimar Cinema and After, Thomas Elsaesser describes the legacy of Kracauer's work as a "historical imaginary". Elsaesser argues that Kracauer had not studied enough films to make his thesis about the social mindset of Germany legitimate and that the discovery and publication of the original screenplay of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari undermines his argument about the revolutionary intent of its writers. Elsaesser's alternative thesis is that the filmmakers adopted an Expressionist style as a method of product differentiation, establishing a distinct national product against the increasing importation of American films. Dietrich Scheunemann, somewhat in defense of Kracauer, noted that he didn't have "the full range of materials at (his) disposal". However, that fact "has clearly and adversely affected the discussion of the film", referring to the fact that the script of Caligari wasn't rediscovered until 1977 and that Kracauer hadn't seen the film for around 20 years when he wrote the work.
Adaptations and musical works inspired by the film
According to Jean CocteauJean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
, he was approached during the early 1930s by director Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene
Robert Wiene was an important film director of the German silent cinema.Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also...
about playing "Cesare" in a sound remake, which was never made. In 1936, Bela Lugosi
Béla Lugosi
Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...
, while filming in England, was offered the part of "Caligari" in a sound remake, but returned to work in the U.S. During the 1940s, writer Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz
Hans Janowitz was a Bohemian-born German author.Janowitz was an officer in World War I, but returned from it as a pacifist. Shortly after the war ended, he met the similarly minded Carl Mayer in Berlin, who suggested he work as an author. Together they wrote the script to The Cabinet of Dr...
seemed close to selling his rights in a script to be directed by Fritz Lang
Fritz Lang
Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang was an Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute...
, but neither that nor his plans for a sequel, Caligari II, came to fruition.
In 1991, the film was loosely remade as The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez by director and writer Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars
Peter Sellars is an American theatre director, noted for his unique contemporary stagings of classical and contemporary operas and plays...
. The production included significant development during filming, leading the primary actors to also receive writing credits (Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Baryshnikov
Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...
, who played "Cesar"; Joan Cusack
Joan Cusack
Joan Mary Cusack is an American film, stage and television actress. Throughout her career, Cusack has appeared in many films as well as appearing in stage productions....
, who played "Cathy"; Peter Gallagher
Peter Gallagher
Peter Killian Gallagher is an American actor, musician and writer. Since 1980, Gallagher has played many roles in numerous Hollywood films. He starred as Sandy Cohen in the television drama series The O.C. from 2003 to 2007...
, who played "Matt", and Ron Vawter
Ron Vawter
Ron Vawter was an American actor and a founding member of the experimental theater company, The Wooster Group....
, who played "Dr. Ramirez"). This remake was an experimental film that was screened only at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and never theatrically released. Like the original film, it was silent with only intertitles and a musical score.
The 1990 film Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands
Edward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
used the aesthetics of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in creating the look for the main character of Edward Scissorhands.
The film was adapted into an opera in 1997 by composer John Moran. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, in a production by Robert McGrath.
Also, during 1997, playwright Susan Mosakowski adapted it to drama, performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is an off-off Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, and named in reference to her. Located on Manhattan's Lower East Side, the theatre grew out of Stewart's tiny basement boutique for her fashion designs; the boutique's space acted as a theatre for...
.
Numerous musicians have composed new musical scores to accompany the film. The Club Foot Orchestra
Club Foot Orchestra
The Club Foot Orchestra is a music ensemble founded in 1983 by Richard Marriott. After a brief career playing dramatic, complex music in San Francisco clubs, they became known for their equally dramatic and complex scores for classic silent movies. The ensemble got their name from a performance art...
premiered the score penned by ensemble founder and artistic director Richard Marriott
Richard Marriott
Richard Marriott is a U.S. avant-garde composer and performer. He has composed for film, television, dance, theater, opera, installations and video games. He is the founder and artistic director of the Club Foot Orchestra, an important modern ensemble for live music performance with silent films....
in 1987. During 1994, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
bassist Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser is an American double bass player and composer.-Biography:He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne,...
led pianist Denman Maroney
Denman Maroney
Denman Maroney is a jazz musician who plays what he calls "hyperpiano." Hyperpiano "involves stopping, sliding, bowing, plucking, striking and strumming the strings with copper bars, aluminum bowls, rubber blocks, plastic boxes and other household objects." This is sometimes done with one hand...
and trumpeter Dave Douglas
Dave Douglas (trumpeter)
Dave Douglas is an American jazz trumpeter and composer whose music derives from many non-jazz musical styles, including classical music, folk music from European countries and Klezmer. He has been a member of the experimental big band Orange Then Blue...
in his compositions for the film, which they performed live at the Knitting Factory
Knitting Factory
The Knitting Factory is a music venue and concert house with locations in Brooklyn, Boise, Reno, and Spokane. The club originally specialized in jazz and experimental music and has expanded to showcasing all genres of music, performing arts and comedy....
and released on CD in 1994. The British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
electronica
Electronica
Electronica includes a wide range of contemporary electronic music designed for a wide range of uses, including foreground listening, some forms of dancing, and background music for other activities; however, unlike electronic dance music, it is not specifically made for dancing...
band In the Nursery
In The Nursery
In the Nursery are a neo-classical/martial electronica band, known for their cinematic sound. The duo has provided soundtracks to a variety of TV programmes and films, and is known for its rescoring of silent films.- Career :...
created an ambient
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
soundtrack for the film, which was released on CD in 1996. In 2000, the Israeli Electronica group TaaPet made several live performances of their soundtrack for the film around Israel. These were recorded, edited, and released as TaaPet's second album for FACT Records. Rainer Viertlböck composed a new score for the restored version that is available from Transit Film. In 2002, British musician and composer Geoff Smith composed a new soundtrack to the film for the hammered dulcimer, which he performed live as an accompaniment to the film. Also in 2002, Belgian musicians Thomas Desmet, Joris van Eeckhoven, Stefan Vanlokeren and Alexander Kerkhof formed the temporary band 'Caligari' and composed a complete score to the original film. Their effort was recorded by producer Pierre Vervloesem and performed during the International Film Festival of Flanders in Ghent and some other occasions. During 2006, Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
vian rock group Kinder composed a soundtrack to the film, performing it live during the screenings at "El Cinematógrafo", a film club in the district of Barranco. The composer Lynne Plowman wrote a score that was toured by the London Mozart Players
London Mozart Players
The London Mozart Players is a British chamber orchestra founded in 1949. The LMP is the longest-established chamber orchestra in the United Kingdom whose performances and recordings focus largely on the core repertoire from the Classical era...
in Wales during April and May 2009.
In 1981, Bill Nelson
Bill Nelson (musician)
Bill Nelson is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer, painter and experimental musician...
was asked by the Yorkshire Actors Company to create a soundtrack for a stage adaptation of the movie. That music was later recorded for his 1982 album Das Kabinet (The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari).
A radio version is published by Blackstone Audio featuring John de Lancie
John de Lancie
John de Lancie is an American actor. He has been active in screen and television roles since 1977, though he is best known for his recurring role as Q on the various Star Trek series and as Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1....
as "Franz", Tony Jay
Tony Jay
Tony Jay was an English actor, voice actor and singer. A former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was known for his voice work in animation, film and computer games. Jay's distinctive baritone voice often landed him villainous roles...
as "Caligari", Jane Carr, Robertson Dean, Kaitlin Hopkins, James Otis, and Lorna Raver, written, produced and directed by Yuri Rasovsky
Yuri Rasovsky
Yuri Rasovsky is an American award-winning writer and producer working in the field of radio drama in the United States....
.
On October 26, 2008, BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
broadcast a dramatization entitled Caligari, adapted from the film by Amanda Dalton and directed by Susan Roberts. According to the description on the BBC Radio 3 web site, "[Ms. Dalton's] adaptation builds on the film's themes: the madness of society, the inner workings of the human mind and the paranoia of a country in the aftermath of a war." The cast included Tom Ferguson as "Franzis", Luke Treadaway as "Allan", Sarah McDonald Hughes as "Jane" and Robin Blaze as "Cesare".
In 2005, the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
-based Redmoon Theater
Redmoon Theater
Redmoon Theater is a Chicago based not-for-profit theatrical company under the direction of Jim Lasko and Frank Maugeri that specializes in site-specific productions, emphasizing visual spectacle, pageantry, elaborate sets, live music, puppetry, and physical theater. Productions are often out of...
performed a Bunraku
Bunraku
, also known as Ningyō jōruri , is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theater, founded in Osaka in 1684.Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance:* Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai—puppeteers* Tayū—the chanters* Shamisen players...
adaptation of the film. The only dialogue throughout the 80 minute production was the thoughts of Cesare as played through a Victor Talking Machine
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
at the base of the stage. The stage was made up of many small stages, each being a drawer or cupboard in a large cabinet.
A film with a very similar title, The Cabinet of Caligari
The Cabinet of Caligari
The Cabinet of Caligari is a film by Roger Kay, starring Glynis Johns, Dan O'Herlihy, and Richard Davalos, and released by 20th Century Fox....
, written by Robert Bloch
Robert Bloch
Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock...
, was made in 1962, claimed to be inspired by the original film.
A sound remake
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (2005 film)
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 2005 independent film, and a remake of the 1920 silent film of the same name. It was directed by David Lee Fisher and released in the U.S...
, directed by David Lee Fisher, was released in 2005 and won several awards at horror film festivals. It attempted to reproduce the look of the original film as closely as possible, and the backdrops used in the remake were digitally enhanced backdrops from the original film.
The final episode of the children's television series Count Duckula
Count Duckula
Count Duckula is a British animated television series created by British studio Cosgrove Hall, and a spin-off from DangerMouse, a show in which the Count Duckula character was a recurring villain. The series first aired on September 6, 1988 and was produced by Thames Television for 3 seasons and...
, titled "The Zombie Awakes", is a parody of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A mad psychologist, named Dr. Quackbrain sends a somnambulist named Morpheus to bring Duckula to Quackbrain's castle, which is designed inside and out with the same extreme lights, shadows, angles and shapes characteristic of Caligaris expressionist style.
There is strong influence of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on the concept of the 2009 fantasy film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, by Terry Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
as well as on the book Shutter Island
Shutter Island
Shutter Island is a best-selling novel by Dennis Lehane, published by Harper Collins in April 2003. A film adaptation was released in February 2010. Lehane has said he sought to write a novel that would be an homage to Gothic settings, B movies, and pulp. He described the novel as a hybrid of the...
by Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane is an American author. He has written several award-winning novels, including A Drink Before the War and the New York Times bestseller Mystic River, which was later made into an Academy Award-winning film. Another novel, Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into an Academy...
on which the eponymous movie by Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
is based. Scorsese was surprised that Lehane hadn't seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari whose story has many similarities with that of Shutter Island .
Comic books
Jean-Marc LofficierJean-Marc Lofficier
Jean-Marc Lofficier is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comic books and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier .-Biography:Jean-Marc Lofficier was born in Toulon, France in 1954...
wrote Superman's Metropolis
Superman's Metropolis
Superman's Metropolis is a DC Comics comic book Elseworlds publication and the first part in a trilogy based on German Expressionist cinema...
, a trilogy
Trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected, and that can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, or video games...
of graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
s for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
illustrated by Ted McKeever
Ted McKeever
-Career:McKeever first professional work appeared in 1987, when he published the first five parts of his unfinished series Transit , establishing his trademark style. This was followed in 1987-1988 by his 12-part series Eddy Current. This "12-hour book" centers on an escapee from an asylum...
, the second of which was entitled Batman: Nosferatu
Batman: Nosferatu
Batman: Nosferatu is a DC Comics comic book Elseworlds publication and is the middle of a trilogy based on German Expressionism cinema. It was written by Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier, and illustrated by Ted McKeever....
, most of the plot derived from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Caligari himself appears as a member of Die Zwielichthelden (The Twilight Heroes), a German mercenary
Mercenary
A mercenary, is a person who takes part in an armed conflict based on the promise of material compensation rather than having a direct interest in, or a legal obligation to, the conflict itself. A non-conscript professional member of a regular army is not considered to be a mercenary although he...
group in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier is an original graphic novel in the comic book series The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill. It was the last volume of the series to be published by DC Comics. Although the third book to be...
by Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
. Also, in The Sandman issue "Calliope" written by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
and pencilled by Kelley Jones, a character, Richard Madoc, writes a book "The Cabaret of Dr. Caligari", an obvious pseudonym.
Musical references
The name 'Caligari' has been used extensively in popular music. Pere UbuPere Ubu (band)
Pere Ubu is an experimental rock music group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. Despite many long-term band members, singer David Thomas is the only constant...
has a song entitled "Caligari's Mirror". Goth rock group Bauhaus
Bauhaus (band)
Bauhaus was an English rock band formed in Northampton in 1978. The group consisted of Peter Murphy , Daniel Ash , Kevin Haskins and David J . The band was originally Bauhaus 1919 before they dropped the numerical portion within a year of formation...
used a still of Cesare from the film on early t-shirts for their popular single "Bela Lugosi's Dead
Bela Lugosi's Dead
"Bela Lugosi's Dead" is a gothic rock song written by the band Bauhaus. The song was the band's first single, released in August 1979, and is often considered to be the first gothic rock record released. It did not enter the UK charts. The b-side features the song "Boys" and some versions also...
". The band Abney Park
Abney Park (band)
Abney Park is a band based in Seattle that mixes elements of industrial dance, world music, and steampunk influenced lyrics in their work. Their name comes from Abney Park Cemetery in London...
has a cut "The Secret Life of Dr. Calgari" on their album Lost Horizons (released 2008).
The 1998 music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie
Rob Zombie is an American musician, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He founded the heavy metal band White Zombie and has been nominated three times as a solo artist for the Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.Zombie has also established a career as a film director, creating the...
's single "Living Dead Girl
Living Dead Girl
"Living Dead Girl" is the second single from Rob Zombie's solo debut Hellbilly Deluxe. It was named after Jean Rollin's 1982 film. The line, "Who is this irresistible creature who has an insatiable love for the dead?" in the beginning of the song is from the trailer of the film, Lady Frankenstein...
" restaged several scenes from the film, with Zombie in the role of Caligari beckoning to the fair attendees. In addition to artificially imitating the poor image quality of aged film, the video also made use of the expressionistic sepia, aqua, and violet tinting used in Caligari. The film also inspired imagery in the video for "Forsaken" (2002), from the soundtrack for the film Queen of the Damned
Queen of the Damned (film)
Queen of the Damned is a 2002 film adaptation of the third novel of Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles series, The Queen of the Damned, although the film contains many plot elements from the latter novel's predecessor, The Vampire Lestat. It stars Aaliyah as the vampire queen Akasha, and Stuart...
.
Hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
group Rainbow
Rainbow (band)
Rainbow were an English rock band, controlled by guitarist Ritchie Blackmore from 1975 to 1984 and 1994 to 1997. It was originally established with American rock band Elf's members, though over the years Rainbow went through many line-up changes with no two studio albums featuring the same line-up...
used the film as inspiration for the music video to "Can't Let You Go", a single from their 1983 album Bent Out Of Shape
Bent Out of Shape
Bent Out Of Shape was the seventh studio album released by Rainbow. It was originally released in 1983 as an LP and cassette. The cassette featured several longer edits compared to the vinyl version. It was recorded in Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen in about 7 weeks.A remastered CD reissue was...
, vocalist Joe Lynn Turner
Joe Lynn Turner
Joe Lynn Turner , is an American rock singer, known for his works with Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, Deep Purple. From the late 1990s, he continued to perform in a large number of solo albums and other studio projects...
being made up as Cesare. The director was Dominic Orlando. The video for Coldplay
Coldplay
Coldplay are a British alternative rock band formed in 1996 by lead vocalist Chris Martin and lead guitarist Jonny Buckland at University College London. After they formed Pectoralz, Guy Berryman joined the group as a bassist and they changed their name to Starfish. Will Champion joined as a...
's "Cemeteries of London" included clips from the film. The video for the song "Otherside
Otherside
"Otherside" is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released in 2000. It was the third single from their album Californication, and confronts the battles ex-junkies have with their prior addictions...
" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
off the album Californication
Californication (album)
Californication is the seventh studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on June 8, 1999 on Warner Bros. Records. Produced by Rick Rubin, Californication marked the return of John Frusciante, who had previously appeared on Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, to replace...
, briefly used the film as a reference to its visuals.
See also
- List of German films 1919-1933
- List of films in the public domain in the United States, but still copyright in Germany
Further reading
- Budd, Mike (editor) (1990) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Texts, Contexts, Histories Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, New Jersey, ISBN 0-8135-1570-X
- Eisner, Lotte H. (1969) The Haunted Screen: Expressionism in the German Cinema and the Influence of Max Reinhardt (translated from the French by Roger Greaves) University of California Press, Berkeley, California, ISBN 978-0-520-25790-0
- Hantke, Steffen (editor) (2006) Caligari's Heirs: The German Cinema of Fear after 1945 Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, ISBN 0-8108-5878-9
- Robinson, David (1997) Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari British Film Institute Publishing, London, ISBN 0-85170-645-2
- Wiene, Robert; Mayer, Carl and Janowitz, Hans (1984) The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: A Film (revised edition, translated from German by R. V. Adkinson) Lorrimer, London, ISBN 0-85647-084-8
External links
- Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
(full-length film) - From Caligari to Hitler - A philosophical analysis of the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, by Siegfried Kracauer.
- An Article on The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari published at BrokenProjector.com
- Transcription on Aellea Classic Movie Scripts.
- The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - summary of the plot.
- Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (1920) - review - review