The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920 film by Robert Wiene / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (German: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari) is a 1920 German silent horror film, directed by Robert Wiene and written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. Considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, it tells the story of an insane hypnotist (Werner Krauss) who uses a brainwashed somnambulist (Conrad Veidt) to commit murders. The film features a dark and twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique and curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Wiene |
Written by | |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Willy Hameister |
Production company | Decla-Film (later known as Decla-Bioscop AG) |
Release date |
|
Running time | 74 minutes |
Country | Germany |
Languages | |
Budget | $12,371[lower-alpha 1] |
Box office | $4,713[2] |
The script was inspired by various experiences from the lives of Janowitz and Mayer, both pacifists who were left distrustful of authority after their experiences with the military during World War I. The film makes use of a frame story, with a prologue and epilogue combined with a twist ending. Janowitz said this device was forced upon the writers against their will. The film's design was handled by Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig, who recommended a fantastic, graphic style over a naturalistic one.
The film thematizes brutal and irrational authority. Writers and scholars have argued the film reflects a subconscious need in German society for a tyrant, and is an example of Germany's obedience to authority and unwillingness to rebel against deranged authority. Some critics have interpreted Caligari as representing the German war government, with Cesare symbolic of the common man conditioned, like soldiers, to kill. Other themes of the film include the destabilized contrast between insanity and sanity, the subjective perception of reality, and the duality of human nature.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was released just as foreign film industries were easing restrictions on the import of German films following World War I, so it was screened internationally. Accounts differ as to its financial and critical success upon release, but modern film critics and historians have largely praised it as a revolutionary film. The film was voted number 12 on the prestigious Brussels 12 list at the 1958 World Expo. Critic Roger Ebert called it arguably "the first true horror film",[3] and film reviewer Danny Peary called it cinema's first cult film and a precursor for arthouse films. Considered a classic, it helped draw worldwide attention to the artistic merit of German cinema and had a major influence on American films, particularly in the genres of horror and film noir.
In what appears to be a park, Francis sits on a bench with an older man and complains that spirits have driven him away from his family and home. When a dazed woman passes them, Francis explains she is his "fiancée" Jane and that they have suffered a great ordeal. Most of the rest of the film is a flashback of Francis' story, which takes place in Holstenwall, a shadowy village of twisted buildings and spiraling streets.
Francis and his friend Alan, who are good-naturedly competing for Jane's affections, plan to visit the town fair. Meanwhile, a mysterious man named Dr. Caligari seeks a permit from the rude town clerk to present a spectacle at the fair, which features Cesare, a somnambulist. The clerk mocks and berates Caligari, but ultimately approves the permit. That night, the clerk is stabbed to death in his bed.
The next morning, Francis and Alan visit Caligari's sideshow attraction, where he opens a coffin-like box to reveal the sleeping Cesare. On Caligari's order, Cesare awakens and answers questions from the audience. Despite Francis' protests, Alan asks, "How long shall I live?" To Alan's horror, Cesare answers, "The time is short. You die at dawn!" Later that night, a figure breaks into Alan's home and stabs him to death in his bed. A grief-stricken Francis investigates Alan's murder with help from Jane and her father, Dr. Olsen, who obtains police authorization to investigate the somnambulist. That night, the police apprehend a criminal in possession of a knife who is caught attempting to murder an elderly woman. When questioned by Francis and Dr. Olsen, the criminal confesses he tried to kill the elderly woman, but denies any part in the two previous deaths; he was merely taking advantage of the situation to divert blame away from himself.
At night, Francis spies on Caligari and observes what appears to be Cesare sleeping in his box. However, the real Cesare sneaks into Jane's home as she sleeps. He raises a knife to stab her, but instead abducts her after a struggle, dragging her through the window onto the street. Chased by an angry mob, Cesare eventually drops Jane and flees; he soon collapses and dies of exhaustion. Francis confirms that the criminal who confessed to the elderly woman's murder is still locked away and could not have been Jane's attacker. Francis and the police investigate Caligari's sideshow and discover that the "Cesare" sleeping in the box is only a dummy. Caligari escapes in the confusion. Francis follows him and sees Caligari go into an insane asylum.
Upon further investigation, Francis is shocked to learn that Caligari is the asylum's director. With help from the asylum staff, Francis studies the director's records and diary while the director is sleeping. The writings reveal his obsession with the story of an 18th-century mystic named Caligari, who used a somnambulist named Cesare to commit murders in northern Italian towns. The director, attempting to understand the earlier Caligari, experiments on a somnambulist admitted to the asylum, who becomes his Cesare. The asylum director screams, "I must become Caligari!" Francis and the doctors call the police to Caligari's office, where they show him Cesare's corpse. Caligari then attacks one of the staff. He is subdued, restrained in a straitjacket, and becomes an inmate in his own asylum.
The narrative returns to the present, where Francis concludes his story. In a twist ending, Francis is depicted as an asylum inmate. Jane and Cesare are patients as well; Jane believes that she is a queen, while Cesare is not a somnambulist but awake, quiet, and not visibly dangerous. The man Francis refers to as "Dr. Caligari" is the asylum director. Francis attacks him and is restrained in a straitjacket, then placed in the same cell where Caligari was confined in Francis's story. The asylum director announces, now that he understands Francis's delusion, that he is confident he can cure him.
- Werner Krauss as Dr. Caligari
- Conrad Veidt as Cesare
- Friedrich Feher as Francis
- Lil Dagover as Jane
- Hans Heinrich von Twardowski as Alan
- Rudolf Lettinger as Dr. Olsen
Writing
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, both of whom were pacifists by the time they met following World War I.[4][5] Janowitz served as an officer during the war, but the experience left him embittered with the military, which affected his writing.[6][7] Mayer feigned madness to avoid military service during the war,[4][8] which led him to intense examinations from a military psychiatrist.[4][5][9] The experience left him distrustful of authority,[4][6] and the psychiatrist served as a model for the Caligari character.[10][11] Janowitz and Mayer were introduced in June 1918 by a mutual friend, actor Ernst Deutsch.[12] Both writers were penniless at the time.[13] Gilda Langer, an actress with whom Mayer was in love, encouraged Janowitz and Mayer to write a film together. She later became the basis for the Jane character. Langer also encouraged Janowitz to visit a fortune teller, who predicted that Janowitz would survive his military service during the war, but Langer would die. This prediction proved true, as Langer died unexpectedly in 1920 at the age of 23, and Janowitz said it inspired the scene in which Cesare predicts Alan's death at the fair.[8][14]
Although neither had any associations with the film industry,[15] Janowitz and Mayer wrote a script over six weeks during the winter of 1918–19.[16] In describing their roles, Janowitz called himself "the father who planted the seed, and Mayer the mother who conceived and ripened it".[17] The Expressionist filmmaker Paul Wegener was among their influences.[9][15] The story was partially inspired by a circus sideshow the two visited on Kantstrasse in Berlin,[11][18] called "Man or Machine?", in which a man performed feats of great strength after becoming hypnotized.[9][16][18] They first visualized the story of Caligari the night of that show.[9] Several of Janowitz's past experiences influenced his writing, including memories of his hometown of Prague,[19][20] and, as he put it, a mistrust of "the authoritative power of an inhuman state gone mad" due to his military service.[19] Janowitz also believed he had witnessed a murder in 1913 near an amusement park on Hamburg's Reeperbahn, beside the Holstenwall, which served as another inspiration for the script. According to Janowitz, he observed a woman disappear into some bushes, from which a respectable-looking man emerged a few moments later, and the next day Janowitz learned the girl was murdered.[4][5][19][21][22] Holstenwall later became the name of the town setting in Caligari.[4][5][19]
Janowitz and Mayer are said to have set out to write a story denouncing arbitrary authority as brutal and insane.[4] Janowitz said it was only years after the film was released that he realized exposing the "authoritative power of an inhuman state" was the "subconscious intention" of the writers.[17][23] Hermann Warm, who designed the film's sets, said Mayer had no political intentions when he wrote the film.[24][25] Film historian David Robinson noted that Janowitz did not refer to anti-authority intentions in the script until many decades after Caligari was released, and he suggested Janowitz's recollection may have changed in response to later interpretations of the film.[25]
The film they wrote was entitled Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, using the English spelling Cabinet rather than the German Kabinett.[13][26] The completed script contained 141 scenes.[27] Janowitz has claimed the name Caligari, which was not settled upon until after the script was finished, was inspired by a rare book called Unknown Letters of Stendhal, which featured a letter from the French novelist Stendhal referring to a French officer named Caligari he met at the La Scala theatre in Milan.[4][10][13] However, no record of any such letter exists, and film historian John D. Barlow suggested Janowitz may have fabricated the story.[28] The physical appearance of Caligari was inspired by portraits of the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.[29] The character's name is spelled Calligaris in the only known surviving script, although in some instances the final s is removed. Other character names are also spelled differently from the final film: Cesare appears as Caesare, Alan is Allan or sometimes Alland and Dr. Olfen is Dr. Olfens. Likewise, unnamed characters in the final film have names in the script, including the town clerk ("Dr. Lüders") and the house-breaker ("Jakob Straat").[30]
The story of Caligari is told abstractly, like a fairy tale, and includes little description about or attention toward the psychological motivations of the characters, which is more heavily emphasized in the film's visual style.[31] The original script shows few traces of the Expressionist influence prevalent in the film's sets and costumes.[32] Through film director Fritz Lang, Janowitz and Mayer met with Erich Pommer, head of production at the Decla-Film studio in Weissensee, on 19 April 1919, to discuss selling the script.[18][29] According to Pommer, he attempted to get rid of them, but they persisted until he agreed to meet with them.[18][29] Pommer reportedly asked the writers to leave the script with him, but they refused, and instead Mayer read it aloud to him.[29] Pommer and his assistant, Julius Sternheim, were so impressed that he refused to let them leave until a contract was signed, and he purchased the script from them that night.[29][33] The writers had originally sought no fewer than 10,000 marks, but were given 3,500, with the promise of another 2,000 once the film went into production and 500 if it was sold for foreign release, which the producers considered unlikely.[33] The contract, today preserved at Berlin's Bundesfilmarchiv, gave Pommer the right to make any changes to the script deemed appropriate. Pommer said he was drawn to the script because he believed it could be filmed inexpensively, and it bore similarities to films inspired by the macabre horror shows of the Grand Guignol theatre in Paris, which were popular at the time.[29] Pommer later said: "They saw in the script an 'experiment'. I saw a relatively cheap film".[34]
Frame story
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari makes use of a "Rahmenerzählung", or frame story;[35] a prologue and epilogue establish the main body of the film as a delusional flashback,[35] a novel technique.[36][37] Lang has said that, during early discussions about his possible involvement with the film, he suggested the addition of an opening scene with a "normal" style, which would lead the public into the rest of the film without confusion.[24][38][39] It remains unclear whether Lang suggested the frame story structure or simply gave advice on how to write a frame story that was already agreed,[24] and some writers, like David Robinson, have questioned whether Lang's recollection is correct.[39] The director, Robert Wiene, was supportive of the changes.[40] Janowitz has said he and Mayer were not privy to discussions about adding the frame story and strongly opposed its inclusion, believing it had deprived the film of its revolutionary and political significance;[24][30] he wrote that it was "an illicit violation, a raping of our work" that turned the film "into a cliché ... in which the symbolism was to be lost".[41] Janowitz says the writers sought legal action to stop the change but failed.[42] He also says they did not see the finished film with the frame story until a preview was shown to studio heads, after which the writers "expressed our dissatisfaction in a storm of thunderous remonstrances". They had to be persuaded not to publicly protest against the film.[43]
In his 1947 book From Caligari to Hitler, Siegfried Kracauer argued, based largely on an unpublished typescript written and provided by Janowitz,[22] that the film originally included no frame story and started with the fair coming to town and ended with Caligari becoming institutionalized.[44][4][45][46] Kracauer argued that the frame story glorified authority and was added to turn a "revolutionary" film into a "conformistic" one.[44][4][45][46] No surviving copies of the script were believed to exist until the early 1950s when actor Werner Krauss revealed he still had his copy.[30][46] He refused to part with it; only in 1978, two decades after his death, was it purchased by the German film archive Deutsche Kinemathek.[30][46] It remained unavailable for public consumption until 1995, when a full transcript was published.[30]
The script revealed that a frame story was part of the original Caligari screenplay, albeit a different one from that in the film.[4][5][46] The original manuscript opens on an elegant terrace of a large villa, where Francis and Jane are hosting a party and the guests insist that Francis tell them a story that happened to him 20 years earlier. The conclusion to the frame story is missing from the script.[4][46] Critics widely agree that the discovery of the screenplay strongly undermines Kracauer's theory,[38][46] with some, like the German film historian Stephen Brockmann, even arguing it disproves his claims altogether.[5] Others, like John D. Barlow, argue that it does not settle the issue, as the original screenplay's frame story simply serves to introduce the main plot, rather than subvert it as the final film's version does.[4]
Development
Many details about the making of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari are in dispute and will probably remain unsettled due to the large number of people involved in the making of the film, many of whom recalled it differently or dramatized their own contributions to its production.[47][48][49][50] Production of the film was delayed about four or five months after the script was purchased.[29] Pommer originally chose Lang as the director of Caligari, and Lang even went so far as to hold preparatory discussions about the script with Janowitz,[29] but he became unavailable due to his involvement with the filming of The Spiders, so Wiene was selected instead.[35][51][52][53] According to Janowitz, Wiene's father, a successful theatre actor, had "gone slightly mad when he could no longer appear on the stage", and Janowitz believed that experience helped Wiene bring an "intimate understanding" to the source material of Caligari.[54]
Decla producer Rudolf Meinert introduced Hermann Warm to Wiene and provided Warm with the Caligari script, asking him to come up with proposals for the design.[55] Warm believed "films must be drawings brought to life",[56] and felt a naturalistic set was wrong for the subject of the film, instead recommending a fantastic, graphic style,[24][55] in which the images would be visionary, nightmarish and out of the ordinary.[57] Warm brought to the project his two friends, painters and stage designers Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig,[24][58][59] both of whom were associated with the Berlin art and literary magazine Der Sturm.[24][56][60] The trio spent a full day and part of the night reading the script,[58] after which Reimann suggested an Expressionist style,[24][58][61] a style often used in his own paintings.[55][58][61] They also conceived the idea of painting forms and shadows directly onto the sets to ensure a dark and unreal look.[24] According to Warm, the three approached Wiene with the idea and he immediately agreed,[24][58][62] although Wiene has made claims that he conceived the film's Expressionist style.[58] Meinert agreed to the idea after one day's consideration, telling Warm, Reimann and Röhrig to make the sets as "crazy" and "eccentrically" as possible.[34][58] He embraced the idea for commercial, not aesthetic reasons: Expressionism was fashionable at the time, so he concluded even if the film received bad reviews, the artistic style would garner attention and make it profitable.[34]
Wiene filmed a test scene to demonstrate Warm, Reimann and Röhrig's theories, and it so impressed the producers that the artists were given free rein.[51] Pommer later said he was responsible for placing Warm, Reimann and Röhrig in charge of the sets,[63] but Warm has claimed that, although Pommer was in charge of production at Decla when Caligari was made, he was not actually a producer on the film itself. Instead, he says Meinert was the film's true producer, and that it was he who gave Warm the manuscript.[24][58][64] Warm claimed Meinert produced the film "despite the opposition of a part of the management of Decla".[55] Meinert said Pommer had "not sanctioned" the film's abstract visual style.[64] Nevertheless, Pommer claimed to have supervised Caligari, and that the film's Expressionistic style was chosen in part to differentiate it from competing Hollywood films.[45] The predominant attitude at the time was that artistic achievement led to success in exports to foreign film markets.[65] The dominance of Hollywood at the time, coupled with a period of inflation and currency devaluation, forced German film studios to seek projects that could be made inexpensively, with a combination of realistic and artistic elements so the films would be accessible to American audiences, yet also distinctive from Hollywood films.[65][66] Pommer has claimed while Mayer and Janowitz expressed a desire for artistic experimentation in the film, his decision to use painted canvases as scenery was primarily a commercial one, as they would be a significant financial saving over building sets.[18][67]
Janowitz claims he attempted to commission the sets from designer and engraver Alfred Kubin, known for his heavy use of light and shadow to create a sense of chaos,[44][20][68] but Kubin declined to participate in the project because he was too busy.[20][63][67] In a conflicting story, however, Janowitz claimed he requested from Decla "Kubin paintings", and that they misread his instructions as "cubist painters" and hired Reimann and Röhrig as a result.[20] David Robinson argues this story was probably an embellishment stemming from Janowitz's disdain for the two artists.[63] Janowitz has claimed that he and Mayer conceived the idea of painting the sets on canvas, and that the shooting script included written directions that the scenery be designed in Kubin's style.[20][63] However, the later rediscovery of the original screenplay refutes this claim, as it includes no such directions about the sets.[63] This was also disputed in a 1926 article by Barnet Braverman in Billboard magazine, which claimed the script included no mention of an unconventional visual style, and that Janowitz and Mayer in fact strongly opposed the stylization. She claims Mayer later came to appreciate the visual style, but that Janowitz remained opposed to it years after the film's release.[64]
The set design, costumes and props took about two weeks to prepare.[69] Warm worked primarily on the sets, while Röhrig handled the painting and Reimann was responsible for the costumes.[47] Robinson noted the costumes in Caligari seem to resemble a wide variety of time periods. For example, Caligari and the fairground workers' costumes resemble the Biedermeier era, while Jane's embody Romanticism. Additionally, Robinson wrote, Cesare's costume and those of policemen in the film appear abstract, while many of the other characters' seem like ordinary German clothes from the 1920s.[70] The collaborative nature of the film's production highlights the importance that both screenwriters and set designers held in German cinema of the 1920s,[47][58] although film critic Lotte H. Eisner said sets held more importance than anything else in German films at that time.[58] The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was the first German Expressionist film,[26] although Brockmann and film critic Mike Budd claim it was also influenced by German Romanticism;[71][72] Budd notes the film's themes of insanity and the outcry against authority are common among German Romanticism in literature, theatre and the visual arts.[72] Film scholar Vincent LoBrutto said the theatre of Max Reinhardt and the artistic style of Die Brücke were additional influences on Caligari.[73]
Casting
Janowitz originally intended the part of Cesare to go to his friend, actor Ernst Deutsch.[12][74] Mayer wrote the part of Jane for Gilda Langer,[74] but by the time the film was cast Langer's interests had moved on from Janowitz and Mayer to director Paul Czinner, leaving the role to be played by Lil Dagover.[75] Janowitz claimed he wrote the part of Caligari specifically for Werner Krauss, whom Deutsch had brought to his attention during rehearsals for a Max Reinhardt play; Janowitz said only Krauss or Paul Wegener could have played the part.[12] The parts of Caligari and Cesare ultimately went to Krauss and Conrad Veidt, respectively, who enthusiastically took part in many aspects of the production.[47] Krauss suggested changes to his own make-up and costumes, including the elements of a top hat, cape and walking stick with an ivory handle for his character.[76] The actors in Caligari were conscious of the need to adapt their make-up, costumes and appearance to match the visual style of the film.[77] Much of the acting in German silent films at the time was already Expressionistic, mimicking the pantomimic aspects of Expressionist theatre.[78] The performances of Krauss and Veidt in Caligari were typical of this style, as they both had experience in Expressionist-influenced theatre, and as a result, John D. Barlow said they appear more comfortable in their surroundings in the film than the other actors.[79] Prior to filming, Kraus and Veidt appeared on stage in the winter of 1918 in an Expressionist drama, Reinhold Goering's Seeschlacht, at the Deutsches Theater.[77] By contrast, Dagover had little experience in Expressionist theatre, and Barlow argues her acting is less harmonious with the film's visual style.[79]
Wiene asked the actors to make movements similar to dance, most prominently from Veidt, but also from Krauss, Dagover and Friedrich Feger, who played Francis.[59] Krauss and Veidt are the only actors whose performances fully match the stylization of the sets, which they achieved by concentrating their movements and facial expressions.[80][81] Barlow notes that "Veidt moves along the wall as if it had 'exuded' him ... more a part of a material world of objects than a human one", and Krauss "moves with angular viciousness, his gestures seem broken or cracked by the obsessive force within him, a force that seems to emerge from a constant toxic state, a twisted authoritarianism of no human scruple and total insensibility".[79] Most of the other actors besides Krauss and Veidt have a more naturalistic style.[80] Alan, Jane and Francis play the roles of an idyllically happy trio enjoying youth; Alan in particular represents the archetype of a sensitive 19th-century student.[82] Mike Budd points out realist characters in stylized settings are a common characteristic in Expressionist theatre.[81] However, David Robinson notes even the performances of the more naturalistic supporting roles in Caligari have Expressionist elements, like Hans-Heinz von Twardowski's "strange, tormented face" as Alan. He also cites Feher's "large angular movements", especially in the scene where he searches the deserted fairground.[76] Other minor roles are Expressionistic in nature, like two policemen who sit facing each other at their desks and move with exaggerated symmetry, and two servants who awaken and rise from their beds in perfect synchronization.[76] Vincent LoBrutto said of the acting in the film:[83]
The acting style is as emotionally over-the-top as the narrative and visual style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. The behavior of the characters represents the actors' emotional responses to the expressionistic environment and the situations in which they find themselves. Staging and movement of the actors respond to the hysteria of Caligari's machinations and to the fun-house labyrinth that appears to be the reflection of a crazy mirror, not an orderly village.
Filming
Shooting for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari began at the end of December 1919 and concluded at the end of January 1920.[69][84] It was shot entirely in a studio without any exterior shots,[85][86][87] which was unusual for films of the time, but dictated by the decision to give the film an Expressionist visual style.[88] The extent to which Mayer and Janowitz participated during filming is disputed: Janowitz claims the duo repeatedly refused to allow any script changes during production, and Pommer claimed Mayer was on the set for every day of filming.[74] Hermann Warm, however, claimed they were never present for any of the shooting or involved in any discussions during production.[47][74]
Caligari was filmed in the Lixie-Film studio (formerly owned by Continental-Kunstfilm) at 9 Franz Joseph-Strasse (now Max Liebermannstraße), Weißensee, a north-eastern suburb of Berlin.[84][88] Decla had been making films at the Lixie studio since October 1919, having previously released three titles, The Plague of Florence (Die Pest in Florenz) (1919) and the two parts of The Spiders (Die Spinnen).[88][89] The relatively small size of the studio (built some five years earlier in 1914) meant most of the sets used in the film did not exceed six meters in width and depth.[88] Certain elements from the original script had to be cut from the film due to the limited space, including a procession of gypsies, a handcart pushed by Caligari, Jane's carriage, and a chase scene involving horse-cabs.[70] Likewise, the script called for a fairground scene with roundabouts, barrel organs, sideshow barkers, performers and menageries, none of which could be achieved in the restrictive space. Instead, the scenes use a painting of the Holstenwall town as a background; throngs of people walk around two spinning merry-go-round props, which creates the impression of a carnival.[70] The script also made references to modern elements like telephones, telegrams and electric light, but they were eliminated during the filming, leaving the final film's setting with no indication of a specific time period.[70]
Several scenes from the script were cut during filming, most of which were brief time lapses or transitioning scenes, or title screens deemed unnecessary.[70] One of the more substantial scenes to be cut involved the ghost of Alan at a cemetery.[70] The scene with the town clerk berating Caligari deviated notably from the original script, which simply called for the clerk to be "impatient".[70] He is far more abusive in the scene as it was filmed, and is perched atop an exaggeratedly high bench that towers over Caligari.[70] Another deviation from the script comes when Caligari first awakens Cesare, one of the most famous moments in the film. The script called for Cesare to gasp and struggle for air, then shake violently and collapse in Caligari's arms. As it was filmed, there is no such physical struggling, and instead the camera zooms in on Cesare's face as he gradually opens his eyes.[90] The original title cards for Caligari featured stylized, misshapen lettering with excessive underlinings, exclamation points and occasionally archaic spellings. The bizarre style, which matches that of the film as a whole, mimics the lettering of Expressionistic posters at the time.[91][92] The original title cards were tinted in green, steely-blue and brown. Many modern prints of the film do not preserve the original lettering.[92]
Photography was provided by Willy Hameister, who went on to work with Wiene on several other films.[61] The camerawork in Caligari is fairly simple and is used primarily to show the sets,[31][83] mostly alternating between medium shots and straight-on angles, with occasionally abrupt close-ups to create a sense of shock. There are few long shots or panning movement within the cinematography.[83][93] Likewise, there is very little interscene editing. Most scenes follow the other without intercutting, which gives Caligari more of a theatrical feel than a cinematic one.[83] Heavy lighting is typically absent from the film, heightening the sense of darkness prevalent in the story. However, lighting is occasionally used to intensify the uneasiness created by the distortions of the sets. For example, when Cesare first awakens at the fair, a light is shone directly on a close-up of his heavily made-up face to create an unsettling glow.[94] Additionally, lighting is used in a then-innovative way to cast a shadow against the wall during the scene in which Cesare kills Alan, so the viewer sees only the shadow and not the figures themselves. Lighting techniques like this became frequently used in later German films.[95][96]
The visual style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is dark, twisted and bizarre; radical and deliberate distortions in perspective, form, dimension and scale create a chaotic and unhinged appearance.[24][51][59] The sets are dominated by sharp-pointed forms and oblique and curving lines, with narrow and spiraling streets,[92] and structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, giving the impression they could collapse or explode at any given moment.[24][87] Film critic Roger Ebert described it as "a jagged landscape of sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases climbing crazy diagonals, trees with spiky leaves, grass that looks like knives".[3] The sets are characterized by strokes of bold, black paint.[87] The landscape of Holstenwall is painted on canvas, as opposed to a constructed set, and shadows and streaks of light are painted directly onto the sets, further distorting the viewer's sense of perspective and three-dimensionality.[94] Buildings are clustered and interconnected in a cubist-like architecture, surrounded by dark and twisted back alleys.[20][83][92][97] Lotte Eisner, author of The Haunted Screen, writes that objects in the film appear as if they are coming alive and "seem to vibrate with an extraordinary spirituality".[92] Rudolf Kurtz, screenwriter and author of Expressionismus und Film, likewise wrote "the dynamic force of objects howls their desire to be created".[98] The rooms have radically offset windows with distorted frames, doors that are not squared, and chairs that are too tall.[51][83][92][99] Strange designs and figures are painted on the walls of corridors and rooms, and trees outside have twisted branches that sometimes resemble tentacles.[99]
German film professor Anton Kaes wrote, "The style of German Expressionism allowed the filmmakers to experiment with filmic technology and special effects and to explore the twisted realm of repressed desires, unconscious fears, and deranged fixations".[100] The visual style of Caligari conveys a sense of anxiety and terror to the viewer,[92] giving the impression of a nightmare or deranged sensibility,[24][59] or a place transformed by evil, in a more effective way than realistic locations or conventional design concepts could.[83] Siegfried Kracauer wrote that the settings "amounted to a perfect transformation of material objects into emotional ornaments".[101] The majority of the film's story and scenes are memories recalled by an insane narrator, and as a result the distorted visual style takes on the quality of his mental breakdown,[102] giving the viewers the impression that they are inside the mind of a madman.[91][103][104] As with contemporary Expressionist paintings, the visual style of Caligari reflects an emotional reaction to the world,[36] and the film's characters represent an emotional response to the terror of society as embodied by Caligari and Cesare.[87] Often in the film, set pieces are emblematic of the emotional state of the characters in the scene. For example, the courtyard of the insane asylum during the frame story is vastly out of proportion. The characters seem too big for the small building, and the courtyard floor features a bizarre pattern, all of which represent the patients' damaged frames of mind.[71] Likewise, the scene with the criminal in a prison cell features a set with long vertical painted shadows resembling arrowheads, pointing down at the squatting prisoner in an oppressive effect that symbolizes his broken-down state.[105]
Stephen Brockmann argues the fact that Caligari was filmed entirely in a studio enhances the madness portrayed by the film's visuals because "there is no access to a natural world beyond the realm of the tortured human psyche".[85] The sets occasionally feature circular images that reflect the chaos of the film, presenting patterns of movement that seem to be going nowhere, such as the merry-go-round at the fair, moving at a titled angle that makes it appear at risk of collapsing.[106] Other elements of the film convey the same visual motifs as the sets, including the costumes and make-up design for Caligari and Cesare, both of which are highly exaggerated and grotesque. Even the hair of the characters is an Expressionistic design element, especially Cesare's black, spiky, jagged locks.[83] They are the only two characters in the film with Expressionistic make-up and costumes,[81] making them appear as if they are the only ones who truly belong in this distorted world. Despite their apparent normalcy, however, Francis and the other characters never appear disturbed by the madness around them reflected in the sets; they instead react as if they are parts of a normal background.[107]
A select few scenes disrupt the Expressionistic style of the film, such as in Jane's and Alan's home, which include normal backgrounds and bourgeois furniture that convey a sense of security and tranquility otherwise absent from the film.[102][106] Eisner called this a "fatal" continuity error,[80] but John D. Barlow disagrees, arguing it is a common characteristic for dream narratives to have some normal elements in them, and that the normalcy of Jane's house in particular could represent the feeling of comfort and refuge Francis feels in her presence.[80] Mike Budd argues while the Expressionistic visual style is jarring and off-putting at first, the characters start to blend more harmoniously as the film progresses, and the setting becomes more relegated into the background.[108]
Robinson suggested Caligari is not a true example of Expressionism at all, but simply a conventional story with some elements of the art form applied to it. He argues the story itself is not Expressionistic, and the film could have easily been produced in a traditional style, but that Expressionist-inspired visuals were applied to it as decoration.[109] Similarly, Budd has called the film a conventional, classical narrative, resembling a detective story in Francis's search to expose Alan's killer, and said it is only the film's Expressionist settings that make the film transgressive.[110] Hans Janowitz has entertained similar thoughts as well: "Was this particular style of painting only a garment in which to dress the drama? Was it only an accident? Would it not have been possible to change this garment, without injury to the deep effect of the drama? I do not know."[111]
Though often considered an art film by some modern critics and scholars, Caligari was produced and marketed the same way as a normal commercial production of its time period, able to target both the elite artistic market as well as a more commercial horror genre audience.[112][113] The film was marketed extensively leading up to the release, and advertisements ran even before the film was finished. Many posters and newspaper advertisements included the enigmatic phrase featured in the film, "Du musst Caligari werden!", or "You must become Caligari!"[114][115] Caligari premiered at the Marmorhaus theatre in Berlin on 26 February 1920, less than one month after it was completed.[114] The filmmakers were so nervous about the release that Erich Pommer, on his way to the theatre, reportedly exclaimed, "It will be a horrible failure for all of us!"[43][116] As with the making of the film, several urban legends surround the film's premiere.[114] One, offered by writers Roger Manvell and Heinrich Fraenkel in The German Cinema, suggests the film was shelved "for lack of a suitable outlet", and was only shown at Marmorhaus because another film had fallen through.[117] Another suggested the theatre pulled the film after only two performances because audiences demanded refunds and demonstrated against it so strongly. This story was told by Pommer, who claimed the Marmorhaus picked Caligari back up and ran it successfully for three months after he spent six months working on a publicity campaign for the film. David Robinson wrote that neither of these urban legends were true, and that the latter was fabricated by Pommer to increase his own reputation.[114] On the contrary, Robinson said the premiere was highly successful, showing at the theatre for four weeks, an unusual amount for the time, and then returning two weeks later. He said it was so well received that women in the audience screamed when Cesare opened his eyes during his first scene, and fainted during the scene in which Cesare abducts Jane.[43][116]
Caligari was released at a time when foreign film industries had just started easing restrictions on the import of German films following World War I.[112] The film was acquired for American distribution by the Goldwyn Distributing Company, and had its American premiere at the Capitol Theatre in New York City on 3 April 1921.[118] It was given a live theatrical prologue and epilogue,[68][119] which was not unusual for film premieres at major theatres at the time. In the prologue, the film is introduced by a character called "Cranford", who identifies himself as the man Francis speaks with in the opening scene. In the epilogue, Cranford returns and exclaims that Francis has fully recovered from his madness.[119] Mike Budd believes these additions simplified the film and "adjusted [it] for mass consumption",[120] though Robinson argued it was simply a normal theatrical novelty for the time.[121] Capitol Theatre manager Samuel Roxy Rothafel commissioned conductor Ernö Rapée to compile a musical accompaniment that included portions of songs by composers Johann Strauss III, Arnold Schoenberg, Claude Debussy, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. Rotafel wanted the score to match the dark mood of the film, saying: "The music had, as it were, to be made eligible for citizenship in a nightmare country".[122]
Caligari had its Los Angeles premiere at Miller's Theater on 7 May 1921, but the theatre was forced to pull it due to demonstrations by protestors. However, the protest was organized by the Hollywood branch of the American Legion due to fears of unemployment stemming from the import of German films into America, not over objections to the content of Caligari itself.[123] After running in large commercial theatres, Caligari began to be shown in smaller theatres and film societies in major cities.[124] Box office figures were not regularly published in the 1920s, so it has been difficult to assess the commercial success or failure of Caligari in the United States. Film historians Kristin Thompson and David B. Pratt separately studied trade publications from the time in an attempt to make a determination, but reached conflicting findings; Thompson concluded it was a box office success and Pratt concluded it was a failure. However, both agreed it was more commercially successful in major cities than in theatres in smaller communities, where tastes were considered more conservative.[125]
Caligari did not immediately receive a wide distribution in France due to fears over the import of German films, but film director Louis Delluc organized a single screening of it on 14 November 1921, at the Colisée cinema in Paris as part of a benefit performance for the Spanish Red Cross. Afterward, the Cosmograph company bought the film's distribution rights and premiered it at the Ciné-Opéra on 2 March 1922.[123] Caligari played in one Paris theatre for seven consecutive years, a record that remained intact until the release of Emmanuelle (1974).[15] According to Janowitz, Caligari was also shown in such European cities as London, Rome, Amsterdam, Stockholm, Brussels, Prague, Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest, as well as outside Europe in China, Japan, India and Turkey, and also in South American nations.[126]