The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
*Closing Night Film*
Directed by Robert Wiene
Germany | 1920 | Fiction | 75 min
English intertitles
Film Source: Kino Lorber
Sponsors: Lyric Theatre Company
Live piano and percussion accompaniment with Randal Pierce and Colin Henkel
Screening followed by Closing Night Party in the Lake Lobby sponsored by Mirabelle’s cafe and American Flatbread
In 1920, one brilliant film catapulted the movement known as German Expressionism into film history. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari reflects the mistrust of authority developed in the immediate post–World War I era and depicts a power that is brutal and insane, manipulating those under its observation to their own whim. Director Robert Wiene and a visionary team of designers crafted a nightmare realm in which light, shadow and substance are abstracted. It’s a world in which a demented doctor and a carnival sleepwalker perpetrate a series of ghastly murders in a small community. Distortions and mangled perspectives are constant; bold brush strokes paint shadows equally with sharp edges and round curves, as lines and structures twist and strike to form nightmarish shapes. While Expressionism was by no means the only cinematic style flourishing in Germany at that time (think of the romantic comedies of Ernst Lubitsch’s silent films), it was certainly the most sensational. We will be screening a 4K restoration scanned from the (mostly) preserved camera negative at the German Federal Film Archive. This is the film’s 100th anniversary – shot in 2019, released- 1920~OY