Film Review - The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) by Robert Wiene

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari by Robert Wiene made in 1920 is a silent movie set in the German town of Holstenwall. The movie opens with a few moments of dialog from the main character Francis (Frederich Feher) to a stranger giving the viewer an eerie glimpse into the future of what is to come, this is the first instance of when the set is used in relation to the stability of the human mind as there is no distortion or misleading perspectives, possibly one of the only places the viewer can feel truely safe, from this we find ourselves in the lamentations of the main character as he recants his story. It begins with an innocent invitation to the fair from Francis to his friend Alan (Hans Heinz von twardowski), where we also see for the first time the town on the horizon. Dr Caligari (Werner Krauss) presents a sideshow act at the event Cesare (conrad Veidt) as the Somnambulist. During the performance Dr Caligari wakes the man from a sleep he claims has lasted 23 years and that he knows all that was and all that will be, to answer any question presented by the audience. Alan boldly steps up and asks "When will I die?" to which the Somnambulist chillingly replies "At first dawn!". Afterwards Francis and Alan meet Jane (Lil Dagover) who they are both in the process of courting.

 By Morning Alan is dead from an obscurely shaped blade and the Plot throws suspicion at the somnambulist, however the next night a man is caught in the act of a murder with a similar weapon in the hopes of using the previous murderer as a cover. Suspicion is briefly cast aside from Cesare so Francis follows Dr Caligari back to his trailer and spends the night watching him and Cesare from the window as they sleep. During this time Jane is stolen by the somnambulist and it turns out Francis was duped by a dummy. Dr Caligari flees to an Asylum for the Mentally Ill where he is revealed as the Director. Francis tells the orderlies of the situation in the Asylum atrium the second scene where perspectives are completely correct, and they proceed to search the office for information. They stumble across an old book of the original Dr Caligari who ran a scan in Northern Italy with a Somnambulist, and the Directors diary where he mentions trying out the experiment of suggestive persuasion on the sleeping mind to the point of getting the individual to committ murder something they wouldnt do whilst awake. Dr Caligari is confronted with the somnambulists sleeping form and questioned but restrained in a straight-jacket when as he lunges for members of the crowd in a manic outburst. Later francis is wandering the Atrium with a sense of relief, the scene is populated with people depicting various mental health conditions and vacant stares. There is a touching and yet heartbreaking moment where Francis says "Jane, I love you - When will you marry me?" to which Jane replies "We who are of noble blood may not follow the wishes of our hearts". Francis then spies the somnambulist standing in the atrium, creating a theatrical panic, then as if by amazing coincidence the Director, who looks like a well presented Dr Caligari steps through the set talking to other doctors. Mad with rage Francis jumps at him and is required to be restrained in a straight-jacket, he exclaims at the top of his lungs that this man is Dr Caligari. Then finally the Director denotes towards the camera that he now knows how to cure this man of his mental illness thickening the plot to its final crescendo. The final scene is more of a prologue to the film in some respects, the segment has almost been swapped with the opening scene in an effort to create suspense and mystery, then to create clarity. 

The set is designed with sharp angles and distortions to force the wrong perspective on the viewer, to forward plot mystery and to address the underlying mental health of Francis and as we now know we are seeing the entire film though the mind of a mentally ill individual which is mirrored in the character, the set and scenery presents no living thing except actors. Backdrops are hand painted and at harsh angles giving no perspective, shadows are painted in contradiction to natural light and coloured filters are used to simulate different environments. the set was designed to make sire there was a continuous state of unrest in the characters and an element of mistrust and suspicion in the viewer persuading us that we can't trust or distrust what our eyes tell us about the situation. It is interesting how Hermann Warm, Walter Reimann and Walter Roehrig designed the sets for the Asylum with good perspective and sanity but created the town and fair with no perspectives and wrong angles, the thought that the only place which is safe and trust worthy in this world is the place where mentally ill people are taken care of is a completely backwards idea, where the town and the otherwise sane people who populate the town are living in a world which is warped.