Robert Wiene's 1920 horror film, told through the delusions of an asylum inmate and staged on jagged, hand-painted sets of impossible angles and shadows, is the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema. Conrad Veidt plays the somnambulist Cesare, sent by the fairground showman Dr. Caligari to commit murders while sleepwalking, in a story whose closing twist reframes everything the audience has seen. Its visual style, translating psychological disturbance directly into set design, shaped horror and film noir for decades after.
Facts
Release Year Classification
Original Language FAQs
Was the asylum frame story part of the original Caligari screenplay?
Producer Erich Pommer forced the framing device on the screenwriters.
No. According to the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, the screenwriters Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer were forced to attach a framing device by producer Erich Pommer, who was squeamish about the film and the design team's revolutionary ideas.
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Source The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wikipedia)
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Caligari is the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema, and by far the most famous example of it.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Description, original language
Robert Wiene's 1920 horror film, told through the delusions of an asylum inmate and staged on jagged, hand-painted sets of impossible angles and shadows, is the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema.
- In Medium: Film, Infobox
View the Source The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (Wikipedia)
Infobox
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.
Infobox, original German title
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.
Created By: Robert Wiene, Infobox: director
Robert Wiene
In Group: German Expressionist and Weimar Silent Films, Lead
Caligari (German: Das Cabinet des Dr.
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