 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 1920 film and very important film because it's considered to be the very first horror film ever made The cabinet of dr. Caligari now a lot of people may say oh wait wasn't it nose for a to That was the very first one and no actually it wasn't nose for a to came two years later in 1922 which I do plan on doing a review on For this channel, so it should be there at some point Anyway, let's talk about the cabinet of dr. Caligari and I do need to say real quick actually some people may be saying Why are you watching such an old film? Well every film has its place and every film has its relevancy and obviously this being the very first horror film ever made I wanted to see where did we come from? You know, I want to trace back the history of the major films within horror history And I'm you know, it's gonna be a slow process, but I want to do this I want to hit all the decades see what was there to offer and I'm really glad that I checked this film out And I would highly recommend it not just from a historical standpoint, but from an artistic standpoint The story to this film is still really good The execution of this film especially when you consider it was 1920 is still really good And to be honest the way this film was shot I would love to see some people do a film in the same way now because it looks so artistic It looks so surreal. It's still beautiful. It's still a very interesting film Even though it's silent which well, you know probably put a lot of people off because there's subtitles to it Plus there's not actually any dialogue coming out when people are you know moving their mouths, but you get used to it They have some really nice Music put to it for this version and by the way I watched it on shutter when I'm doing this review The music they put to it is very amazing very grandiose and really really fits and keeps you engaged Matches the mood and the feel of what's going on and the 4k restoration that they got on this thing looks Unbelievably crisp. It looks phenomenal, especially for being from 1920. I was Floored by how good it looked, but anyway, let's talk a little bit more. This is directed by Robert Vine It's a German film who also did crime and punishment and the hands of Orlach Just some other horror films. He ended up directing was written by Carl Mayer who also wrote scripts for it the hunchback and the dancer Journey into the night the haunted castle and four devils as well as Hans Janowitz Who wrote the head of Janice? This was like I said cited as the very first horror film So it's very historically important for that reason Janowitz actually claimed that the idea for this film came from One time when he went to a carnival and he saw a very odd-looking man who looks suspicious kind of lurking around And he he then the next day saw in the paper that there was a Murder a girl had been murdered at the carnival and so he don't you know Nothing ever came to light if it was you know, no one was caught it They don't he doesn't know if it was that particular man he saw but it planted the seed in his head of this idea for a story and He actually went to the funeral of that girl. Oh, this is what he says, you know He said this so take it for what it is He said that he attended the funeral for that girl and actually saw that same man He saw lurking at the carnival at the funeral so may have been no connection Regardless, that's where the seed for the idea for the story came from The sets are actually made of paper on this and a bunch of the shadows were actually drawn on now One of the reasons for that being oh and light beams were drawn on in certain Parts as well the reason for that being there were electricity Outages they didn't have a whole lot of electricity available to them because there were kind of they were on electricity Allotments basically so they couldn't always rely on having the lighting that they needed for shadows and for proper lighting and everything So sometimes they had to draw it on and like drawn shadows drawn light beams stuff like that So very interesting and it just looks honestly it looks cool the paper on the sets They obviously have like other stuff built there But then they put paper over it so they can kind of draw what they needed to draw on the scene And it looks great. It looks artistically really cool even now I think and especially when you see the actual people interacting on it and treating it like it's a normal backdrop That's where that kind of very very artsy and surrealistic look and feel comes from that. I really enjoy about this Apparently they're pretty limited on space as well, so Vine the Director ended up having to use some interesting angles that he was otherwise not going to use when he was shooting certain shots But I think that directing wise especially when you consider it was 1920 Wonderful directing it looked really good one of the other things that comes up in these older films a lot is the kind of You know fading in and out just by like doing like a like a black The blackness kind of like comes in on a hole and then totally closes and it's totally black or opens up the same way That's an old timey thing So expect that Information about the making of this film is actually pretty hard to nail down Apparently because a lot of people ended up working on the film and there were a lot of conflicting accounts of things So the real information that ends up being out there came from people who are directly involved with very important aspects of it Such as the set design or the directing or the writing So those are the that's where a lot of the information comes from and if you're interested in more information on this film There's a lot online. You can just look it up I'm only presenting some of the facts that I found particularly interesting Not gonna get too far into that So it's interesting to see how the credits and dialogue were done at this time It was very innovative for the time if you really think about it and how they have designs drawn it with Stylized lettering you see this first in the very beginning with opening credits where it's obvious that they have the camera just kind of panning down on a large piece of paper that has everyone's name and roles but then They do it with that but they do it with all the the dialogue cards as well That ended up popping up throughout the film where they have like stylized lettering for whatever's on there They just looks cool like it's visually appealing So it's not just giving you the dialogue that you need But it's it's showing you something visually appealing at the same time And they always have like this kind of designed background with you know certain shapes to make it look more artistic too Which is super cool. I really really do enjoy that The music they paired with the film adds a good amount to it Especially in the absence of any voices or sound design because obviously they couldn't do that back then It gives you an appreciation for how important a score is or has been and is still with film Even though I would argue that it's kind of changed at least for my taste where I like a much more restrained score to films It was way more important to go a lot bigger back then because there was no other noise going on So what else were you gonna? going to end up Filling that space with The paper set gives a fantastical feel to the film because of the artistic drawing on it I know I already talked about that, but it bears repeating it looks phenomenal Another thing that looks phenomenal is the fact that they make the film kind of like an orangish Yellowish when it's supposed to be lit up and supposed to be daylight and then they make it like a like a bluish green When it's supposed to be nighttime, so I thought that's a cool touch as well to the film If you notice at the fair the first time they show the fair that Dr. Caligari ends up going to they're spinning rides in the background and having people walk around and it shows The very good attention to detail even in the early years of film that they had like they were really trying to bring things Alive they didn't just want it to be a stationary set and the idea to actually have these rides like merry-go-rounds Actually spinning in the background very cool. I wasn't expecting something like that from a film this old So very interesting Obviously due to no speaking the characters are very exaggerated with their movements That's another thing that you need to consider about acting in general back then is since there was no speaking going on You really they really had to gesticulate a lot more like I just like to do in my daily life when I talk and you know be more exaggerated with their facial expressions just to make sure it's picked up on screen because there's no There's obviously no Reflection in voice because there is no voice. So for that reason, you know a lot more gesticulation like I was saying and a lot more You know being way more Emoting with your face so that people once they see the dialogue on the dialogue card know What they're trying to convey emotionally? Ortonally Cesar is called a somnambulist by dr. Caligari Dr. Caligari which I had to look up because I wasn't familiar with the word. It's basically a sleepwalker You do end up getting that indicator way later in the story But right then I wanted to look it up in this case He was saying that Cesar had been asleep for 23 years and then it has kind of like a sideshow thing at this carnival He's waking them up and then obviously that's when the murders end up happening Because Caligari is having Cesar sleepwalk to murder. So it's like sleep murder kind of interesting It's a great concept and like I said in the beginning like this is a good story Like it's still a good story and I believe that there was like there was a remake of the the cabinet of dr. Caligari done in like 2005 ish Somewhere in there, which I have not seen it I don't know if I want to see it because it's probably not that good But if you have information on that go ahead and put it in the comments. Did you like it? Not like it? Should I stay away or check it out? When mr. Allen gets murdered it looks pretty good using just shadows in that that was one of the instances where they didn't draw shadows But they actually use real shadows The first murder that's shown where Cesar you see like the long knife and the shadow of it and the guy kind of like Falling backwards as he's bringing it down Looked really cool a real horror moment in the film that really does set the tone for what's going on and really conveys That horror to the audience pretty great Caligari being the director of the insane asylum was a very interesting twist. I didn't see that coming I thought it was a very cool moment where Francis is following Caligari and he's after him and then all of a sudden you see Caligari go behind the gate at the insane asylum and you're just like How do you just he just walked into this insane asylum? What's going on? And then you find out he's the director of the insane asylum when that happened. I thought really cool twist I really like that and then you go that next step further where they unveil his books that he's been reading and showing that He's been so obsessed with the actual story of a dr. Caligari who took a somnambulist and was able to Control them and make them do things they wouldn't otherwise do like murder people so a Lot of it points to Caligari kind of really wanting control wanting to feel like he Has special powers like he's better than everyone else like he can control others and just the ability to make them do Things that they wouldn't otherwise do that's the big emphasis That's put on it not just to make people do things But make people do things they don't want to do which obviously the most extreme Being murder because you also see that Cesar is very unaware of what's going on when he's in his waking life in essence so yeah So Caligari was so consumed by the story of the real Caligari that he wanted to emulate it Yeah, it became about ultimate control and power This it does just kind of go to like the old Trope that ends up showing up in a lot of films not just horror about power people wanting power Getting power keeping power all that stuff What's the saying the patients are running the asylum? Well, it applies here But it has to do with just one being Caligari But then they have the twist in the end which I did not see some coming with Francise Actually being a patient at the asylum and the whole story was his delusion in essence And you even see that when he's kind of out in the I guess it's kind of like a courtyard at the asylum He's in he there you're showing the other patients around him And you're seeing patients that were showing up in the story as other people who weren't in the asylum So you get the real story of what's going on here where there was all in Francis's mind and Francis was having this delusion that life was kind of normal for him and then Caligari showed up and messed everything up So I'm wondering if this has something to do with kind of a the two Personalities of Francis at this point and Dr. Caligari is in essence Controlling him as the bad part of himself and Francis in the story is the normal good part of himself And it's when he's delusional and when he's not delusional basically so I'm wondering if that's kind of an underlying Theme going on there, but very interesting nonetheless Like I said, this version looks so good. It looks so crisp. The restoration was expertly done. It's amazing I'd love to watch it again. I love Werner Krause He was the guy who played Dr. Caligari in this his acting is really good for the time And he looks amazingly creepy also noticed that they drew a bunch of black lines on his face to kind of shape it a Different way and make it look even more menacing. I think they did someone on his head as well Between that that kind of makeup aspect to him and his acting like it's over the top Yes, but like I said, you know, it had to be because there was no actual line delivery going on that people could hear He looks so creepy, especially like those close-up shots of his face where he's like He did a great job like he was my favorite part of the film by far anytime. He was on the screen. I was like Overjoyed with his performance and how creepy and how crazy and how over-the-top it was. I just I Revealed in I felt like he just chewed the scenery. So Werner Krause. I mean awesome It plays like some sort of surreal dream. It is pretty mesmerizing I do have to say I like I couldn't just like I feel like if there was more to the film than like the hour and 17 minutes I would have continued to watch it like I couldn't look away. It's very mesmerizing because it looks so artsy and this You know brings me back to what I said in the beginning that I would love to see someone try to execute a film Like this nowadays because it looks good because it looks for surreal. It looks fantastical. It is very artistic. It's beautiful Mesmerizing like I was saying I was just sucked in this is a great film So I don't know that you can really I have a hard time actually rating this film Just because of you know, you got to take into account. It's the very first horror film ever made It's from 1920 and what are all the restrictions having you know going along with that? So the best I can do the best I can figure is out of five stars with half stars in play I'm gonna go at four and a half stars. I really enjoy this. I think it's wonderful I would definitely watch again and I think other people really need to not just like I was saying not just for historical context of where horror came from basically but just because it's a great film and it still holds up Because of this wonderful restoration of it. So yeah, we'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this go ahead and put it in the comments and Yeah, just love to talk to you about horror in general. 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