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Directed by Robert Wiene
Produced by Rudolf Meinert Erich Pommer Written by Hans
Janowitz Carl Mayer Starring Werner Krauss Conrad Veidt
Friedrich Fehér Lil Dagover Hans Heinrich von Twardowski
Music by Giuseppe Becce Cinematography Willy Hameister
Distributed by Goldwyn Distributing Company Release
date(s) February 26, 1920 March 19, 1921 May 14, 1921
Running time 71 min. Language German Budget DEM 20,000
(estimated)
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Responses
Critics worldwide have praised the film for its
Expressionist
style, complete with wild, distorted set design—a
striking use of
mise en scène.
Caligari has been cited as an influence on
films noir
and
horror films;
it is also often seen as one of the first horror films,
a model for directors for many decades (including
Alfred Hitchcock).
Siegfried Kracauer's
From Caligari to
Hitler postulates that the film can be
read as an allegory for German social attitudes in the
period preceding the
Second World War.
He argues that the character of Caligari represents a
tyrannical figure, to whom the only alternative is
social chaos (represented by the fairground). However,
Kracauer's work has been largely discredited by
contemporary scholars of German cinema, for example by
Thomas Elsaesser in Weimar Cinema and After, who
describes the legacy of Kracauer's work as a "historical
imaginary". Elsaesser claims that Kracauer studied too
few films to make his thesis about the social mindset of
Germany legitimate and that the discovery and
publication of the original screenplay of The Cabinet
of Dr. Caligari undermines his argument about the
revolutionary intent of its writers. Elsaesser's
alternative thesis is that the filmmakers adopted an
Expressionist style as a method of product
differentiation, establishing a distinct national
product against the increasing import of American films.
Dietrich Scheunemann, somewhat in defense of Kracauer,
noted that he didn't have, "the full range of materials
at (his) disposal," however, that that fact, "has
clearly and adversely affected the discussion of the
film," referencing that the script wasn't rediscovered
until 1977 and that Kracauer hadn't seen the film in
around 20 years when he wrote the work.
Adaptations and
derivative works
-
A sound remake
was released in 2005 and won several awards at
horror film festivals. It attempted to reproduce the
look of the original film as closely as possible.
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The film was adapted into an opera in 1997, by
composer
John Moran.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the
American
Repertory Theatre in
Cambridge,
Massachusetts, directed by
Robert McGrath.[5]
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Numerous musicians have composed new
musical scores
to accompany the film. In 1994, jazz bassist
Mark Dresser
led pianist
Denman Maroney
and trumpeter
Dave Douglas
in his compositions for the film, which they
performed live at the
Knitting Factory
and released on CD in 1994. In 2002, British
musician and composer
Geoff Smith
composed a new soundtrack to the film for the
hammered dulcimer, which he performed live as an
accompaniment to the film. In 2006, Peruvian rock
group Kinder composed a soundtrack to the film,
performing it live during the screenings. The venue
was "El Cinematógrafo", a film club in the district
of Barranco.
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Jean-Marc
Lofficier wrote
Superman's
Metropolis, a
trilogy
of
graphic novels
for
DC Comics
illustrated by
Ted McKeever,
the second of which was entitled Batman:
Nosferatu, most of the plot derived from The
Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.
-
A movie of the same title, The Cabinet of
Caligari, produced by shlock mesiter William
Castle, script by Robert Bloch, was made in 1962,
claiming to be inspired by this movie.
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A radio version is published by Blackstone Audio
featuring
John de Lancie,
written and produced by
Yuri Rasovsky.
from
Wikipedia - All text is available
under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License |
