Rating: 
Summary: A find DVD of Robert Weine's Expressionist masterpiece!
Review: Image Entertainment over the last few years has built a reputation for high-quality DVD releases of classic films from the silent era, and Image's special edition treatment of THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI is no exception. It goes without saying that Robert Weine's 1919 masterpiece was a groundbreaking moment in the history of Expressionist cinema, so I will confine my remarks to assessing the DVD release. In short, I find Image's video and audio transfer here to be superb, and a vast improvement over other available video releases. Many reviewers have expressed concern over the black bar that frequently runs through the top of the frame. As I understand it, the black bar is found on the negative itself, which is otherwise in relatively good condition given the film's age. This is NOT Image's fault. They had the choice between either cropping the top of the image, which is how the film has often been presented, or preserving the full frame, inspite of the black bar. Image chose the later option and, in my view, it was the right one, though some viewers might disagree. Otherwise, the tinted black and white image is quite good, and is complemented by a highly effective musical score (the sound is crisp and full). Finally, the Image DVD features a very informative audio commentary with film scholar Mike Budd. This DVD deserves viewing by anyone serious about film, and not fortunate enough to have seen a theatrical print. Moreover, if you are interested in Expressionist cinema, I would highly recommend that you add this DVD to your library.
Rating: 
Summary: An historical curio, acme of German expressionism
Review: Another silent film that has not aged too well but is still of great interest to lovers of silent film and film history. The plot is none too innovative but the wild, original sets made this one stand out from the crowd. The direction is actually a bit wooden. It is the work of the set designers which actually made this one a stunning experience to early film audiences.
Rating: 
Summary: Liked it
Review: The scenery was like something out of a Kirchner painting, very striking.
The plot: A mad doctor working at a pysch hospital, obsessed with a story about a somnabulist..is delighted when a somnabulist just happens to be admitted to his hospital. His name is Cesare (Conrad Veidt) Somnabulist means "sleep walker" but Cesare has some zombie like qualities. Although we do see he seems to have a will of his own when it comes to the beautiful "Jane" The Doctors plan is for the somnabulist to do his every bidding. As he takes him to carnivals as a sideshow by day. By night he unleashes him on the city.. And it's up to one man to stop him. Jane's fiance Francis, whose friend Alan gets a deadly prediction from the somnabulist, when they go to see the sideshow at the carnival. If you like the movie, you should get 'In the Nursery's' soundtrack for the film, the group was commisioned to compose a new one. Dark, ambient and eerie...
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Summary: One of the greatest horror films, endlessly suggestive.
Review: A madman's fantasy, 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' is a still-unsettling mixture of the archaic and the avant-garde. The celebrated sets, all grotesquely distorted, perspectively impossible, architecturally collapsed buildings and streets, strange angles and enigmatic geometric motifs, are like a demented revision of those medieval Central European villages that are usually the settings for these kind of stories; but they also echo (in monochrome) the folk-modernist paintings of Chagall, particularly those depicting Jewish shtetls with fantastic and dream imagery. The mood and atmosphere, the world of carnies and somnambulists, of Town Clerks, bell-ringers and lunatic asylums, even of nocturnal serial killers, all suggest periods of time from the late-19th century backwards; but the oneiric filming of Cesare's unmotivated night wandering, his zombie face blanching a tight black bodystocking, is reminiscent of Feuillade's crime serials (such as 'Les Vampires'); also anticipating Surrealism is the strangely seeping texture of the imagery, with fragments of bodies on the brink of dematerialising. The film is heavily influenced by Freud (from the homosexuality implicit in the central love triangle to the introduction of a phallic sleepwalker in a box by Caligari to Jane to the inability of Cesare to murder a virgin), but another 20th century giant is arguably more important: Kafka (one of the Prague-born screenwriters wrote for Kafka's friend, Max Brod). From the comedy of bureaucracy (the aggressively officious Town Clerk; the gormless police) to the location of chaos, madness and murder in the ravings of paternal/patriarchal authority, the film's movement is one of remorseless anxiety - 'Caligari''s look is flooded with the dread paranoia of its narrator. Even the mix of ancient documents and mystery plot is modern, looking forward to the stories of Borges. It is easy to mock 'Caligari' in retrospect - the cop-out of the framing narrative (which I humbly think only deepens the film's themes, and produces an amazing asylum tableau); the reliance on theatrical (sets, acting) rather than cinematic expression; the absurd hamming of the actors (a truly haunted Conrad Veidt excepted). But 'Caligari' has a lingering evocative power, a profound and phantasmagoric imagery that unfailingly penetrates those deepest and least admissable desires and fears supposedly 'better' films can't access. No wonder critics for nearly a century have attributed all sorts of nonsense to it. (Be warned: like 'Metropolis', the success of 'Caligari' depends on the quality of the score (the Redemption print I saw had a horrible Hollywood-horror, sub-Wagnerian over-emphasis) and the right speed (mine was played too fast, and was over in less than 50 minutes, making the story look like a daft pantomime)
Rating:
Summary: Once upon a Time in Holstenwall...
Review: The linking of madness and death in the film is nothing out of the ordinary and it is, after all, not for this reason that the film remains famous to this day. Indeed, it is not the division between sane and insane that matters. What does matter is the use of Expressionism on screen. The visual texture of the film is evocative and startling, although to explain the Expressionism used as simply the example of a madman's vision is to undervalue the Expressionist movement as a whole.
The entire film is shot in a studio, ensuring absolute directorial control, and the sets are beautifully and laboriously created and set the entire mood for the film. It is perhaps useful to see the film as a tone poem where the style transcends the content. The oddness of the streets, with the strongly rectangular zigzag shapes, suggests violence and instability. Even light in the film is shaped, as is shown by the streaks of white paint on the wall of the prisoner's cell. The film scorns the natural world for a more indicative one; absolutely everything the viewer is presented is constructed. In this way, the viewer is guided towards a feeling, an inner world of meaning. The living room of Jane's house is one of the most memorable sets of the film. It shares the tranquillity of Franz Marc's Expressionist painting 'The Large Blue Horses' by its use of round shapes and soft colours. The room exudes health and well being. There are even flowers in the room, in the very middle of the frame. The camera angles remain largely normal and level, although the film does frequently use the extreme close up to suggest inner violence and the fear of confinement. Nonetheless, the camera is intended to be unshocking and a thing the viewer can relate to: an assumed normal person looking at an extraordinary Holstenwall.
The acting is rather melodramatic, as in most silent films, and the heavy make-up on Dr. Caligari and Cesare render them as much Expressionistic models as the sets. In the case of Cesare, it seems the paint on the sets has been smudged onto his face. He is almost literally part of the set, which is indicated when he sets out for Jane's house, sliding along the walls and corridors.
The film is very valuable to watch for its desire to be different and it is perhaps just as well that the story is not more original, as it would distract the viewer from the wealth of visual distinction available.
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Summary: Avantgarde masterpiece!
Review: There are few movies that are this odd and at the same time a true work of an avantgarde artist. This movie in question, i.e., The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari VHS ~ Friedrich Feher easily falls into this category. The movie is set in weird avantgarde world where houses are shapped in odd ways and the settings are quite odd. The actors do a commendable job in their roles and it is definetely a classic. Highly Recommended.
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Summary: great german cinema
Review: After finally finding a copy of this video, I new my hardwork had paid off when I watched Doctor Caligari. The movie is definetely an eye catcher with the great camera work and keeps you interested in the movie through the great acting that takes place.
Rating:
Summary: good movie
Review: I've never been a huge fan of the silent film era. In fact I never watched silent films until a class a took. This was one of the 12 or so silent films we saw in the class and 1 of only 2 that I really liked. The set design really sets the mood for the film. The scenery and acting were great. Conrad Veidt as Cesare was great as well as Werner Krauss as Dr. Caligari. I like the end of the film as well. The actual ending was not going to be that way it is. It's better this way. If you're not a fan of the silent era, start with this film. It's a good one.
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Summary: Classic German Expressionism!
Review: "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" is a visual feast, and a definite inspiration for many horror films to follow. This film simply grasps your attention from beginning to end. From the beginning even we know this is no ordinary film as two asylum inmates are seen, one of them narrating his experience with meeting Dr. Caligari at a local carnival, who awakens a somnambulistic maniac who commits acts of murder commanded by his master. It seems we are watching a nightmare dreamt by the minds of madness. I won't spoil too much, but rest assured you will not regret adding this one to your collection. It is brilliant in every way.
Rating:
Summary: The classic example of German Expressionism in the cinema
Review: When we talk about the history of the "movies" it is "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" that has almost represented the first prime example of the "cinema," where we treat films as art. This is the best example of German Expressionism with angular sets that represented the dementia of the title character. Werner Krauss is the mad doctor, who uses his somnambulist Ceasar (Conrad Veidt) to do his evil deeds. Lil Dagover is the damsel in distress. Whatever the films shortcomings, the classic status of this 1919 film directed by Robert Wiene is assured by the striking art direction. A lot of what we admire today can be traced back to this film. If "Then Battleship Potemkin" opens us up to the possibilities about montage, then "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" does the same for mise-en-scene.
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