67 - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

    The showman, Dr. Caligari, uses a man in a trance state to commit murders.
    This is one of the most unique movies I’ve seen, and it isn’t in a way that comes across muddled, like Keyhole.
    The story is interesting.  There’s a framing device, and the whole story is being told from one person to another.  Inside this flashback, the story is linear, although we get a story about Dr. Caligari being the administrator of an asylum, who is fascinated with the story of the real Dr. Caligari, and seeks to attempt to replicate his exploits.
    The way this story is told is actually still in practice.  It moves through phases of revealing information, developments, investigation.  It’s a very standard structure.  This makes it much more watchable than some other early movies.
    The direction itself is nothing special.  But the sets are what sell the movie.  Nightmarish designs of angles that are all wrong, weird shadows, unusual makeup.  All of it rolls together to make an atmosphere that is unique, but also strangely familiar.  These tools have been reused regularly, but seeing this movie in black & white (also tints of yellow, blue, and I think green) has a very unusual effect.
    I’m not surprised that the story has been remade and expanded on.  It has stood up very well.