Whenever I do one of these challenges, I always try to include some older films in the mix, especially once people may not have seen before. This is one of those films, and one that everyone should watch at least once in their lives.
I first encountered The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in college. I believe it was an “Intro to Film” class, something that I added into my schedule because it sounded interesting, but more than likely filled a requirement for graduation. Little did I know when I took that class that I would be sitting here writing about film some 20+ years later.
But you’re here for Dr. Caligari, not my musings on my college years.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari has long been hailed as the quintessential German Expressionist film of the post-WWI era. The film is constructed with a framing device ironically similar to yesterday’s Bandits in which is opens with a man telling the story of Dr. Caligari coming to town. We then flash back and get the story, but in the end it turns out that everything might not be exactly as our storyteller portrays it to be.
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