(1919)

Starring Werner Krauss, Conrad Viedt, Lil Dagover; dir: Robert Wiene

This wild, Gothic-futurist dreamscape, though undeniably of a certain age, nevertheless seems comfortable and familiar to our modern sensibilities. And why not, since it shaped so many of them? To experience Caligari now is like wandering through a gallery of peak filmic images: scenes from Nosferatu (1922), Metropolis (1927), Bride of Frankenstein (1935), Spellbound (1945) and many other classics are foreshadowed here.

Nor is this convergence across decades static (which might’ve suggested a lucky accident predictive of future aesthetics) but rather a dynamic one, as the film’s extraordinary, Brothers Grimm-meets Surrealism look, once established, continually evolves and develops before our eyes to match the plot movements. It’s purest Expressionism: as the characters’ interior states crumble we are led into ever more byzantine, skewed and threatening passages and bleak outlooks.

On a lighter note, I have to confess pleasure in reading that poverty and producer Erich Pommer’s stringency drove the design decisions to the classic stylistic ends we now enjoy, as this same virtue-from-necessity rationale is often one of the major explanations for the insanely Expressionist dark shadows and minimalist lighting we’ve similarly come to love of 40s noir!