Post by johanwow on Mar 24, 2017 22:03:55 GMT
If there is one horror movie every horror buff should see I do think it's this one. Ok not everyone can focus on a silent with intertitles that moves rather slowly but the movie really isn't that long. What makes this such a great movie IMO:
1) the setting: it's German expressionism which is a perfect reflection of what was popular in art at the time
2) given it is a silent, gestures and facial expression were much more important than dialogues. That's one thing I love about silents. I don't think I could ever bare going through a talkie version of it. I love for example the silent dark house movie "The Cat and the Canary" a lot too. Than I saw the Bob Hope version late 30s. I was so annoyed the people couldn't shut their yap for a minute. And I didn't really like the changes they made to the story and characters. so in Caligari you just gottta look at Dr. Caligari and Cesare. They manage to be so creepy/mad by means of body language.
3) The story seems simple enough yet there is some psychological aspect to it with Dr. Caligari wanting to enter a patient in some kind of freak show hopefully to get answers for things he doesn't know (or does he do it for another reason?). The best part has to come though, with its twist ending. Were there earlier examples, I don't want to bet at it. Suddenly a movie like "The Sixth Sense" doesn't look that brilliant any more.
1) the setting: it's German expressionism which is a perfect reflection of what was popular in art at the time
2) given it is a silent, gestures and facial expression were much more important than dialogues. That's one thing I love about silents. I don't think I could ever bare going through a talkie version of it. I love for example the silent dark house movie "The Cat and the Canary" a lot too. Than I saw the Bob Hope version late 30s. I was so annoyed the people couldn't shut their yap for a minute. And I didn't really like the changes they made to the story and characters. so in Caligari you just gottta look at Dr. Caligari and Cesare. They manage to be so creepy/mad by means of body language.
3) The story seems simple enough yet there is some psychological aspect to it with Dr. Caligari wanting to enter a patient in some kind of freak show hopefully to get answers for things he doesn't know (or does he do it for another reason?). The best part has to come though, with its twist ending. Were there earlier examples, I don't want to bet at it. Suddenly a movie like "The Sixth Sense" doesn't look that brilliant any more.