Titel Kino 2/2001(2 Alternativ) - German Films

THE 100 MOST SIGNIFICANT GERMAN FILMS – 2
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari
THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI
40
Dr. Caligari, a demonic doctor and murderer, untouchable by the arm of the law (through the
exploitation and use of a somnambulist), is traced by his antagonist, whom he has robbed of
both friend and lover, to a mental hospital where he lives as its director. The vengeful young
antagonist uncovers the keeper of madmen as a madman himself; as a madman for whom the
example of faded criminal memoirs has become an obsession. And then all these events,
reproduced as the youth’s story, finally reveal themselves to be the fantasies of an equally sick
mind, and therefore a well-disposed audience can make friendly allowances for them, along with
the offensive décor; all the more so, since the director – actually a most upright fellow – now
also gives the young patient hope for recovery. After all, he has been in the madhouse …
Genre Drama Category Feature Film Cinema
Year of Production 1919/20 Director Robert
Wiene Screenplay Carl Mayer, Hans Janowitz
Director of Photography Willy Hameister
Music by Giuseppe Becce, Lothar Prox (1920), Rainer
Viertlböck (1994) Production Design Hermann
Warm, Walter Reimann, Walter Röhrig Producer
Rudolf Meinert Production Company Decla-Film,
Berlin Rights Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Foundation,
Wiesbaden Principal Cast Werner Krauß, Conrad
Veidt, Lil Dagover, Friedrich Fehör, Hans Heinrich von
Twardowski, Rudolf Lettinger, Ludwig Rex, Elsa
Wagner, Henri Peters-Arnolds, Hans Lanser-Ludolff
Length 62 min, 1509 m Format 35 mm, b&w,
1:1.33 Original Version German German
Distributor Transit Film GmbH, Munich
World Sales:
Transit Film GmbH · Loy Arnold, Mark Grünthal
Dachauer Str. 35 · D-80335 Munich
phone +49-89-5 99 88 50 · fax +49-89-59 98 85 20
email: transitfilm@compuserve.com
Scene from ”Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari” (photo © Filmmuseum Berlin/Deutsche Kinemathek)
Robert Wiene was born in 1881 in Breslau and
died in 1938 in Paris. The son of an actor, he too
studied Acting and later became a story editor at
the Lessing Theater in Berlin. His first works were
for Sascha-Film in Vienna and Bioscop and Messter
Film in Berlin. After cooperation on Satanas with
Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau he directed Das
Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, considered to be his
most important film. His other films include:
Genuine (1920), Raskolnikoff (1923), Orlacs
Hände (1924), the passion play I.N.R.I. (1923),
Ultimatum (1938) and many more.