Oliver Yendell

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene, is about Dr Caligari (played by Werner Krauss), who arrives in a rural German village with his companion Cesare, a man in an eternal state of sleep who can be ordered to perform his master’s commands. A series of gruesome murders leads some to believe that the doctor and his strange “assistant” may well be to blame.

The first thing anyone notices about the film is its bizarre look. The backgrounds and landscapes consist of geometric shapes and sharp edges. This is another product of German Expressionism, a visual style for which the character and the whole world are stylised.

The character of Caligari could arguably be compared to other prominent German people, such as Hitler, as both Caligari and Hitler created the effect where the German people were under their spells. It is also said that the rise of Nazism was foretold by the preceding years of German films.

The use of a stylised world, obviously two-dimensional, must have been much less expensive than realistic sets and locations, but I doubt that's why Robert Wiene wanted them. He is making a film of delusions and deceptive appearances around madmen and murder, and his characters exist at right angles to reality. None of them can be believed, nor can they believe one another.