One of the most iconic masterpieces in cinema history, Robert Wiene’s Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari shook filmgoers worldwide and changed the direction of the art form. Now presented in a definitive restoration, the film’s chilling, radically expressionist vision is set to grip viewers again.
At a local carnival in a small German town, hypnotist Dr. Caligari presents the somnambulist Cesare, who can purportedly predict the future of curious fairgoers. But at night, the doctor wakes Cesare from his sleep to enact his evil bidding…
Incalculably influential, the film’s nightmarishly jagged sets, sinister atmospheric and psychological emphasis left an immediate impact in its wake, shaping horror, film noir, and gothic cinema.
Find out more about the Weimar Cinema season in this short intro from The University of Salford’s Andy Willis