The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Sep. 13th, 2014 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
redfiona99The BFI Southbank were showing this for reasons that escape my knowledge, other than possibly they're having a feast of early German cinema, which is a perfectly good reason, and I am always down for German expressionism.
Now the pre-film blurb did warn us that it was deliberately stagey and unrealistic, which was probably a good idea, because I get the idea of stylized theatricality but this was hyper-stylized. My problem was more with the acting than with the sets, because Caligari was so dirty and disgusting that I couldn't believe that anyone would go "yes, of course sir, do carry on," and Franzis is almost as bad, although he does at least calm down later on.
Actually, one of the amazing things is, given how fake and whatever the high-tech version of soft gauzy focus is a lot of Hollywood films make their leads look, how amazingly real and touchable the characters look a film make 95 years ago.
Alan is all the friends you have that have no sense of proportion.
Also, don't ask the proto-zombie questions you don't want the answer to. Actually, I think that might be one of the reasons why Cesare gets remembered because as well as moving eerily, (and not moving even more eerily) he's aware of what he's doing, but powerless to stop it.
The twist with someone else using the spate of murders to hide there own is clever. Someone with a greater knowledge of early murder mysteries might need to tell me if this is the first time anyone pulled this.
Jane has the common sense of a cucumber. I have no idea if she's the first horror character to go wandering into dark places despite them being creepy but ... seriously, the common sense of a cucumber.
Then of course you get the final twist at the end. And I can see why the original writers got into a huff because it does totally change what's gone on before, and I understand there point that the most evil criminals can be people in positions of power and responsibility, but their version involves me believing they'd ever be stopped on just one man's evidence, which I don't. According to the intro blurb, the Viennese are fatalistic and paranoid, but I couldn't possibly comment ;)
The new ending is partly less satisfying because "and it was all a dream (or rather the ravings of a mad man)" just inherently is unsatisfying, but at the same time it does add a certain eeriness because, until Franzis starts shouting at Cesare, there's no way of telling that he's not telling the truth and I am a great fan of the unreliable narrator. It's interesting how much less threatening Cesare is in the real world, and how much of that is down to lighting and make up. The same is true of Caligari.
Definitely worth seeing, but yes, advanced warning that it's deliberately odd.
Now the pre-film blurb did warn us that it was deliberately stagey and unrealistic, which was probably a good idea, because I get the idea of stylized theatricality but this was hyper-stylized. My problem was more with the acting than with the sets, because Caligari was so dirty and disgusting that I couldn't believe that anyone would go "yes, of course sir, do carry on," and Franzis is almost as bad, although he does at least calm down later on.
Actually, one of the amazing things is, given how fake and whatever the high-tech version of soft gauzy focus is a lot of Hollywood films make their leads look, how amazingly real and touchable the characters look a film make 95 years ago.
Alan is all the friends you have that have no sense of proportion.
Also, don't ask the proto-zombie questions you don't want the answer to. Actually, I think that might be one of the reasons why Cesare gets remembered because as well as moving eerily, (and not moving even more eerily) he's aware of what he's doing, but powerless to stop it.
The twist with someone else using the spate of murders to hide there own is clever. Someone with a greater knowledge of early murder mysteries might need to tell me if this is the first time anyone pulled this.
Jane has the common sense of a cucumber. I have no idea if she's the first horror character to go wandering into dark places despite them being creepy but ... seriously, the common sense of a cucumber.
Then of course you get the final twist at the end. And I can see why the original writers got into a huff because it does totally change what's gone on before, and I understand there point that the most evil criminals can be people in positions of power and responsibility, but their version involves me believing they'd ever be stopped on just one man's evidence, which I don't. According to the intro blurb, the Viennese are fatalistic and paranoid, but I couldn't possibly comment ;)
The new ending is partly less satisfying because "and it was all a dream (or rather the ravings of a mad man)" just inherently is unsatisfying, but at the same time it does add a certain eeriness because, until Franzis starts shouting at Cesare, there's no way of telling that he's not telling the truth and I am a great fan of the unreliable narrator. It's interesting how much less threatening Cesare is in the real world, and how much of that is down to lighting and make up. The same is true of Caligari.
Definitely worth seeing, but yes, advanced warning that it's deliberately odd.
