Item Details:

THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI

ANONYMOUS

SILENT FILM, 1920

Original Photogravure Print

Edition: Unknown

Publisher: UFA/Goldwyn Studios

Film Indutstry Promotion Trade Publication

Size: 9.25 x 12 in; 23.5 x 30.5 cm

Signed: unsigned

The importance of this film and its original full-page trade publication here cannot be overstated.  In the collection of prestigious museums such as MOMA, the visual style of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is dark, twisted and bizarre; radical and deliberate distortions in perspective, form, dimension and scale create a chaotic and unhinged appearance. The sets are dominated by sharp-pointed forms and oblique and curving lines, with narrow and spiraling streets, and structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles, giving the impression they could collapse or explode at any given moment.  Film critic Roger Ebert described it as "a jagged landscape of sharp angles and tilted walls and windows, staircases climbing crazy diagonals, trees with spiky leaves, grass that looks like knives".  The sets are characterized by strokes of bold, black paint, as is the city carnival landscape of Holstenwall which is painted on canvas, as opposed to a constructed set, and shadows and streaks of light are painted directly onto the sets, further distorting the viewer's sense of perspective and three-dimensionality.

Permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts & Popular Culture