the cabinet of dr caligari
 

i know a lot of people put it in top ten lists of vintage horror movies but apart from a very good score i found little to enjoy, i know its a film that made so many others possible but i simply didnt enjoy it, i found it slow, dull and monotonous.

I love the look: sets, makeup, wildly over-the-top (silent movie) acting.

If you want to develop a taste for this kind of thing, check out Shadow of the Vampire, which is a very fun movie about the making of Nosferatu, starring John Malkovich as the ART-driven director and Willem Dafoe as (perhaps the real) Nosferatu.

I think it's an acquired taste. I've seen a little of it, and I was somewhat bored.

i thought shadow of the vampire was a very good movie.

Each to their own but I thought it fantastic.

I watched that in a film class over a decade ago. great film.

There are reasons out of the tens of thousands of silent films made, people are still watching this one- and it's not because it's dull and boring.

I don't expect a contemporary film watcher, who is addicted to their bam-dham-clang-eek! stuff, to appreciate films which are almost 90 years old.

Examples are in my own family who laugh at the so-called "cheap" effects of The Evil Dead and The Exorcist, and fast-forward through films such as The Descent, REC, etc., to the scary parts, yell a few times and the film is over for them.

Yes, it is somewhat of an acquired taste to appreciate films such as Caligari, Phantom of the Opera, Vampyr, etc. Not many in the present generation would love them for what they are.

Caligari is a genuine masterpiece. The perfectly immersive, dream like atmosphere is something film makers are still striving and failing to recreate today.

I think most people these days would prefer a version of Caligari starring Johnny Depp directed by Tim Burton and for everything to be a little more clean and familiar. But when you watch these commercial entities that turn over millions of dollars every time they work you should really appreciate how much they are lifting from the past. German Expressionism and even more specifically Caligari is prominent in much of Burton's work.

People become familiar with certain standards of cinema though and when you go back to some of these old movies that don't quite follow the formula or have the aesthetic you expect it see, its hard for the mind to appreciate and enjoy it. That's a big part of why so many of these old movies seem dull or slow or 'boring'. Generally speaking, we all find it a little easier to watch 'ABC' movies, but its a real shame if you cant learn to appreciate those movies that don't quite conform to modern standards.

If you're bored by slow, quiet, horror, up your ritalin. ::cool::

I liked Phantom of the Opera ::smile::

I think I remember watching Nosferatu (original) and Frankenstein and liking those a lot.

You, young sir, are an exception. A multi-colored drop in a single-colored ocean.

Go team ::stick out tongue::

i appreciate movies from many different era`s, slow, fast, deep, shallow, every movie is taken on merit and any opinions shared here are purely that, an opinion.

I know what you mean. The first time I watched Cabinet, it wasn't what I was expecting. I really dug the bizarre German Impressionistic sets & lighting, like the bizarre angled doorways (like Straker mentioned, you see that doorway in Beetlejuice' wedding scene). But taking the story & acting purely from a 1980 (or whatever it was) perspective, I wasn't impressed either.

When I watched it again as an art piece, and a pseudo play, I got a different appreciation of it. It's like the first time I heard George Harrison's song 'Only a Northern Song': it's out of tune, so I thought, so to speak, until I heard him sing,
"You may think the chords are going wrong
But they're not
He just wrote it like that"

One of my favorite Silent Horror Films along with Nosferatu and London By Midnight.

Have you seen "The Golem"? Another great silent movie.

Love the old silent classics and you just have to remember film was still sort of new. Also, no sound, so they tended to, as we say now, overact to get the point across,
Really enjoyed CALIGARI, NOSFERATU, the Lon Chaney films, THE LOST WORLD as well as BIRTH OF A NATION and BROKEN BLOSSOMS.
Only thing I can suggest is be rested to watch them...if sleepy, it's harder to follow them

LOL! That is so true. There's some films you can't be somewhat sleepy before you watch them. Most silent films are like that, not mention some talkies like Dracula 31 & Gojira.

Speaking of silent films, Noseratu and Metropolis blew me away. I've seen maybe 15 full-length silent films, those are the only two I can say that about.

Did you see the Portlandia skit about The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xra...ari_shortfilms

Can't believe I forgot METROPOLIS! Really amazing sets and wouldn't mind if the Motorhead song could be put in there for the end credits,
Also enjoy the 1920 DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE with John Barrymore.

Thought I'd watch this since it provoked a lot of divisions and rancor on Horror.com. Turns out I watched the 1962 version. Oops. Anyway, the 1962 version is pretty good. ::cool::

The cabinet of dr. caligari, a black & white classic.

ioi

Very impressive, together with The Golem, Nosferatu, The Phantom Carriage, The Unknown, Haxan, and more.

Finally saw it last month (needed to see it on a movie screen, not my laptop) and it was everything I hoped for.

It's just amazing to see something that has paved the way for aesthetic expression to such a degree in so many different genres!

I was mindblown, I'd love to see it staged (with speech bubbles popping up or coming down) - the muteness is part of the magic, it makes the visuals pop even more.

The dream like atmosphere, the unusual characters and the acting were great for me.

I thought that it was fantastic for being a silent film.

Caligari
 

I loved the sets. Everything was so surreal, discomfiting. I also like the acting- silent films have their own means of expressing emotion that the 'word bubbles' can't convey- it takes some getting used to, but it is transporting if you allow it to immerse you. Same holds true for 'Nosferatu'.

Looking forward to seeing 'Metropolis' and 'Dr. Jekyl', and 'Phantom of the Opera'. Always glad to get suggestions...

Me included.

Especially the nightmarish settings.

i saw The Cabinet of Dr. Cagliari some months ago, and thought it was okay.

i did like the colors, the sets, and the aspects it created. it was like watching a play on stage, which was enjoyable!!!

i didnt like how long and dry it tended to get at times... for me I have ADHD too, and that doesnt help. movies need to really grasp me for me to get through them completely. but i can watch slower movies if they are great, and this had a great story line and aspects behind it.

well saying that, i did finish the silent movie from beginning to end, so that has to say something on how good it was. ::big grin::

im still struggling to make it through Nosferatu though. but i also am not a big vampire fan, which could be a reason

I missed the opening act but from what I saw I liked. It lived up to the hype it had received.

I downloaded it off of Youtube using the Firefox plugin. In the process of watching it. So far, so good.

i like that movie a lot but i get it.
 

i get why it might not be your cup of tea, it was important to movie history but sitting through it is a struggle for some people. i really like it but i don't really try to get other people to watch it because i know it might just be boring for a lot of people depending on their tastes in movies.
it think it's really pretty to look at and i love the stylized look of the sets and silent movies in general sort of amuse me but if you are not really into any of that i am not going to make you watch it. ::devil::

Masterpiece
 

Absolutely masterpiece of not only horror cinema but cinema period. Others have posted here on the various ways and means of enjoying it but consider this: at nearly 100 years old it still maintains the ability to hold the attention and garner the admiration of many (accepted, not all) who view it. Can you name a horror film within the last 5 years that can make the same claim? 10 years? Yes, you can name good horror films during those time frames but films that, when shown to an audience completely 'in the dark' - no trailer, no IMDB listing, no Google research - walk away engaged, moved and something they will remember in another 5, 10 or even 50 years?

Dante
http://horrifyou.com

Caligari in school
 

There are some movies that just become part of the canon, and you are supposed to praise them, whether you liked them or not.

They had us watch Cabinet of Caligari in high school. I just thought it was really weird. (Did you ever notice that the word weird does not follow the I before E rule?)

I used to wonder, when they showed us a certain movie in school, what the hell was the educational value. I eventually realized that they show movies so the student and the teachers will have a break from class.

Everyone can have an opinion but to me that movie was so artistically and visually revolutionary that it has a place when talking about film.