The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 / Hugo 2011

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari 1920 / Hugo 2011

The review will meander a bit around a modern film before talking about the classic silent era horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).  Earlier this week I gave in to the pressures of positive reviews, academy awards and my love of all flicks by Martin Scorsese and went to see Scorsese's new children's adventure movie Hugo (2011).  Hugo has some interesting ties back to early cinema and inspired me to re-watch to review one of my favorites of the silent era.  It was a hard choice between Metropolis (1927), Dr. Caligari, or a movie by Georges Melies (discussed below), but I chose my favorite silent flick The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.  Now to stop dancing around the issue and get into the details of historic characters, film history, and finally some movie recommendations.

Hugo was the inspiration for writing about a silent film so I should discuss it and its ties to silent movies first.  It is a great adventure story with fantastic effects, sound, costumes, and a pretty darn good story, but that is better explained by the awards it received.  At the 2012 Oscars it took home awards for Art Direction, Cinematography, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and lastly Visual Effects.  Personally I saw it in 3D and minus a scene or two ruined with heavy 3D snow I can see how it won both cinematography and effects categories.  It is a great looking work that does some amazing tricks with 3D and regularly has staggering shots involving the mechanics of clocks.  It is no great surprise that it was a technically solid, beautiful movie with Robert Richardson as the cinematographer and Scorsese directing.  Richardson has worked with Scorsese in the past as director of photography on Shutter Island (2010) and worked on both Kill Bill flicks.  Scorsese is a directing powerhouse famous for a long list of masterpieces such as Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), Gangs of New York (2002), and The Departed (2006).  Enough gushing about the talent behind the flick and to why it is relevant to my romp back into the silent era.

Hugo is the story of an orphaned boy seeking a last connection to his dead father.  The boy named Hugo, played competently by Asa Butterfeild, befriends the goddaughter of the owner of a toy shop in the train station where Hugo lives.  The store owner's story intertwines with the story of Hugo and his dead father through an early clockwork robot.  The historical significance in the film comes back to this toy shop owner.  The toy maker, Ben Kingsley who is awesome as always, turns out to be famous early film and effects genius George Melies.  The story of the character intertwines with Melies's fall from film making into obscurity working in a Paris train station and his rise back to recognition.  The movie does deviate from the true story of Melies but much of the silent movies shown are actual Melies films.  Hugo does a great job of opening up this fantastic film maker to a modern audience.  Meleies made silent movies from 1986 to 1913 and was an early pioneer in special effects.  He was one of the earliest film makers to explore genres of horror, science fiction, and fantasy with famous films that drew upon ideas from contemporary science fiction writers such as Jules Verne.  Kingsley portrays Melies as a man damaged by his fall from grace and financial failures which closely reflects the real life Melies.

So after a two hour modern flick extolling the wonders of early film making, I was overwhelmed with a desire to watch a silent era horror or fantasy film.  Naturally I drifted back to the film class favorite The Cabinet of Caligari because it was my first non-Buster Keaton silent film.  Dr. Caligari is one of best examples of early horror and expressionism in film.  It involves ideas of reality and insanity.  The story unfolds through a character recounting the tale of how he came to track a murdering hypnotist and asylum director back to the insane asylum.  It questions what is reality and who really is insane.  The recent Martin Scorsese film Shutter Island closely mirrors much of the same ideas and themes.  Dr. Caligari draws heavily on expressionism for its style and its heavy use of angles give the whole story the surreal qualities that further confuses reality and fantasy.  It is hard to explain the aesthetic style of Dr. Caligari and I suggest everyone checks out at least a few minutes of the film to understand how fantastic the art and sets could be in the early era of film.

OK enough of me feeding you a film history lesson and down to the important recommendations.  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a wonderful film.  It is a simple story with very complex ideas and subtext.  The set design and style create a wonderful fantasy world and you will recognize parts of the set because modern film makers draw heavily from Dr. Caligari (Tim Burton flicks and coffin scenes from Dracula [1931] are a great example).  On the other hand I can't recommend Dr. Caligari to most audiences.  It suffers from the slow pace common in silent films.  Unless you like black and white or silent movies, Dr. Caligari will only be interesting for its historic context.

Hugo on the other hand should appeal to a modern audience from children right up to jaded art house fans.  Scorsese again pulls off a blend of pop film making and beautiful art.  It borders at time on a pretentious film history lesson (like this article!), but it is exciting and entertaining.  I didn't think that Hugo could live up to critical acclaim it has received, but I think it did.  While it wasn't the most engaging or fun movie last year it certainly was one of the most beautiful with staggering effects and some of the best sound work I have ever seen.  I would recommend Hugo to anyone looking for a deeper kids movie and anyone who loves Scorsese.