Weimar Berlin: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, 100 years ! (1)

A day like today, hundred years ago,The Cabinet of Dr Caligari had its premiere, at the Marmorhaus theatre of Berlin. Today considered a masterpiece of the Seventh Art, Robert Wiene’s film was far from a success when first screened.

One of the reasons was the music chosen to accompany the projection of the silent movie : can Beethoven, Schubert, Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and finally Paul Lincke's “Frau Luna” (an operetta) be a congenial music for a kind of expressionist psychological thriller about the double life of the director of an asylum, who orders his medium Cesare to commit murders ?

That was not really the director’s choice. As the premiere was improvised, it was the musicians themselves who decided of the background music.

Already finding a venue was difficult. Initially, the Marmorhaus showed no interest for "that crazy thing", and when it finally accepted, it was only because another film planned there had not been finished in time.

There is a different version of the premiere, where the film, far from being a failure, was a great success. One hundred years later, it is difficult to know. What we do know is that an extensive advertisement campaign was launched, even before the film was finished (and it was finished just one month before the premiere). Many posters and newspaper advertisements included the enigmatic phrase, featured also in the film, "Du musst Caligari werden!", or "You must become Caligari !"

Caligari had then its premiere on February 27, 1920 at the Berlin film theater "Marmorhaus". The work became famous for its novel style, which combined painted and built, grotesquely distorted backdrops with high-contrast lighting, light and shadow, which is why it is often referred to as a prime example of expressionist film. The buildings of the film came from Walter Reimann, Hermann Warm and Walter Röhrig and were created in the studios of the German film production company Decla-Bioscop in Neubabelsberg, today's Babelsberg studio in Potsdam. [

Caligari, which did become a success in the end, helped German film to be internationally recognized after the First World War and significantly shaped its “image”. In 1933 it was banned in Germany and in 1937 it was part of the “degenerate art” exhibition. A high distinction, as we see it today.