The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

I saw it as beautiful hommage to original. The purpose - a trip in the universe of a classic, with good succes for atmosphere, buildings, the symbol of violet flower, the not bad acting, the fair craft of thrill.

Decent work, difficult to expect more than a form of respect for original, ignoring innovations temptation. Beautiful portrait of Francis . Sure, not the best dialogue when the model is one of the masterpieces of mute cinema but, with indulgence and passion for classics, a reasonable job. Sure, a Cesare reminding more Pierrot and the obsession of explanations, affecting, in unfair manner, the poetry of original. But pretty nice result and powerful image of little flower.

The remake of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" has all the poles holding it up. We have plenty of shadows, plenty of new camera angles, and more tension than the original masterpiece. Of course you are going to see some scenes which mirror the original. This just proves the love which went into the making of this soon to be classic. The most remarkable parts of this film are the reprisals of the original flick's backgrounds, and a fantastic series of performances, especially the new Caligari who is even more bad tempered and crazier than ever. The new film focuses even more on the sanity of the tortured Francis, who seems to be losing his grip with his own world as the film progresses. The actor who portrays the killer Caesare is eerily similar to the first film's sleepwalking stabber. The black and white flavoring really gives you the impression that this film might have been made in the late 30's than the new millennium. All in all, a terrific remake and a film no horror purist can resist.

First and foremost i love the original to bits, it was the first silent film i ever watched so you can imagine a feature length movie without dialogue was pretty strange to watch for me then.

So what does a version with talking bring? Not really much at all. I was pretty pumped for this, the trailer didn't look all too bad and at first I was excited to hear that they were using the background from the original 35mm print.

The backgrounds are composited pretty badly in a lot of scenes, especially my favorite shot of Cesare creeping along the wall, which Is a disaster and he doesn't look like he's touching the wall at all! (They should have built this set!) Doug Jones is a pretty good actor, but he doesn't even touch Veidts performance. He's just simply not scary, the terrifying shot where Cesare opens his eyes for the first time in the original film was severed here.

The dialogue is really bad in a lot of places, sure its interesting to see it with dialogue if only for a minute, but comon! Overall id say average, it has a lot of faults but it also is pretty OK in some spots, the new shots are pretty cool. David Lee Fischer obviously didn't love this film enough to leave it THE HELL ALONE!

I will call attention to the extremely divided reactions. And I think that this is because a lot of people reasonably and rightfully can't get into this talking version. The characters speak like video game characters. There's also an erratic and unpredictable tone in the conversations, with a lot of what seem like full notes and irrational responses.

I like the way the shots are set up. Different focal lengths, random changes in the height of the camera, lots of extreme close-ups. I also like the way that the scenes kind of drag on. It's very theatrical.

My advice would be to click off if you find yourself hating it. It's working for me.

I have just finished watching The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Why this film has not won more awards and is not better known, is beyond me! This film, when one considers its technical achievements alone, is a milestone in ingenuity. In its handling of the concepts of the original film, it is a heartfelt homage. In its re-imagining of the original film, it is chilling. As one who normally doesn't like re-makes, I have got to say, "I love this film and will watch it over and over again!" Kudos to the director for making a great film that any fan of the original German expressionist film should love. Thank you David Lee Fisher! Kudos to Daamen Krall for bringing a palpable villainy to Dr. Caligari. While watching the film, the voice of Caligari reminded me of Vincent Price. A voice of gentle yet refined menace. Kudos to Doug Jones with his masterful performance of Cesare! His performance rivaled that of Conrad Veidt. Everyone involved in this film is to be congratulated on a work masterfully crafted and acted! Thank you.