Les commandes de la page sont traduites. Les titres des films restent tels qu’ils figurent au catalogue. Les textes éditoriaux et les descriptions des sources sont en anglais.

← Retour aux films

Horror

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Durée
77 minMurnau Foundation 4K restoration DCP screening Sources des versions ↓

Franzis tells the central story in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Its expressionist sets make inner feelings visible through a distorted world of painted shadows and sharp angles.

Rechercher des options de visionnage ↓ Avant de regarder le film ↓

Liens de recherche, sans disponibilité confirmée. Vérifiez l’édition et la région.

Langue
Silent; German intertitles
StrangeBleakMystery À garder pour plus tard · Modéré Horror

Édité par Monocurator

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: Momo peers around sharp paper architecture beside a glowing carnival cabinet.

Image: Monocurator · source · Original Monocurator artwork

Who is telling Caligari’s story?

Franzis
The young man whose account we follow.
Caligari
The fairground showman, played by Werner Krauss.
Cesare
Caligari’s somnambulist: a person who walks in their sleep, played by Conrad Veidt.

Why do the streets look wrong?

The exaggerated sets were designed by Walter Reimann, Hermann Warm and Walter Röhrig, as the Murnau Foundation records.

Expressionism shapes the visible world through inner feeling. BFI critic Alex Barrett describes the performers’ movements and sets combining into geometric patterns.

What does the ending reveal? Ending spoilers

Franzis is revealed as a patient in an asylum, with Caligari as its head doctor. Barrett’s account describes the reversal of the storyteller’s position.

Barrett argues that the asylum’s expressionist appearance keeps reality and delusion from separating cleanly. His reading leaves the doctor’s authority open to question.

On a second viewing, compare the opening bench with the final asylum. The ending changes whose account we are asked to trust.

For a first watch, look for the Murnau Foundation’s 2014 restoration. Its documented DCP runs 77 minutes; the separate 55-minute catalogue record describes another presentation. The Foundation restored the film in 4K from 2012 to 2014. Afterwards, try Nosferatu and compare how its rooms prepare an entrance, using our restoration and score guide to choose a copy.

Watch · Rent · Read Check availability on JustWatch Search rentals on Apple TV Search books on Bookshop.org U.S. search links, not availability claims · Disclosure

À quoi s’attendre

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari makes anxiety part of the scenery. Crooked streets, painted shadows, sharp angles, and theatrical gestures create a world where nothing appears stable or trustworthy. Rather than hiding its artificial sets, the film uses them to place us inside a disturbed state of mind. Its influence is easy to feel whenever horror lets design and atmosphere bend reality.

Comment aborder le film

Meet the exaggerated acting and painted sets on their own terms; the film is closer to a nightmare staged in a small theatre than to naturalistic horror. The framing story can feel distant at first, but the central figures soon become clear. Watch doors, windows, and paths: the design keeps telling you that this world offers no straight route to safety.

À savoir

Une brève note non exhaustive Includes murder, abduction, mind control, institutional confinement, and dated depictions of mental illness.
Momo's Note Peut contenir des révélations sur l’intrigue Qui est Momo ? → (S’ouvre en anglais)

A prophecy is more troubling when someone can arrange the outcome.

Ouvrir la note ↓ Fermer la note ↑

Cesare’s prophecy is a nasty little sales demonstration. He predicts a man’s death; in Franzis’s story, the same sleepwalker commits murders under Caligari’s control. A fortune-telling business with its own fulfilment department. I like the way this turns a question about the future into a question about who can arrange it. The framing story later challenges Franzis’s account, so I would not cash that prophecy as proof of supernatural powers. Its useful terror lies between knowing what will happen and making it happen.

— Momo

Momo thinking about this film

Générique et versions

Générique
Distribution
Werner Krauss · Conrad Veidt · Friedrich Feher · Lil Dagover
Scénario
Carl Mayer · Hans Janowitz
Production
Decla-Film-Ges. Holz & Co.
Photographie
Willy Hameister

Carte des versions

Murnau Foundation 4K restoration DCP screening 77 min · restoration · Germany The Murnau Foundation's current DCP distribution record lists its tinted 2014 restoration at 77:09, with German intertitles and English, French, and Portuguese subtitles. The Foundation's July 2024 programme rounds the same restored DCP to 77 minutes. Source : Murnau Foundation project — Das Cabinet des Dr. CaligariSource : Murnau Foundation program July 2024Source : Murnau Foundation — Film distribution DCP 01/2026 Référence pour la durée · Vérifié le 2026-09-23

Sources des données

Pour regarder et lire

ActionSearch destination
Watch Check availability on JustWatch
Rent Search rentals on Apple TV
Read Search books on Bookshop.org

U.S. search destinations · Links checked 2026-07-27 · Stock, editions, prices, and availability can change · Disclosure

Pour poursuivre la découverte

Envie d’un prochain film plus doux, plus court ou plus étrange ? Demandez à Momo un film dans le même esprit → (S’ouvre en anglais)
Momo est de service. Visiter Momo Cinema → (S’ouvre en anglais)

D’autres classiques de moins de 90 minutes → (S’ouvre en anglais) D’autres films de 1920 → (S’ouvre en anglais) D’autres films de Robert Wiene → (S’ouvre en anglais)
Pour aller plus loin15 Classic Movies Under 90 Minutes (45–88 Min) → (S’ouvre en anglais) Journal Pour aller plus loinWhat Is German Expressionism? When the Set Joins the Cast → (S’ouvre en anglais) Journal Pour aller plus loin8 Black-and-White Horror Movies: Where to Start → (S’ouvre en anglais) Journal
En savoir plus sur ce film (4)

Poursuivre la découverte du catalogue →