Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari 4K Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		5.0
Overall		5.0

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari 4K Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 27, 2022

Robert Wiene's "Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari" a.k.a. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) arrives on 4K Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the release include new audio commentary by critics Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rugby; new program with critic Kim Newman; video essay by critic David Cairns; Rudiger Suchsland's documentary film "Caligari: The Birth of Horror in the First World War"; and more. With German intertitles and optional English subtitles. Region-Free.

The film has a rather puzzling plot. It begins with a fascinating conversation between two men who seem to be recalling their past. In the middle of their conversation, a beautiful woman in a white gown emerges from the shadows and slowly approaches them.

Rather abruptly, the action now moves to a small German town. At the local fair, Dr. Caligari (Werner Krauss) introduces to the excited crowd his somnambulist, Cesare (Conrad Veidt), who sleeps in a coffin and can predict the future. Cesare has a long, unusually pale, and genuinely unsettling face.

Amongst the spectators are Francis (Friedrich Feher) and his good friend Alain (Hans Heinz von Twardowski), who wants to know when he will die. Cesare indifferently announces that he will die later that night. Soon after the two friends leave the fair, Alain is found dead.

Convinced that Dr. Caligari is somehow responsible for Alan’s death, Francis and his friend, Jane (Lil Dagover), begin monitoring him. When Dr. Caligari accidentally discovers that he is being followed, he asks Cesare to kill Jane.

The film is broken into six acts, each expanding its story in ways that keep redefining its identity. Indeed, there are different tonal shifts and strange subplots that eventually make it virtually impossible to tell with absolute certainty whether everything that takes place in it is in fact real. The end result is a magnificent but truly bizarre film, one that feels like a very long dream that makes sense only while one is experiencing it. After it ends, it is hard to accurately recall various parts of it, let alone properly align them.

Based on stories by Carl Mayer and Hans Janowitz, the film’s biggest strength is its pure atmosphere. It is difficult to explain with simple words precisely why, but there is something about the employment of light and shadow and the astonishing sets that give the film a certain vibe that very few other silent films have -- it is very dark, genuinely spooky, and it triggers something in the viewer’s mind that makes the viewing experience quite unusual.

There is a very curious study (From Caligari to Hitler) produced by German sociologist and theorist Siegfried Kracauer in which he argues that Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari was directly responsible for the rise of Nazism. It is difficult to tell with absolute certainty if the film really was that influential, but it is very easy to see that it profoundly changed cinema. Its aesthetics are replicated in many of the greatest silent era films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and M (1931), F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu, Joe May's Asphalt (1929), and Henrik Galeen's The Man Who Cheated Life (1926).

Robert Wiene completed Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari in 1920. He was assisted by cinematographer Willy Hameister (Dimitri Buchowetzki's Peter the Great), artistic designer Hermann Warm (Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr), and expressionist artists Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari 4K Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

This 4K Blu-ray release introduces a native 4K presentation of the recent 4K restoration of Robert Wiene's Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari that was completed at L'immagine Ritrovata. The 4K restoration was first introduced on Blu-ray in 2014. You can see our listing and review of Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray release here.

Please note that all screencaptures that appear with this article are taken from the 4K Blu-ray and are downscaled to 1080p. Therefore, they do not accurately reflect the quality of the 4K content on the 4K Blu-ray disc.

The native 4K presentation does not have a Dolby Vision/HDR grade. This means that the main upgrade in quality is in the native resolution of the visuals. I still have the Region-B Blu-ray release in my library, so I was able to perform various direct comparisons for this article.

First, I think that the 4K restoration is magnificent and one of the best that I have seen done for an early film of this caliber. Why? Because in addition to the excellent repair work, the restoration incorporates outstanding reconstructive work. It is important to keep this in mind when judging the overall quality of the project. So, how does Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari look in native 4K? Really, really good. Obviously, there are areas of the film with some limitations and minor imperfections that are just as easily noticeable in native 4K, but there are undeniable improvements in terms of delineation and depth. On my system, the most easily recognizable improvements were during close-ups, which as you know are very common. For example, these improvements are very easy to identify in the close-up seen in screencapture #3. Improvements in terms of depth are not as consistent because of the fluctuations that exist throughout the entire film. However, the increased resolution and great-looking tints -- the yellow ones in particular -- produced some pretty striking visuals on my system, so if you have a large screen, I think that you will very easily appreciate the bump in quality from 1080p to 4K. As I expected, the fluidity of the visuals remains identical because of the quality of the surviving materials. What does this mean? It means that even minor surface imperfections have a major effect on the improvement in fluidity that you would have noticed on a much healthier film from a later decade. (To put things in a proper context, the same type of transition from 1080p to 4K using L'immagine Ritrovata's 4K restoration of La Dolce Vita would produce a completely different result on your system). Don't forget that there are some jump cuts and missing frames on the 4K restoration. So, I think that your appreciation of the native 4K presentation of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari as well as your enjoyment of it will be determined by the size of your TV. If your screen is in the 75"-85" range and up, you should not hesitate to upgrade. The improvement in quality is undeniable. If your screen is below 75", you are still going to recognize the upgrade but your appreciation of it will vary.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari 4K Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, LPCM 2.0, and LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the German intertitles.

The second LPCM 2.0 track is for a recent score by Uwe Dierksen & Hermann Kretzschmar that was recorded in 2019. Since it was not present on the previous Blu-ray release of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari, it is the one I chose to view the film. It has a distinct contemporary quality but it is essentially a chamber score that does not produce any striking dynamic contrasts. It complements the visuals well, but I prefer the previous score.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari 4K Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Caligari: The Birth of Horror in the First World War - this outstanding German documentary film, produced by Rudiger Suchsland, takes a closer look at the socio-political environment in Germany at the time when Robert Wiene directed Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari, the tremendous impact the film had on German cinema, and the evolution of German cinema before and after Hitler's rise to power. Included in the film are clips from different interviews with various German film scholars as well as plenty of archival footage. In German, with optional English subtitles. (53 min).

• You Must Become Caligari - in this video essay, critic David Cairns discusses the fascinating production history of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari as well as the film's unique visual style. In English, not subtitled. (16 min).

• Commentary One - in this archival audio commentary, film historian David Kalat discusses the production history of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari, its visual style, the unique structure of its plot, the film's critical reception outside of Germany, etc.

• Commentary Two - this exclusive new audio commentary was recorded by critics Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rugby. The bulk of the comments address the genre identity, visual style, and historical significance of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari.

• The Asylum in Film - in this exclusive new program, critic Kim Newman discusses the "insane asylum" theme in horror cinema as well as its Gothic roots and presence in Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari. In English, not subtitled. (15 min).

• On the Restoration - presented here is the excellent promotional piece from BertelsmannSE about the 4K restoration of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari. In German, with optional Enlgish subtitles. (9 min).

• Re-Release Trailer - trailer for the 4K restoration of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari. Music only, with English text. (2 min).

• Book - a limited edition 100-page book featuring archival writing and articles, including vintage writing on Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari by Lotte H. Eisner, an original Variety review of the film, rare imagery, and more.

Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari 4K Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

It is a little surreal to be able to own a home video release of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari that offers a presentation of the film that was impossible to replicate in a theater just a decade ago. To be honest, quite a few 4K Blu-ray and Blu-ray releases that were produced in 2022 would have been impossible to promote even as 'crazy talk' during the LD and VHS eras when collectors did a lot of fantasizing. This is the best time to be a collector, folks, and I am convinced that 2023 will be even better. Eureka Entertainment's 4K Blu-ray release of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari is the ultimate gift for fans of the film, so if you are one of them, give yourself a very special Christmas present. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.