8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Francis recalls in his memory the horrible experiences he and his fiancée Jane recently went through. Francis and his friend Alan visit The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, an exhibit where the mysterious doctor shows the somnambulist Cesare, and awakens him for some moments from his death-like sleep. When Alan asks Cesare about his future, Cesare answers that he will die before dawn. The next morning Alan is found dead. Francis suspects Cesare of being the murderer, and starts spying on him and Dr. Caligari. The following night Cesare is going to stab Jane in her bed, but softens when he sees the beautiful woman, and instead of committing another murder, he abducts her. Francis pursues the fleeing Dr. Caligari, and sees him disappear into a madhouse, where he is sure he will find the truth behind all these mysterious events...
Starring: Conrad Veidt, Werner Krauss, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von TwardowskiForeign | 100% |
Horror | 49% |
Psychological thriller | 19% |
Surreal | 17% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Music: LPCM 2.0
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region B (locked)
Movie | 5.0 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 5.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 5.0 |
Robert Wiene's "Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari" a.k.a. "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include new trailer for the recent restoration of the film; new video essay by critic David Cairns; audio commentary by film historian David Kalat; Rudiger Suchsland's documentary films "Caligari: The Birth of Horror in the First World War" and From Caligari to Hitler; and more. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring Lotte H. Eisner's essay "The Beginning of the Expressionist Film" and Variety's original review of the film. With German intertitles and optional English subtitles. Region-B "locked".
Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Robert Wiene's Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Eureka Entertainment.
The release is sourced from the same excellent 4K restoration that Eureka Entertainment initially released on Blu-ray in 2014. You can see our review of the first Blu-ray release here. (The full text is also included below).
The following text precedes the film's opening credits:
"The 4K restoration was undertaken by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Wiesbaden from the original camera negative held at the Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv in Berlin. The first reel of the camera negative is missing and was reconstructed using alternative sources. Jump cuts and missing frames in 67 shots were reinserted from multiple prints. An original German release print does not exist. The basis for the color tinting were two nitrate prints from Latin America, which represent the earliest surviving prints of the film, now stored at the Filmmuseum Dusseldorf and the Cineteca di Bologna. The intertitles were recreated from the flashtitles in the camera negative and a 16mm print from 1935 from the Deutsche Kinemathek-Museum fur Film und Fernsehen in Berlin. The digital image restoration was carried out by L'immagine Ritrovata - Film Conservation and Restoration in Bologna."
The promotional materials for the new 4K restoration of this legendary film which BertelsmannSE provided earlier this year were quite impressive, but now having seen the restoration I have to say that it is one of the very best done for a silent film. Detail and clarity are frequently astonishing. In fact, at times depth is so striking that it is almost impossible to believe that the film was actually reconstructed. (See the opening sequence where the woman in white slowly approaches the two men -- screencapture #1). Arguably the biggest improvements, however, are in the area of image stability. Excluding a few minor skips where frames are clearly missing, the film looks as if it was shot just a few years ago -- there is no edge flicker, image weaving or shimmer. The different tints also look lush and stable. There are no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. Lastly, there are no encoding or compression anomalies to report in this review. To sum it all up, the 4K restoration of Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari is absolutely magnificent and Eureka Entertainment's technical presentation of the film mighty impressive. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0. For the record, Eureka Entertainment have provided optional English subtitles for the intertitles.
I viewed the film with the 2.0 track and later on did a few random comparisons with the 5.1 track. The film is complimented by a somewhat minimalistic and quite moody score that fits its atmosphere very well. There are various string solos which occasionally create the impression that one is listening to a newly discovered dark chamber piece composed by Alban Berg. The pure and intentionally flat brass solos are equally effective. Rather predictably, the overall range of nuanced dynamics is rather limited, but depth and clarity are outstanding. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or digital distortions to report in this review.
BLU-RAY DISC ONE
This recent SteelBook edition of Robert Wiene's Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari is sourced from the excellent 4K restoration of the film but adds a second disc with Rüdiger Suchsland's documentary From Caligari to Hitler. The documentary is one of the very best that I have seen produced about the cinematic legacy of the Weimar Republic, with a tremendous amount of excellent archival footage and terrific in-depth analysis from contemporary directors and scholars. Superb release. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / Masters of Cinema
1920
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari | Masters of Cinema | Limited Edition
1920
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari / Masters of Cinema
1920
1920
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens / Dracula
1922
Gatto nero
1981
La notte dei diavoli | Limited Edition
1972
À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma
1964
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
1979
I tre volti della paura | Special Edition
1963
[•REC]: Apocalypse | [•REC] 4: Apocalipsis / [•REC] 4: Apocalypse
2014
幽霊屋敷の恐怖 血を吸う人形 / Chi o suu ningyô
1970
La morte vivante
1982
Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam / The Golem: How He Came into the World | Masters of Cinema
1920
L'orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock | Limited Edition
1962
Masters of Cinema
1932
La morte ha sorriso all'assassino
1973
Dèmoni 2: L'incubo ritorna
1986
Faust - Eine deutsche Volkssage / Masters of Cinema
1926
The Grim Reaper
1980
Les yeux sans visage
1960
2016
Paura nella città dei morti viventi | Remastered
1980
E tu vivrai nel terrore - L'aldilà | Standard Edition
1981