http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmfu0M063Ag
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (German: Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari) is a 1920 silent horror film directed by Robert Wiene from a screenplay by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer. It is one of the most influential of German Expressionist films and is often considered one of the greatest horror movies of the early times. This movie is cited as having introduced the twist ending in cinema.
Jean-Marc Lofficier wrote Superman’s Metropolis, a trilogy of graphic novels for DC Comics illustrated by Ted McKeever, the second of which was entitled Batman: Nosferatu, most of the plot derived from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Caligari himself appears as a member of Die Zwielichthelden (The Twilight Heroes), a German mercenary group in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Black Dossier by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill. Also, in The Sandman issue “Calliope” written by Neil Gaiman and pencilled by Kelley Jones, a character, Richard Madoc, writes a book “The Cabaret of Dr. Caligari”, an obvious pseudonym.
The name ‘Caligari’ has been used extensively in popular music. Pere Ubu has a song entitled “Caligari’s Mirror”. Goth rock group Bauhaus used a still of Cesare from the film on early t-shirts for their popular single “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”. The band Abney Park has a cut “The Secret Life of Dr. Calgari” on their album Lost Horizons (released 2008).
The 1998 music video for Rob Zombie’s single “Living Dead Girl” restaged several scenes from the film, with Zombie in the role of Caligari beckoning to the fair attendees. In addition to artificially imitating the poor image quality of aged film, the video also made use of the expressionistic sepia, aqua, and violet tinting used in Caligari. The film also inspired imagery in the video for “Forsaken” (2002), from the soundtrack for the film Queen of the Damned.
Hard rock group Rainbow used the film as inspiration for the music video to “Can’t Let You Go”, a single from their 1983 album Bent Out Of Shape, vocalist Joe Lynn Turner being made up as Cesare. The director was Dominic Orlando. The video for Coldplay’s “Cemeteries of London” included clips from the film. The video for the song “Otherside” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers off the album Californication, briefly used the film as a reference to its visuals.
According to Jean Cocteau, he was approached during the early 1930s by director Robert Wiene about playing “Cesare” in a sound remake, which was never made. In 1936, Bela Lugosi, while filming in England, was offered the part of “Caligari” in a sound remake, but returned to work in the U.S. During the 1940s, writer Hans Janowitz seemed close to selling his rights in a script to be directed by Fritz Lang, but neither that nor his plans for a sequel, Caligari II, came to fruition.
In 1991, the film was remade as The Cabinet of Dr. Ramirez, adapted by Mikhail Baryshnikov, who played “Cesar”, Joan Cusack, who played “Cathy”, Peter Gallagher, who played “Matt”, Peter Sellars, who directed, and Ron Vawter, who played “Dr. Ramirez”.
The film was adapted into an opera in 1997 by composer John Moran. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari premiered at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in a production by Robert McGrath.
Also, during 1997, playwright Susan Mosakowski adapted it to drama, performed at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club.
The band Pere Ubu’s second album Dub Housing features a song called “Caligari’s Mirror”.
The final episode of the children’s television series Count Duckula, titled “The Zombie Awakes”, is a parody of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. A mad psychologist, named Dr. Quackbrain sends a somnambulist named Morpheus to bring Duckula to Quackbrain’s castle, which is designed inside and out with the same extreme lights, shadows, angles and shapes characteristic of Caligari’s expressionist style.
There is strong influence of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari on the concept of the 2009 fantasy film The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus, by Terry Gilliam as well as on the book Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane on which the eponymous movie by Martin Scorsese is based. Scorcese was surprised that Lehane hadn’t seen The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari whose story has many similarities with that of Shutter Island.
Bernd Pulch 