Though Caligari (directed by Robert Wiene, Germany, 1919) is a canonical film classic, ever present in the must-see lists of world cinema, one can't help feeling this is a view more honoured in the breach than the observance. Though it famously deals with somnambulism,...

A Highlander Films production. Produced by Leonard C. McLeod, Paula Elins. Directed, written, edited by David Lee Fisher, based on the story by Hans Janowitz, Carl Mayen Camera (B&W, HD video), Christopher Duddy; music, Eban Schletter; production designer, Kim Richey; art director,...

It was tough enough in antiquity to be a sorceress, let alone the planet's most beautiful woman. In the postmodern world, you have to compete for attention with directors, too.Strauss' "Die Aegyptische Helena" ("The Egyptian Helen") returned to the Metropolitan Opera on Thursday night for...

Budd is an American film scholar and educator who has written extensively on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. In the following excerpt, which summarizes much of his previous scholarship on the film, he places The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in its historical and artistic contexts.

A German philosopher as well as a social and arts critic, Kracauer emigrated to the United States when the Nazis came to power. In the following excerpt, he examines the production history, themes, and techniques of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, arguing that this film best exemplifies his thesis that German popular culture provided evidence of a "mass psychological predisposition" in the German people to accept and embrace Adolf Hitler's fascism.

In the following excerpt, Ketchif argues that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is more significantly Cubist than Expressionistic and suggests that the film's manipulation of space mirrors its main themes.