The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1922/Germany) by Robert Wiene

Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Joins the Auteur Cinema Archive

The Auteur Cinema Archive proudly welcomes The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, Germany) by Robert Wiene—a foundational work of expressionist cinema and one of the earliest masterpieces of auteur filmmaking. With its distorted sets, psychological complexity, and groundbreaking visual design, Caligari helped define the aesthetics of horror and the potential of cinema as a medium for subjective storytelling.

The film follows Francis, a man recounting a chilling tale involving his friend Alan, his fiancée Jane, and the sinister Dr. Caligari, who arrives at a carnival with a sleepwalker named Cesare that can predict the future. When Alan is murdered after receiving a grim prophecy, Francis begins a descent into a surreal world of suspicion, manipulation, and madness. As the mystery unfolds, Francis discovers that Caligari is the director of a mental asylum—only for the film to twist again, leaving viewers questioning the reality of everything they’ve seen.

Curator Kris De Meester on the film’s inclusion:
"The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is pure cinema—a film that doesn’t just tell a story, but warps reality itself. Wiene’s vision, combined with Hermann Warm’s jagged set design and the eerie performances, creates a world that is as psychological as it is physical. This isn’t just a film; it’s a nightmare you can’t wake from—and that’s the essence of auteur cinema."

Often cited as the first true horror film and one of the earliest examples of the unreliable narrator in cinema, Caligari was a major influence on directors from Alfred Hitchcock to Tim Burton. Its expressionist style, characterized by angular buildings, painted shadows, and dreamlike geometry, mirrored the disturbed mental states of its characters—introducing a bold new direction for narrative and visual storytelling.

With the inclusion of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in the Auteur Cinema Archive, we recognize a film that not only pioneered genre and technique, but also dared to explore the inner workings of the human mind. A century later, its shadow still looms large.