Silent Film | Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari

Return to an era when films were silent, but nightmares spoke loudly. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the most famous works of silent cinema. With a short introduction and live piano accompaniment by Daan van den Hurk, this Expressionist horror classic is given a new voice at Natlab.

The mysterious Dr. Caligari arrives at the annual fair in Holstenwall with an unusual attraction. Inside a coffin lies Cesare, a sleepwalker who has supposedly been asleep for 23 years and can predict the future. When Cesare tells a young visitor that he will not live to see the following morning, the prophecy comes true with alarming speed.

After a series of mysterious murders, Francis becomes convinced that Caligari and Cesare are involved. His investigation leads him through a world of crooked streets, collapsing buildings and shadows painted directly onto the walls. Nothing looks as it should and nobody can be entirely trusted.

Director Robert Wiene turned the sets into an extension of his characters. The distorted buildings, sharp angles and dramatic contrasts became defining features of German Expressionism. More than a century later, the film’s influence can still be seen throughout horror, film noir and the work of filmmakers such as Tim Burton.

Film pianist Daan van den Hurk, who is also director of the Nederlands Silent Film Festival, introduces the film before accompanying it live. Responding directly to the murders, pursuits and increasingly strange events, he creates the rhythm, suspense and atmosphere inside the cinema. As a result, every performance sounds different.

A film from 1920, a piano in the cinema and a nightmare that is still wide awake.