Last week I felt like watching a horror film. Now most serious movie watchers will agree with me that horror films today are not the one that will go down in history as great. I didn't just want to watch any horror movie, I wanted a conventional horror film. A damsel in distress type, fear for life and some sexual energy as well. Just checked around and settled for "Halloween" (1978). Roger Ebert said he was prepared to compare it with "Psycho". It's on my Netflix queue as I write this. Netflix movies take a while to come so I brought 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' from the university library.
When I started watching a week after I'd brought it home I forgot it was a movie made in 1920. Hence, I was not prepared for a movie with "inter-titles". The picture too was not sharp in the earlier shots. Basically we were not prepared for it in the first few minutes. Once we accepted the fact it is "old" film we settled down.
The very first shot shows two people. My first thoughts were that they look like ghosts themselves. As soon as I thought this they started speaking about ghosts themselves! As if this was not enough a girl floated through the shot and I told myself that this was the ghost for sure. No! One of the men said that was his finacee! I knew something was wrong. But then one of the two men starts his story. That's when I forgot these points I was keeping track of.
Now the shots in the story had me thinking all the time. Dr. Caligari visits a clerk and that place does not look an office of any sort. The buildings look crooked, the patterns are odd, man, everything seems unreal. In fact the designs I shall remember for a while, the steps that seem to lead up to the two cops, the cell in which the suspect is detained, the vacant room in the 'insane asylum' with three sets of stairs leading up, the corridor outside the director's office, the door leading to the director's office, the house that Dr. Caligari stays in, two men battling before stabs the other shown through shadows. The entire film is in a yellow tone. In fact, when the stairs are shown leading to the cops I can't say for sure if the yellow is light or the stairs are painted that way, the two lines on the steps that probably shouldn't be there. Beautiful!
Then there is the music. For a film like this to work without dialogues takes something, In fact it takes two 'somethings', the visuals and the music. The best example is when we discover the director is Dr. Caligari. Wait, wait, now we all know the director is going to be Dr. Caligari for sure but the music does the trick of scaring you anyway. The hairs at he back of my head were standing! Exaggeration? No, it happened. Maybe I did this to myself because by then I was in love with the film anyway. Possible. Further, there are many other places where the music is good, only I can't remember it in the detail as I remember the visuals.
Let's get back to the story. What-a-story! I was not prepared for this 'twist-end'. In fact, my wife perhaps was not enjoying the film as I was and missed the end completely. We discussed our individual interpretations for a few minutes after the film ended and checked the internet for the right one. We had worked out the right end. The twist-end is of course one way of enjoying the film. But for me this film will remain about the visuals that the flashback provides. The fact that a mad-man is telling the story makes it convenient for all the odd but fantastic designs I mentioned two paragraphs before. These visuals will stay with me from this film and the way the story permits these visuals to fit into the film.
'Halloween' has now slipped lower in my Neflix queue. Dr. Caligari may not have been scary in visuals but the story is scary enough. It takes you in the mind of a mad-man who sees the world in a different way. In some way we tend to believe his almost all the way which frightens me because it creates the doubt. Am I mad? If not why did I believe the story of a mad-man?
RATING: 5/5
When I started watching a week after I'd brought it home I forgot it was a movie made in 1920. Hence, I was not prepared for a movie with "inter-titles". The picture too was not sharp in the earlier shots. Basically we were not prepared for it in the first few minutes. Once we accepted the fact it is "old" film we settled down.
The very first shot shows two people. My first thoughts were that they look like ghosts themselves. As soon as I thought this they started speaking about ghosts themselves! As if this was not enough a girl floated through the shot and I told myself that this was the ghost for sure. No! One of the men said that was his finacee! I knew something was wrong. But then one of the two men starts his story. That's when I forgot these points I was keeping track of.
Now the shots in the story had me thinking all the time. Dr. Caligari visits a clerk and that place does not look an office of any sort. The buildings look crooked, the patterns are odd, man, everything seems unreal. In fact the designs I shall remember for a while, the steps that seem to lead up to the two cops, the cell in which the suspect is detained, the vacant room in the 'insane asylum' with three sets of stairs leading up, the corridor outside the director's office, the door leading to the director's office, the house that Dr. Caligari stays in, two men battling before stabs the other shown through shadows. The entire film is in a yellow tone. In fact, when the stairs are shown leading to the cops I can't say for sure if the yellow is light or the stairs are painted that way, the two lines on the steps that probably shouldn't be there. Beautiful!
Then there is the music. For a film like this to work without dialogues takes something, In fact it takes two 'somethings', the visuals and the music. The best example is when we discover the director is Dr. Caligari. Wait, wait, now we all know the director is going to be Dr. Caligari for sure but the music does the trick of scaring you anyway. The hairs at he back of my head were standing! Exaggeration? No, it happened. Maybe I did this to myself because by then I was in love with the film anyway. Possible. Further, there are many other places where the music is good, only I can't remember it in the detail as I remember the visuals.
Let's get back to the story. What-a-story! I was not prepared for this 'twist-end'. In fact, my wife perhaps was not enjoying the film as I was and missed the end completely. We discussed our individual interpretations for a few minutes after the film ended and checked the internet for the right one. We had worked out the right end. The twist-end is of course one way of enjoying the film. But for me this film will remain about the visuals that the flashback provides. The fact that a mad-man is telling the story makes it convenient for all the odd but fantastic designs I mentioned two paragraphs before. These visuals will stay with me from this film and the way the story permits these visuals to fit into the film.
'Halloween' has now slipped lower in my Neflix queue. Dr. Caligari may not have been scary in visuals but the story is scary enough. It takes you in the mind of a mad-man who sees the world in a different way. In some way we tend to believe his almost all the way which frightens me because it creates the doubt. Am I mad? If not why did I believe the story of a mad-man?
RATING: 5/5
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