1989's 'Dr. Caligari' has me *almost* lost for words. Its a fascinating film from the minds of Stephen Sayadian and Jerry Stahl. And…if you've never heard of Stephen or Jerry. Well…they're responsible for some of the strangest and most fascinating pieces of cinema that i've ever personally come across, 'Nightdreams' and 'Cafe Flesh'. Both of which are considered 'Hardcore' erotic films, but both of which are also distinctly experimental in style and VERY new wave in execution. I can sincerely say i've NEVER seen anything quite like 'Nightdreams' before or since and im almost certain if you check it out, you'll say much the same.
Their style is very fragmented, purposefully erratic and supremely campy with an emphasis on *high key* not taking themselves too seriously, while *low key* kind of taking themselves a bit seriously.'Dr. Caligari' initially started life as a sequel to 'Nightdreams' until the pair realised that the 1920 german expressionist film 'The Cabinate of Dr. Caligari' had, at this point, fallen into the public domain. As such, they changed tact. Adapting their 'Nightdreams 2' script into a direct sequel to 'Cabinate' instead. They softened the hardcore elements right down into something a little more commercially acceptable (theres still a lot of nudity, but no actual visual on screen penetration or anything like that) and after a bit of a refit, they arrived at 'Dr. Caligari'
Jerry Stahl puts it best, when interviewed about 'Caligari' he quipped that the critics absolutely loved the film and thought it was something truely next level in the medium of cinema. He managed to get a date and thought the ultimate street cred would be taking her to go and see his own critically acclaimed movie. Only to get to the theatre to find it COMPLETELY empty barring those two…The date didnt really go anywhere after that.
Explaining the plot of 'Caligari' is hard…well…actually thats a bit misleading because its surprisingly easy. But this is a film which has a LOT of symbolism and on screen double meanings, so to explain the plot does the film a disservice because it wont really give you the full understanding of quite WHY this magnificent work of art IS in fact a magnificent work of art. Its a bit like 'Eraserhead' or 'Liquid Sky' or 'Split' in the sense that, a LOT is being inferred, a lot more than a basic synopsis would really allow. So what i'll say up front is, if you've seen the promotional materials for this film, or you've liked what you've heard so far. Go and watch the movie. It's one of those films that works 100 times better as a blind watch anyway and I wholeheartedly recommend it, what you see here is pretty much what you get, so I think it'll be a pretty clean cut case as to whether you get on with this one or not.
The film is set in what can only be described a surrealist nightmare void. In which not even sets really exist…everything is kind of just presented as is and the sets just seem to roll on forever into the void. So for example our cast will be happily lounging in an armchair watching TV on a lino floored space that just suddenly disintigrates into marshland, which in and of itself rolls on well out of shot of the cameras. Its a trip to be sure.
Anyway; in the film we follow the case of the Van Houtens. Eleanor Van Houten is the wife to an important businessman Les, and she's currently struggling with a mental disorder which makes her excessively rampantly insatiably horny. In the opening of the film we see Elenor in some king of nightmare sequence in which she's watching TV and a scene comes on in which a woman has a puss ridden sore on her ankle, on touching the screen Eleanor develops a similar sore and she flees to her bathroom to grab some medication. She sits by the bath and a strange gentleman wearing a cherub mask erupts from under the water and slashes her wrists. She manages to escape but finds herself slow motion crawling through a warped asylum before suddenly realising that the masked man is having sex with a version of herself. Horrified, shes suddenly jolted back into her armchair. Where a mysterious woman breaks in on the static of the TV thats broadcasting and begins pleasuring Eleanor via 'static licks'
Its here that her husband finally enters the scene and decides to intervene. In a panic, he contacts 'Dr.Caligari' to explain that Eleanor has had a relapse and needs to be sedated and taken into her care again. Caligari is reluctant as Eleanor by all accounts has been 'cured' by her. But Les is insistent and after some backing and forthing in which Les mentions the sheer scandal and embarrassment he had to endure the last time Eleanors illness caused her to act out in public, Caligari agrees to take her back and asks Les to swing by the asylum the next day to sign some release papers.
He arrives at Caligaris asylum, but before signing anything, he asks if he can see Eleanors file to get a better idea about what *exactly* Caligari did to her last time. Caligari refuses saying she destroyed her files shortly after declaring her 'cured'. Before going on to state that Eleanor suffers from 'Erotic Trauma' a difficult to cure 'disease of the labido'. As such, she suggests 2 weeks in the asylum under her care to try and get to the bottom of the trauma and resolve it. Les Reluctantly agrees to sign the documents, at which point we then cut to what appears to be some kind of Barroom setting.
In here we're introduced to Dr. Avol. Who…seemingly doesnt really have a function in this film other than being a colleague to Dr. Caligari who may or may not work in the same asylum. He has a daughter called Ramona who also works in the Asylum alongside her partner Dr. Lodger. Ramona and her partner are currently doing a spot of espionage on Caligari, as they're convinced that she's repurposed her asylum into basically a huge guinea pig farm for her devious and sadistic mental experiments referring to her as a 'Sex Nazi'.
Dr. Avol doesnt quite believe it, but the pair have seen and heard enough anecdotal evidence to feel convinced that Caligari is up to something. They just don't know what. Avol tells them to drop it because theres nothing to worry about, but the pair decide to keep it up for now at least. As they head out, it's revealed that Caligari was hidden as a statue in the room they were in and heard the entire exchange first hand.
Its here that it's revealed that Caligari IS in fact experimenting on patients, as we're introduced to a 'Mr. Pratt' a cannibalistic mass murderer with needles in his ass who's OBSESSED with being electrocuted,hinting that it's something of an orgasmic expeirence for him. Caligari gives him a brief jolt, before showing him some severed heads and Pratt recounts one of the first murders he ever did, killing a woman who worked at a 'Home for wayward tots' by bashing her head in with a family sized bottle of ketchup and disposing of the body in a giant stew. He said he understood because 'he was a wayward tot too'.
Les visits Caligari again to explain that the situations now worse than ever, and Caligari tells Les that, now Eleanors in her care, she'd like to take her in for observation. Eleanor meanwhile is having 'sexy wall visions' *shudder* She's immediately committed and what follows is a VERY cold exchange between the two in which Eleanor expresses her horniness while Caligari mildly chastises her, but also asks her if she's interested in having sex with a scarecrow thats in the room. She agrees. But after rustling around in the scarecrows trousers trying to find his corncob, she turns up empty handed and instead somehow seriously burns her hand and arm.
Another meeting is set up between Caligari and Les to update him on Eleanors condition and, I cant really go much further into this film at this point without seriously spoiling the ending (I honestly feel i've said too much with whats here) what I will say is Les ends up getting WAY more than he bargained for here, Caligaris plans are revealed and things quickly take a tumble into the nightmarish and absurd as her self styled and titled work in the field of 'Hyperthalmic Interfacing' causes our main characters to slowly lose their minds and give into their base urges. In an ASTOUNDINGLY fun 78 minutes, Will Eleanor be cured? Will Caligari's research get accalaim? and…Just why IS Les in the asylum!? Non of this will be answered…or it might be…I don't even know anymore, if you check out 'Dr. Caligari'.
This reviews pretty much gonna be a love in by the way, I wish I had more to complain about honestly, but so far at least, this is easily the best, the most entertaining, the most interesting film that i've seen this year. I have a LOT of love for this thing because it pretty much ticks every box as both a film viewer AND maker that I want ticking in my film going experiences.
For a starters, the script is erratic, incoherent in places and TOTALLY unpredictable. Which I absolutley love. And when I say 'unpredictable', I don't mean that in the neurotypical sense. I mean that this film has well and truely gone off the rails and is wiping its shit on the walls and wailing about the trouser goblins. I had NO idea what was going to happen on a minute by minute basis, letalone an act by act one. I actually spoke to a friend shortly after the credits rolled on this, and I referred to it affectionately as 'Concussion cinema' because it feels like you've received a concussion and then been made to watch it.
Scenes seemingly don't always have a beginning OR an end. Theres no clear distinction between whats a fantasy, whats reality and whats a dream. The dialogue will be sensical for a time before veering off into lines that, for lack of a better descriptive, feel like we've suddenly just changed the channel. The pacing is absolutely breakneck as we lunge from scene to scene with NO foreshadowing as to exactly what we're getting ourselves into. I can honestly say that I havent been this enthralled by a work in a VERY long time. And the total unhinged randomness of it all, I personally found very engaging and endearing.
And I need to make it clear here. This isnt 'Lolrandum' style humour. This isnt some film maker shitting out a feature with their mates on next to no budget, with no plan, little to no script and no outset vision. This is a VERY carefully crafted and orchestrated vision of chaos. This is meticulously planned, it had to be because of just how heavily stylized this thing is. They couldnt afford to pillock about on set. So the script had to be razor.
It's tone is acidic, it's wonderfully devious mix of jet black dark comedy, gratuitous 'Yuzna' esq squishy flesh horror and border cartoonish inhibition absolutely won me over. This film is what happens when you take 'Society', 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show', 'Female Trouble' and 'Forbidden zone' shove them in a blender and pour it over the rocks. And the fact it does ALL that mania, creative flowing and intrigue AND delivers it in under 80 minutes…well, dear viewer. I honestly thought I was in love.
It's by no means a PERFECT script. The thematic choices throughout are a little vague. Jerry Stahl says the films a comment on the pharmaceutical industry at the time and how, in the late 80's and early 90's all these companies were transitioning into a more advertiser heavy, business friendly model, the idea was that mental illnesses were now just something you took pills for and got on with your life, without anyone questioning if that was the right thing to do. It was overprescribing but with a glossy coating to it.
History has learned from those mistakes, but other than the first act, I honestly didnt really see much of Stahls comments present in the film. I instead interpreted it as having more to say around mental health as a subject, its detriments on its victims and the conditions with which we hold our mentally unwell than anything else. With several references to things like leprosy throughout. To me, the film was quite literally saying that these people may have excesses and flaws, but treating them like plague victims to be either hidden away or drugged to the point that they arnt even themselves anymore very much ISNT the answer.
But on the whole? This is a razor sharp, wickedly dark, ultra campy and lively work that gets in, wrecks up the place, and gets the hell out. And I love, love LOVED it for that.
As mentioned, the script was written by Jerry Stahl and cowritten and directed by Stephen Sayadian. Jerry has 21 writing credits for film and television with a large number of credits for shows like 'ALF', 'Moonlighting' and the various 'CSI' shows. He also of course has previous for writing 'Nightdreams' and 'Cafe Flesh' and he's currently in preproduction on a new film called 'Happy Mutant Baby Pills' which I VERY much wish him luck on!
Stephen meanwhile has 6 writing credits Including 'Nightdreams' and 'Cafe Flesh' alongside a two part video series called 'Party Doll A Go-Go!' which sounds…fascinating. He also has 9 directing credits, including the official Nightdreams sequels, with his last credits being in 1993 for another 2 part video series called 'Untamed Cowgirls of the wild west'...make of that what you will.
And on the direction front, again. I have VERY little to complain about. The stylistic choice to realise this script as some kind of bizarre combination of 1920's german expressionist cinema by way of the pop art/new wave movement is an honestly inspired choice, some would say garish, I say unique, distinct and quite wonderful. For the most part all facets of the crew are working in near perfect harmony. Theres a couple of wobbles here and there (which I put more down to the time the film was made in than anything else) just moments where the occasional effect shot doesnt *quite* land as intended, the odd lighting choice that seems a little flat profile, the very rare moment or two where the choice to shoot things in a black void makes things feel a bit cheap rather than mysterious.
But quite honestly, these incidents are VERY few and far between and, for the most part, this is a hyperstylish, distinct vision that Sayandian has brought to the table. In many ways I wish i'd seen this film sooner, as when I used to make films way back in the mists of time. While totally unaware, this film was perfectly capturing the style I aspired to achieve myself (I was a weird filmmaker). I feel like I have to make up for lost time at this point quite honestly.
Direction of the cast, in my opinion at least, is absolutely spot on as well. The performances here are all playing to Massively over the top and melodramatic styles. Its done intentionally and it's clear that Stephen had a very distinct vision of what he wanted and, according to the cast at least, he communicated that very effectively and spent a lot of time with the cast putting in rehearsal time to make sure they knew the EXACT tone of what he wanted and how he could get them to play that way. They're lively, animate and utilise the fabulously designed set spaces with absolute relish. You can almost always tell when a cast had fun on a shoot, and thats DEFINITELY the vibe present here.
Same goes for the cine, with a hyper distinctive set design and very little in the way of background sets to worry about, this thing hyperfocusses on it's use of colour and composition delivering a mighty punch that absolutely floored me honestly. pastel Yellows, Pinks, greens and blues seem to be the main flavours of the day here and they're incorporated into everything from door frames to clothing to floor tiles. It's what gives the film that 'New wave' edge that really helps push it above and beyond a more muted colour profile.
Composition is outrageous and explorative, this film absolutely isnt afraid to experiment and across the runtime we have TONS of interesting uses of composition, coloured chiascuro lighting and other strange and interesting attempts. When combined with the set spaces the results are absolutely a cut above the rest for the era in my opinion. With modernised twists on older cinematography from the expressionist era. This things frankly gorgeous and could quite easily play in a gallery with no qualms or questioning. I sincerely enjoyed the visual tone and vibe and I really think it's probably one of the nicest looking 'art' movies i've seen in at least 4 or 5 years.
Performance wise, this is astounding. We have a hyper manic energy from our cast, who are FULLY committed to the various deranged acts they get up to across the runtime. Theres in some ways a very feint 'John Waters' quality to the performances here and I had SO much time for this hammy, overly dramatic and at times border aggressive setup. Madeleine Reynal ASTOUNDS as Caligari, giving a very cold and calculated performance with an almost pantomime edge. Considering this was her breakthrough role after a chance audition she wasnt even 100% set on attending, AND that initially the team didnt think she'd be a good fit. I think she absolutely blew the competition out of the water here, she's brilliant.
Equal praise has to go to Laura Albert as Eleanor. Who gets to play SO many different styles within her character, from traumatised to hypersexual to a vicious killer. Her dedication to the performance is absolutely top notch, her delivery is astounding, her physicality excellent and shes easily one of the most memorable performances i've seen in as long time. As is John Durbin as Gus Pratt the cannibal serial killer. He really has that 'John Waters' edge with his performance and brings a fantastic extra layer of campy goodness to the show that only further cemented this films excellence to me.
The rest of the cast do a fine enough job of setting tone and atmosphere, they're animate enough, if I was being constructive, it maybe would have been nice to see more of Caligaris other inmates. As beyond Eleanour and Gus, the only other inmates we see are given really basic issues. Like one woman who's been conditioned to only say the word 'Chinchilla' or, theres a scene where Ramona talks to another inmate who's conditioning seems to be that she wears a straight jacket and talks about beans and thats about it. A little more diversity and thought into the inmates conditions probably could have produced more lively results, as it stands they came across as a little bit fillery.
And finally, the soundtrack! And good golly miss molly this things awesome, its a jazzy, synthy, bluesy type arrangement. It sounds awesome. Suits the tone of the film perfectly and I really want it on vinyl. They don't overuse the scoring, it comes in whenever it needs to and the sound design on this thing is equal measures disgusting as it is brilliant. I had a LOT of time for this thing on the sound front quite honestly.
Dr. Caligari to this day hasnt had a UK release in any format from what I can see (happy to be corrected if you VHS collectors out there know of a UK release!) But in the US it was released on Video in 1990 by Shapiro Glickenhause Entertainment Corporation. It also apparently had a laserdisc release in December of that same year on the same label. But I cant find much in the way of information on that release. It seemingly skipped DVD (though many a bootleg release is floating around on Ebay) until finally in 2022 Mondo Macarbro announced that it was releasing Caligari uncut and in both its original and cropped aspect ratio for 4k and Bluray.
And I've got to say this package is BRILLIANT. It comes with a slip cover, with the case itself containing the original theatrical poster art, the 4k presentation looks really solid, colourful and sharp. But then, equally so does the bluray release, though i'd say this was more, a testimony to fantastic Bluray restoration compression advancement than a lower quality 4k mastering. The DVD menus are stylised in line with the films poster and opening titles, which was a nice touch and extras (while a little bit thin on the ground) were VERY informative. You have a half hour interview with Stephen Sayadian alongside interviews with Jerry Stahl, Madeline reynal, Laura albert and John Durbin alongside a remastered version of the films original theatrical trailer. Theres commentaries too and a nice chunky booklet to boot including essays on the film. The only thing missing from this release that really would have made it faultless for me is a solid making of. But otherwise? This is a damn fine release in all honesty.
I think i've driven my point home hard enough by this point, I REALLY loved this film. It's not *quite* an all time favourite at this point. But give it time and I could certainly see it heading that way. With a ridiculous and manic script, bizarre direction and hyper styalized, ultra creative cine. Performances that could give you a contact high and a DAMN fine soundtrack. I can only wholeheartedly recommend 'Dr. Caligari' to ANYONE with a passing interest in new wave art house cinema. Its an absolute two man cinematic revolution and I really hope it's recent 4k re-release helps inspire people to take more creative risks with their own film making endeavours.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dr-caligari/1/
No comments:
Post a Comment