Not too long ago I reviewed for the blog a film that left me quite taken aback with awe, Svengali (1931), which came out the same year as Dracula & Frankenstein. Watching the 1919 film, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, after a considerable absence, is already taking me right back to that place I so covet. I absolutely love the visual aesthetic of German expressionism. Anton Grot's sets are obviously inspired as is film still to this day from the influence of Caligari and those from its native country. The films like Nosferatu and Sunshine (from Murnau) among others just excite me with their visual verve and creative energy. Just a village street where nothing that you see from the entrance and exits, walls, windows, hanging lights, and doors is straight and linear. At a slanting angle or pointed in directions that the architectural design shouldn't (or at least not as we see it in our own typical day to day lives), with everything askew (including the makeup on the characters). Even the "cabinet" of the title isn't designed in the usual way of your basic coffin bed. Conrad Veidt certainly eschewed that notion that actors of the silent era couldn't escape the confines of the facial expressionistic stylistics of the hyper-acting to emphasize emotional reaction according to whatever actions and/or situations their characters were confronted with. Of course, he could offer up both minimalist or vastly expressionistic acting depending on the film and scenario, but Veidt (much like Garbo) just had that special mystique that translated well on screen after the silent era faded into sound.
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