Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari

(The Cabinet of Dr. Galigari, Germany, 1920)

Unfortunately, we got a wretched copy of this from the library … and it still knocks your socks off, visually. I can’t think of any movie that shows a vision of insanity more imaginative than this. Everything is skewed, topsy-turvy. Walls and houses loom, streets meander crazily, rooms are made of random trapezoids. The story is pretty silly, even with the framing device that the original writers didn’t want, but you’ll never forget the images.