The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Restored Authorized Edition

“Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari” 4K UHD is a monumental work that revives the legendary masterpiece of German Expressionism in an almost perfect form with 4K resolution and the latest digital restoration. KINO has done a great job. A lot has already been said about the story and reviews of this film, so here are some points that I noticed.First of all, the quality of the film itself has improved beyond expectations. It doesn't look like a 1920 film at all. The timeless blue-green and red-brown colored backgrounds with their innovative design give it a more vivid impact, and the reconstructed portrayal of the characters looks so realistic that it's hard to believe it's a silent film. The screen is consistently stable, the silver halide grain is relatively fine, and the gradation and reproduction from dark to light are excellent. Occasionally, you can see what look like diagonal scratches, but they're not noticeable.About 23 minutes into the film, there is a close-up of Cesare and Alan's facial expressions, which was unusual for the time. The facial expressions are depicted in great detail and are so beautiful that even graininess is not a concern, making it a wonderfully memorable scene. This scene occurs at a key point in the first half of the film, when Alan asks Cesare, "How long will I live?" and Cesare replies, "Till the break of dawn." Hearing this, Alan takes a deep breath, as if accepting his fate or resisting it, conveying his confused psychology. The depiction of their facial expressions has the power to convey vivid emotions and shake the viewer's heart. This is the moment when I was convinced that this 4K UHD has truly brought back one of the masterpieces of German Expressionism, "Dr. Caligari."

This wonderful film is one that every serious fan of horror and general cinema should own, and the Kino Classics blu ray is the definitive version.The movie is packaged in a standard blu ray case with a high quality vertical slip cover and an insert with an essay about the making and influence of the film. All in all its nothing special but it gets the job done and the slip case is nice.Visually this is as close to perfect as I can imagine a nearly 100 year old film could ever be. Damage leftover is minimal, everything is crystal clear down to fibers in clothing and brush strokes on the sets, and the tinting is absolutely striking. This is one of the best restorations of a silent era film I have ever seen.As far as the audio, there are two tracks, a more "traditional" chamber score and a far more modern, experimental score by Paul D. Miller. The chamber score is phenomenal and feels inseparable from the film, like it should have always accompanied it. The music always perfectly conveys what's happening on the screen and succeeds in creating an unsettling atmosphere. There are also quite a few moments that are surprisingly and wonderfully unconventional, especially the scene where Dr. Caligari is being assaulted by the words "Du musst Caligari werden!"The Paul D. Miller score, while it doesn't feel difinitive like the chamber score, is mostly fantastic; an eclectic mix of music box like twinkling, ominous sub bass, jazz drums, organ, 80's horror soundtracks, and hip-hop beats. Most of the time, it works extremely well, but sometimes it suffers from sounding a bit too upbeat and it never really reaches the heights it does in the first two acts.Both scores sound crystal clear, and the chamber score in particular sometimes feels like the orchestra is right there in the room.The special features are somewhat sparse, but they're quality. The 52 minute documentary "Caligari: How Horror Came to Cinema" is very interesting and contains a lot of great footage and insight into the state of German society and cinema at the height of expressionism.The image gallery is nice, and the restoration demonstrations, while brief, are truly eye-opening.I cannot express enough how great this blu-ray is. This restoration is exraordinary and should be seen by everyone.

Unless you dislike silent films, really the only concern here is making sure you get the best of many versions. As of 2/2015, the best version to pick up is the KINO 4K bluray. All except one reel is from the original negatives, and the missing reel is remade from a mix of the best remaining print versions available. The monochromatic colorization process chose colors based on the earliest remaining print versions (from South America of all places for a German film).At 77 minutes, this was a long movie for the time, and despite some imperfections remaining in the film quality none are ever too distracting, even on 50" modern TV screens. The clarity is very good, and reveals details in both faces and set pieces I had never picked up on before in older versions. Given this was a visual work, it almost seemed like I was watching it for the first time. The monochrome colorized acts, some where everything is blue, sometimes everything yellow, sometimes pink based on time of day, location, etc. look great.I'll let others describe the details of the plot, but basically this was the first "German expressionism" film and came out around 1920, with a spooky, carnival side-show vibe. The set was very intricate for the time and highly stylistic, with odd angled buildings, lots of shadow, and various disjointed features that look like something Tim Burton would have done if he was alive then. The movie is subtitled and has options for two different musical scores, one from the time period and one new. Starts a little slow but with a great ending, one which seems surprisingly sophisticated for the time but just probably means we are a little snobbish in how we think about the past today.Bonus features are awesome. The booklet is not to Criterion standards, but is still very nice. Includes a still gallery that has some original movie posters, and most impressive is a 52 minute German (english subtitles) documentary that while highlighting the film also touches on a dozen others and is chiefly about the post World War I impact on German film making. Well worth every penny.