What 1920 horror classic from Germany that tells the story of a doctor and his sidekick Cesare in the village of Holstenwall is said to have introduced the concept of twist ending in cinema?
"commit murders in northern Italian towns. The director, attempting to understand the earlier Caligari, experiments on a somnambulist admitted to the asylum, who becomes his Cesare. The director screams, ""I must become Caligari!"" Francis and the doctors call the police to Dr. Caligari's office, where they show him Cesare's corpse. Dr. Caligari then attacks one of the staff. He is subdued, restrained in a straitjacket, and becomes an inmate in his own asylum. The narrative returns to the present, where Francis concludes his story. In a twist ending, Francis is depicted as an asylum inmate. Jane and Cesare are patients"
"was reportedly so impressed with the film's special effects, the flying carpet scene in particular, he quickly secured the rights to the film, so they could be replicated for Raoul Walsh's 1924 film, ""The Thief of Baghdad"". According to Robert Cashill of Cineaste, Bernhard Goetzke's performance as Death had an influence on Ingmar Bergman's ""The Seventh Seal"" (1957). Destiny (1921 film) Destiny ("":"" ""ein deutsches volkslied in 6 versen"" (""Weary Death: A German Folk Story in Six Verses""); originally released in the United States as Behind the Wall) is a 1921 silent German Expressionist fantasy romance film directed in Germany"
"twist ending and the unreliable narrator to the language of narrative film. As Francis (Friedrich Feher) sits on a bench with an older man who complains that spirits have driven him away from his family and home, a dazed woman named Jane (Lil Dagover) passes them. Francis explains she is his ""fiancée"" and that they have suffered a great ordeal. Most of the rest of the film is a flashback of Francis' story, which takes place in Holstenwall, a shadowy village of twisted buildings and spiraling streets. Francis and his friend Alan (Hans Heinrich von Twardowski), who are good-naturedly competing"
"had elaborate expressionist design sets, and the style was typically nightmarish in atmosphere. ""The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"" (1919), directed by Robert Wiene, is usually credited as the first German expressionist film. The sets depict distorted, warped-looking buildings in a German town, while the plot centres around a mysterious, magical cabinet that has a clear association with a casket. F. W. Murnau's vampire horror film ""Nosferatu"" was released in 1922. Fritz Lang's ""Dr. Mabuse the Gambler"" (1922) was described as ""a sinister tale"" that portrays ""the corruption and social chaos so much in evidence in Berlin and more generally, according"
"German cinema and had a major influence on American films, particularly in the genres of horror and film noir, introducing techniques such as the twist ending and the unreliable narrator to the language of narrative film. In October 1920, Paul Wegener teamed up with co-director Carl Boese to make the final Golem film entitled """", known in English as ""The Golem: How He Came into the World"". The final film in the Der Golem trilogy, ""The Golem: How He Came into the World"" (1920) is a prequel to ""Der Golem"" from 1915. In this film, Wegener stars as the golem"
"December 1921. The U.S. premiere of the film was in New York City on the 3rd of June 1926. Hintertreppe Hintertreppe (English: ""Backstairs"") is a 1921 silent film. This was the first movie by German director Leopold Jessner, in cooperation with Paul Leni. Carl Mayer specifically wrote this for Leopold Jessner, who would go on to direct ""Erdgeist"". ""Hintertreppe"" was a precursor of the 1920s German kammerspielfilm style. The Maid (Henny Porten) wakes goes about her day doing her job. The Postman (Fritz Kortner)spies on her from his home down below in a basement across the street. The Postman delivers"
"produced and co-written by Richard Oswald. The film stars Anita Berber, Reinhold Schunzel and Conrad Veidt as the Harlot, the Devil and Death in the opening sequence, but they also play various other roles in each of the five stories. Each story was based on an author's work, including Anselm Heine (""The Apparition"" (1912)), Robert Liebmann (""The Hand""), Edgar Allan Poe (""The Black Cat"" (1843)), Robert Louis Stevenson (""The Suicide Club"" (1878)) and Richard Oswald's own contribution (""Der Spuk""/ ""The Spectre""). ""Unheimliche Geschichten"" was first shown in Berlin on November 5, 1919. In the book ""Directory of World Cinema: Germany,"
"Hand"", ""The Black Cat"" (based on the Edgar Allan Poe short story), ""The Suicide Club"" (based on the Robert Louis Stevenson short story collection) and ""Der Spuk"" (which translates to ""The Spectre"" in English). The film is described as the ""critical link between the more conventional German mystery and detective films of the mid 1910s and the groundbreaking fantastic cinema of the early 1920s."" Robert Wiene's ""Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari"" (""The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"") (1920) became a worldwide success and had a lasting impact on the film world, particularly for horror. It was not so much the story"
"Destiny (1921 film) Destiny ("":"" ""ein deutsches volkslied in 6 versen"" (""Weary Death: A German Folk Story in Six Verses""); originally released in the United States as Behind the Wall) is a 1921 silent German Expressionist fantasy romance film directed in Germany by Fritz Lang. The film follows a woman desperate to reunite with her dead lover. It also follows three other tragic romances, set in a Middle Eastern city; in Venice, Italy; and in the Chinese Empire. The story is inspired by the Indian folktale of Savitri. In ""Some Time and Some Place,"" a loving young couple is riding"
"no longer employable. Even his family tells him there is only one honorable way out. He then takes a handful of pills, committing suicide. Sivers rushes to his side as he lies dead. Körner's parents blame Sivers for what has happened, but Else harshly rebukes them. Meanwhile, Sivers attempts to kill himself as well, but the Doctor prevents him and delivers his final speech: The film closes with an open German law book, turned to Paragraph 175, as a hand holding a brush crosses it out. The film premiered in May 1919 and was initially successful at the cinema. In"
"Unheimliche Geschichten (1932 film) Unheimliche Geschichten (Uncanny Stories) is a 1932 German horror/comedy film directed by the prolific Austrian film director Richard Oswald, starring Paul Wegener, and produced by Gabriel Pascal. The story is a merging of three separate short stories, Edgar Allan Poe's ""The Black Cat"", ""The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether"" and Robert Louis Stevenson's ""The Suicide Club"", set within a story frame of a reporter's hunt for a crazy scientist. It is a black comedy revisiting many of the classic themes of the horror genre. It was Paul Wegener's first talking movie. A crazed scientist,"
"The Mysterious Doctor The Mysterious Doctor is a 1943 American horror film directed by Benjamin Stoloff and written by Richard Weil. The film stars John Loder, Eleanor Parker, Bruce Lester, Lester Matthews and Forrester Harvey. The film was released by Warner Bros.on March 3, 1943. In an Cornish village during World War II, a German Nazi uses the disguise of a headless ghost to strike fear into the local tin mine workers. Posing as a man the British Army has rejected for active duty, a mining engineer, Dr. Frederick Holmes (Lester Matthews), takes a week-long walking trip through Cornwall. The"
"grows wilder, her mother is shocked by her immoral behaviour and commits suicide by drowning - repeating ""the curse"" which has haunted the family for centuries. The Curse (1924 film) The Curse (German: Der Fluch) is a 1924 Austrian drama film directed by Robert Land and starring Lilian Harvey, Oscar Beregi and Albert Heine. The film marked the screen debut of Lilian Harvey who would go on to become one of the top stars at the German box office during the late Weimar and early Nazi eras. Harvey was in Vienna at the time because she was appearing in a"
"direct the film. ""Faust"" was Murnau's last German film, and directly afterward he moved to the US under contract to William Fox to direct """" (1927); when the film premiered in the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin, Murnau was already shooting in Hollywood. The demon Mephisto has a bet with an Archangel that he can corrupt a righteous man's soul and destroy in him what is divine. If he succeeds, the Devil will win dominion over earth. The Devil delivers a plague to the village where Faust, an elderly alchemist, lives. Though he prays to stop the death and starvation,"
"he introduces himself as Dr. Mabuse, ending Hofmeister's shock. Baum tries to kill Hofmeister but is stopped by guards, just as Lohmann and Kent arrive. The final scene shows the insane Baum in the cell, tearing Mabuse's writings to shreds. Norbert Jacques wrote the original Dr. Mabuse books in the style of other popular thrillers in Europe at the time, such as Nick Carter, Fantomas, and Fu Manchu. Jacques expanded the traits of these books to include critiques on Weimar Germany. In 1930, Jacques was approached by a film producer to develop a story for a new Dr. Mabuse film"
"place in Venice, in the year 1920, and includes such tangential plot elements as police corruption and anti-communist paranoia. The story also features Charles Constantine (a member of the same infamous family as John Constantine), a World War I veteran who has repeatedly struggled with his inability to kill. During the war, Charles refuses to bayonet a helpless young German soldier named Stefan Wasserman. In retribution, Charles's own commanding officer shoots Charles in the groin, castrating him, and shoots the young soldier in the head. Wasserman's body, however, had been inhabited by the dormant spirit of the Corinthian, who has"
"even after his death. Written in German on , three years after Struensee’s execution, was the following: """"Ich hätte gern beide gerettet"""" (""I would have liked to have saved them both""), referring to Struensee and Brandt. Romantic retellings of his dramatic rise in horrible fall have inspired numerous novelists. The most recent film is ""A Royal Affair"" (2012). It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards. Johann Friedrich Struensee Johann Friedrich Struensee (5 August 1737 – 28 April 1772) was a German doctor. He became royal physician to the mentally ill"
"Blood Creek Blood Creek, previously known as Creek and Town Creek, is a horror film directed by Joel Schumacher, starring Michael Fassbender as the main antagonist and written by David Kajganich. The film had a limited theatrical release on September 18, 2009. The film also stars Dominic Purcell and Henry Cavill as brothers on a mission of revenge who become trapped in a harrowing occult experiment dating back to the Third Reich. In 1936, a German professor, Richard Wirth, is hosted by the Wollners, a family of German emigrants in West Virginia. The Wollners believe him to be a visiting"
"is the centre of the story...Her work is up to the high standard she has established in several foreign language pictures that have reached New York. Albert Bassermann, one of Germany's best veteran actors, is excellent as the scientist whose efforts to emulate the wonder-workers of the ancient days bring so much trouble upon nearly all involved in the affair, regardless of their innocence or guilt. The support is first class...Although this picture was made almost four years ago, the sound reproduction and photography are clear. The direction is competent."" Alraune (1930 film) Alraune is a German science fiction horror"
"and held in a dungeon. When the Doctor extricates himself from the political intrigue surrounding Hitler, he finds a note left by Ace. Fearing the worst, he follows her path to the Berlin office of the Aryan Research Bureau, where he finds a crystal ball that showing an image of Ace being shackled to a dungeon wall and threatened menacingly with a knife. The Doctor finds a transport device linking the offices in Berlin with the castle in Drachensberg, using the device to go after Ace. In Drachensberg, the Doctor is introduced to the mysterious Dr. Kriegslieter, a hideously misshapen"
"""Das Cabinet Des Dr. Caligari"" (""The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"") and Karl Heinz Martin's ""Von Morgens bis Mitternachts"" (From Morn to Midnight) in 1920, F. W. Murnau's 1922 ""Das Brennende Acker"" (""The Burning Earth""), Gerhard Lamprecht's ""Die Buddenbrooks"" and Wiene's I.N.R.I. in 1923, and E. R. Dupont's 1929 ""Atlantik"". Wagner died in Berlin on August 17, 1975, and was interred at the Cemetery Dahlem. Elsa Wagner Elsa Wagner (1881–1975) was a German actress who appeared in numerous theatrical productions and feature films during the 20th century, including 1920's ""The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"". Born as Elisabeth Karoline Auguste Wagner on"
"violinist's own flashbacks, it is learned he was imprisoned for murder. Threaded with all this is another uncertainty: Has his wife, a waitress, begun a love affair while he was in jail? And will this give the violinist another temptation to murder? Life Begins Tomorrow Life Begins Tomorrow (German: Morgen beginnt das Leben) is a 1933 German drama film directed by Werner Hochbaum and starring Erich Haußmann, Hilde von Stolz and Harry Frank. The film presents speculations on the future after the invention of atomic energy. After working on the film the left-wing Hochbaum emigrated to Austria due to the"
"Hintertreppe Hintertreppe (English: ""Backstairs"") is a 1921 silent film. This was the first movie by German director Leopold Jessner, in cooperation with Paul Leni. Carl Mayer specifically wrote this for Leopold Jessner, who would go on to direct ""Erdgeist"". ""Hintertreppe"" was a precursor of the 1920s German kammerspielfilm style. The Maid (Henny Porten) wakes goes about her day doing her job. The Postman (Fritz Kortner)spies on her from his home down below in a basement across the street. The Postman delivers the mail up to The Maid's door which is up the backstairs of the building. The Maid opens up"
"6 Films label. Das Experiment Das Experiment (English: The Experiment) is a 2001 German thriller film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It is based on Mario Giordano's novel ""Black Box"" and deals with a social experiment which resembles Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment of 1971. While reading a newspaper advertisement, taxi driver Tarek Fahd discovers an invitation to participate in an experiment, in which 4000 German marks are offered to the participants of the experiment, in which a prison situation is simulated. The experiment is led by Professor Klaus Thon and his assistant, Dr. Jutta Grimm. He decides to join in."
"is a film that does honor to the seriousness of vampires. No, I don't believe in them. But if they were real, here is how they must look. Nosferatu the Vampyre Nosferatu the Vampyre is a 1979 West German horror film written and directed by Werner Herzog. Its original German title is Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht (""Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night""). The film is set primarily in 19th-century Wismar, Germany and Transylvania, and was conceived as a stylistic remake of F. W. Murnau's 1922 German ""Dracula"" adaptation ""Nosferatu"". The picture stars Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy"
"bringing some hope. This need for hope and the knowledge of the expectations from the general public were the reasons that ""Der letzte Mann"" had a happy, although unrealistic, epilogue. German cinema began co-operative ventures with Hollywood producers, which led to mutual influence and in 1926 the German producers signed a contract with Hollywood, which started migration of German actors and directors to Hollywood. The effect was similar to the later observed brain drain of scientists, from all over the world, to the United States. One of the results of the early cooperation was that the director Alfred Hitchcock went"
"Das Experiment Das Experiment (English: The Experiment) is a 2001 German thriller film directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel. It is based on Mario Giordano's novel ""Black Box"" and deals with a social experiment which resembles Philip Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment of 1971. While reading a newspaper advertisement, taxi driver Tarek Fahd discovers an invitation to participate in an experiment, in which 4000 German marks are offered to the participants of the experiment, in which a prison situation is simulated. The experiment is led by Professor Klaus Thon and his assistant, Dr. Jutta Grimm. He decides to join in. Tarek participates as"
"the flop of ""Creep"", no one wanted to invest in German horror films. Gansel almost gave up hope until the release and success of ""Twilight"" sparked a wave of vampire films, and the success of Gansel's ""The Wave"" gave him free hands. Due to the similarities between the original script and ""Twilight"", Gansel had Jan Berger rewrite the script, now under the title ""Wir sind die Nacht"". Thinking that an ordinary love story was no longer in place with the boom of star crossed vampire/human relationships Gansel imagined a darker twist on the subject was more in order. He came"
"hearse and then attends to work in the nursery. The narrator states that Victor truly cherished Eliza, to which a female voice responds ‘No, not Eliza’. The film concludes with a priest driving a wooden cross into the ground. The Orchid Gardener The Orchid Gardener is a 1977 experimental film with a mysterious and symbolic plot directed by Lars von Trier. The film consists of a series of scenes, the chronological order of which is ambiguous, loosely relaying the experiences of the protagonist Victor Marse (Lars von Trier), whose actual name is Felimann von Marseburg. Victor is introduced by means"
"as Count Oetsch who now can justify his innocence. Baron Safferstätt shoots himself. The true Father Faramund comes to the castle. The Haunted Castle (1921 film) The Haunted Castle (1921), also known as Schloß Vogelöd and Castle Vogeloed, is a silent chamber-drama directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. A company of men meet for a hunt lasting several days at Castle Vogelöd, being hosted by Lord von Vogelschrey, but a sweeping rain brings the pleasure to nought and they spend their time in the inward parts of the castle. Even the not invited Count Johann Oetsch appears. He gets eschewed by"
"influence on James Whale's version of ""Frankenstein"". ""The Unholy Three"" (1925) is an example of Browning's use of macabre and unique style of morbidity; he remade the film in 1930 as a talkie, though ""The Terror"" (1928) was the first horror film with sound. Other European countries also, contributed to the genre during this period. Victor Sjöström's ""The Phantom Carriage"" (Sweden, 1920) is a cautionary tale about a supernatural legend, Benjamin Christensen's ""Häxan"" (Denmark/Sweden, 1922) is a documentary-style, horror film, about witchcraft and superstition, and in 1928, Frenchman, Jean Epstein produced an influential film, ""The Fall of the House of"
"Nonetheless, a print of it is located at the Swedish Film Institute. Considerable ambiguity exists whether the Indian Priest is real or simply a product of the Count's fevered imagination due to his growing madness. Similar themes are explored in Wiene's later films, most notably in ""The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari"". Fear (1917 film) Fear (German: Furcht) is a 1917 German silent horror film written and directed by Robert Wiene and starring Bruno Decarli, Conrad Veidt and Bernhard Goetzke. It is also the first known appearance of Conrad Veidt on screen, cast by producer Oskar Messter (famous for discovering actors"
"characters and concentrating on the triangle of Orgon, Elmire and Tartuffe. They also introduced a framing device, whereby the story of Tartuffe becomes a film-within-a-film, shown by a young actor as a device to warn his grandfather about his unctuous but evil housekeeper. Tartuffe (film) Tartuffe (""Herr Tartüff"") is a German silent film produced by Erich Pommer for UFA and released in 1926. It was directed by F. W. Murnau, photographed by Karl Freund and written by Carl Mayer from Molière's original play. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in Berlin. Set design and costumes were by Robert Herlth"