Doug Jones/Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

[dogboy443]

Just saw this announced on NetFlix:

Evil hypnotist Dr. Caligari (Daamen J. Krall) arrives at a small-town carnival with an amazing act in which he appears to control a clairvoyant sleepwalker (Doug Jones) -- but when a string of murders ensues, it's clear that all is not what it seems. Director David Lee Fisher's inventive remake of the silent German expressionist film features a contemporary cast performing against digitally restored backgrounds from the 1919 classic.

Releases on DVD Jun 05, 2007

Sweet dreams,
Mark

[parrish]

Hhmmmm...I am not sure remaking a classic, but that has me intrigued...

[dogboy443]

Viwer review:

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,” made in Germany in 1919, virtually cornered the market on the concept of “disorienting.” So what David Lee Fisher has accomplished in his unusual semi-remake is rather startling: he has out-disoriented the original. Probably not in the way he intended, but still, interesting, and kind of dizzying. Robert Wiene’s “Caligari,” of course, is a landmark of silent cinema. Filmed when Germany was suffering a severe shortage of right angles, it is chock-full of skewed windows, crooked doors and warped walkways, not to mention freakishly made-up characters. Mr. Fisher has scanned the original backgrounds from an old print and, through some kind of green-screen magic, put living, speaking actors into them. They tell a fleshed-out version of the original story, written by Mr. Fisher but basically the same as that flickering tale from almost 90 years ago: Francis (Judson Pearce Morgan) and his friend Alan (Neil Hopkins) visit a fair where the mysterious Caligari (Daamen Krall) is exhibiting a somnambulist (Doug Jones) who accurately predicts Alan’s death. The disorientation begins the first time an actor speaks: so ingrained are the silent Expressionist images of the original that it is jarring to hear voices. It’s doubly jarring that the resulting dialogue sounds very 21st-century (except when, occasionally, it sounds like a noir detective film), even as the makeup is recreating the 1919 look. Brain cannot reconcile! Circuit overload! And, of course, while your brain is fritzing out, you’re trying to figure out how the cinematic trick was done and what the implications might be for other old films. Scary, disturbing, intriguing, all at once.

Mk

[SpydaWeb]

Here I was thinking the DVD was already available. I keep meaning to order it.