Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)

Germany 1919, b/w, 51 min, silent film

Dr. Caligari holds the reins and makes Cesare – a somnambulist – tell people’s future at the fair. One night, he has Cesare killed. When, immediately afterwards, a young man meets his death – as prophesied – Caligari is chased and caught: Caligari is the head of a mental asylum. However, the surrealistic story that unfolds before the symbolic facade of a small North German town is told by one of the inmates at Caligari’s asylum …

The film is considered an Expressionist masterpiece. Fritz Lang is credited with the overall idea.