Inside Dr Caligari's cabinet

Paying attention to words thoughtfully chosen for the intertitles, and observing the actors' purposefully exaggerated moods, is really a high form of meditation

There is something about too-famous films that makes me wary of watching them. A fear of the well-known, maybe. It feels safer to avoid or at least delay meeting such “heroes” among movies. But I set aside these, frankly juvenile, reservations and stepped into The Cabinet of Dr Caligari recently — the respectful thing to do when this giant of German Expressionism has turned 100. 

Robert Wiene’s film, in which art, horror and political comment play out in six short acts, must be seen. Twice. Because once will not suffice to appreciate its non-linear format, where the characters’ sincere flashbacks