Cabinet of Dr Caligari, The

Horror film of 1919. By adopting painterly visual techniques, the director Robert Wiene began a major film movement, German expressionism. The film's narrative concerns a hypnotist who uses a somnambulist (played by Conrad Veidt) to carry out his murders. The film was written by Hans Janowitz (1890-1954) and Carl Mayer (1894-1944) and was made in Germany.

The film's atmospheric use of shadowy light and mise en scène to suggest paranoia and psychosis have had an enduring influence, as evidenced by the Hollywood horror cycle of the 1930s, the films noirs of the 1940s and 1950s, and the psychological character studies of such contemporary film-makers as Martin Scorsese.