Opening night. Cinema-concert: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (restored version)

Source: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden

On Sunday May 31 at 19 pm at Teatro Colón, the (S8) is going to hold its opening gala and, as always, it is a luxury. No more and no less than the screening, live soundtrack by the renowned German pianist and composer Eunice Martins, of the flawless restoration of the German Expressionism touchstone: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Tickets are already on sale at the box office of Teatro Colón and Afundación, and also online at ataquilla.com.

Source: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden

The film

First (and groundbreaking) manifestation of German Expressionism, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of the key works of film history. Behind the chiaroscuro and the twisted scenes of the horror story directed by Robert Wiene at UFA studios, the screenwriters Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer slipped a critique to the people who use men as killing machines –they had just come from the First World War-, in a film that, according to the theorist Siegfried Kracauer, was a premonition of the advent of Nazism. Under the appearance of a hallucinatory dream, we know the disturbing Dr. Caligari, who comes to the fair in a town with a very special attraction: the somnambulist Cesare, divining the future. When a series of mysterious murders begin to happen among the population, the effort of a man will lead on the trail of Caligari, who is not who appears to be, and who hides more than a terrible secret.

Source: Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, Wiesbaden

Restoration

Watching a 1920 silent movie as if it were filmed yesterday fosters, if possible, the perception of modernity and strength, as well as it brings it closer. That is what this superb digital restoration makes. Each frame was scanned to the highest quality and was cleaned to reveal every detail tarnished by time. The lost frames were also rebuilt in a meticulous process that revives the fluidity of movement on stage. A restoration made by The Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in collaboration with the Federal Film Archive of Berlin and  L’Immagine Ritrovata – Film Conservation & Restoration, Bologna, with the support of Bertelsmann.

Music: Eunice Martins

The soundtrack of the film, composed and performed live by the pianist Eunice Martins, is the icing on the cake that makes this screening a single event. Martins, who is also a theater and film sound designer, has been the resident pianist at Kino Arsenal, Berlin, since 2000. An international renown professional who has taken her talents to events such as the festival of Hong Kong, Il Cinema Ritrovato, Bologna, Jornada do Cinema Silencioso in Sao Paulo and the Berlinale, and institutions such as the National Theater in Taipei, Taiwan and the Louvre Auditorium.