Index.  In Stock  Movie Review  Robert Wiene  Conrad Veidt Search Site
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Poster Store Index
E X P R E S S I O N I S T I C   I C O N O G R A P H Y

July 2011:

I have always thought there would be a great market for reproduction posters at realistic and reasonable prices that captured the iconic, expressionistic images of one of the most influential films of all time, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Hitherto that hasn't been the case and the ones that were on the market were at silly prices. Until now...more

CONRAD VEIDT & LIL DAGOVER, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI, Photo Still

ICON & ICONOGRAPHY

Of course, there were films before this one but I would venture to say that cinema was born with this film in 1919. Think about it. Anything that pertains to be art, approaches it, is at least influenced by this film. The expressionistic backdrops that once seen live forever in the memory (painted backcloths, dominated by curves and cubes, deliberately distorted perspectives, and furniture unnaturally elongated) have been diluted through the lense of Hitchcock and others until elements are found all over the place in mainstream cinema. But this was the first Expressionistic film, and, for the life of me, I can think of no other movie that was completely Expressionistic from start to finish.

A personal gripe, but why isn't the film's director, Robert Wiene considered the father of cinema? Why when Fritz Lang dropped out of the project and he took over the direction did his name not be whispered in the same hushed tones as Lang, Murnau or Pabst? Why today is he almost forgotten? Sure his other films where not in the same league as this one but surely anyone who directed this film should be guaranteed a seat at the high-table of the icons of cinema?

Anyway, I've found a company called Pop Culture based in America who have a decent selection of the truly stunning imagery of the various The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari film posters. These reproduction posters from film releases all over the world are striking in the flesh and are an affordable way to have unusual pictures on your wall. When you browse through them you remember just the plethora of iconic images from this film. Absolutely incredible images.

But even better than the selection are the prices ranging (as of July 2011) from around $3 - $20 per poster. $3! What does that buy you these days?

They sell through Amazon and I have created a page for each poster mainly to show the bigger scans on a page as they do look beautiful. Plus I wanted to show them against a black background as I think they look far more striking (the artist and architect Hundertwasser always advocated having his work shown against a black background). Each page can hold an even bigger scan of the poster so if you have any bigger of a particular poster just e-mail me it here and I'll place it on the page. I also want to use these pages as a kind of archive for Cabinet of Dr. Caligari posters from around the world; even if the posters aren't for sale it would be good to have a place where they can all be viewed. I can't do this without your help so if you want to share your scans then you know what to do.

You can also see Pop Culture's Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Posters index page by clicking here.

I have put a link on each page to the particular poster at the bottom of each page so it is simple to order or find out more details.

Hope you enjoy the vast selection!

~ Paul Page, July 2011