In the older literature, the peak of the German Expressionist film era is usually defined by two Cabinets: the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from 1919 (premiered in 1920) and the Cabinet of Wax Figures from 1924. Our selection of Expressionist films will continue the tribute to the director of the first Cabinet, Robert Wiene, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his birth. (The Expressionism series is also a "subset" of our permanent series Film a Century Ago.)
Only two of the films come from the collection of the National Film Archive; for the others, this time, as in the case of Caligari, we are giving priority to newly restored versions of titles that were known to older generations of Ponrepo viewers only in more or less fragmentary form and without the typical colour treatment of the time.
Karel Grune's The Streets will be shown just a few days after its Munich restoration premiere. For the expressionist paraphrase of Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment directed by Robert Wiene (under the title Raskolnikov) we will have to wait until the spring before 2024, as a happy coincidence in the form of newly found fragments has delayed the completion of the restoration work.
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