The release of the film coincides with the end of World War I, Germany is in depression, and China is preparing for the establishment of a party. The background of the era will not be described too much. Begins with Francis' Memories. Act 1: Francis and his friend Alan came to watch Dr. Caligari's hypnosis performance. Alan dubiously asked the hypnotized Caesar how long he could live. After getting the answer of "tomorrow morning", Alan left in panic. That night, he was indeed killed at home. Act 2: A suspected murderer appears, a man who wants to murder an old woman is suspected of being the murderer of several previous murders. Despite his repeated denials that he was involved in the previous murders, he was locked up. Act 3: Because Jenny was attacked, the target was Caesar, who was hypnotized. However, Francis was puzzled that he had been staring at Caesar all night, how could he have the opportunity to commit the crime? Investigators opened Caesar's sleeping box and found a dummy inside. The truth slowly emerged. Act 4: Francis arrives at the mental hospital and accidentally discovers that the doctor in the hospital is Caligari, the hypnotist! Under the investigation of the hospital, everyone discovered the doctor's secret: special research field - sleepwalking. It turned out that, as written in the crazy doctor simulation book, Caesar was hypnotized and turned into a murder tool to satisfy his morbid delusions. Of course, the story doesn't end here. At the end, the film undergoes a 180-degree transformation. The doctor's sentence "Now I know exactly how to cure him." states that the real mental patient is Francis. The setting makes up a story where all the characters are patients in a mental hospital. The actors' bizarre and exaggerated makeup, the grotesque geometric patterns, the disturbing soundtrack, the exaggerated expressions of the characters and the use of a large number of filters make this film without a single line still has an eerie atmosphere. It is undoubtedly a classic representative of formalism. More than a hundred years later, this film is still being imitated by future generations. The classic American film Shutter Island is exactly the same as this film. That's what "classic" means.
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