Rare 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' film stills up for auction at Sotheby's

A collection of original photographs and promotional images from the 1920 German expressionist horror film 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' is being auctioned by Sotheby's. The lot includes rare behind-the-scenes and scene stills documenting the film's most psychologically disturbing and visually innovative moments, which established it as the first true horror movie in cinema history. The auction runs until April 3 at 12 PM New York time, with a starting bid of £13,000. Such photographs have rarely appeared at auction and are held in only a few public museum collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Contemporary Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The film, directed by Robert Wiene, is considered the cornerstone of German expressionist cinema. Its distorted perspectives and painted backdrops were created by cinematographer Willy Hameister, set designer Hermann Warm, and expressionist painters Walter Reimann and Walter Röhrig, inspired by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. The plot—a diabolical hypnotist using a somnambulist to commit murders—serves as an allegory for the German government during World War I and soldiers as killing machines, presaging World War II. The film's score features Arnold Schönberg's 'Verklärte Nacht' in a version conducted by Giuseppe Becce, an Italian-born composer who led the Decla-Bioscop AG orchestra.