The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - ciné concert - album - DVD - Thierry Zaboitzeff

When one doctor is pitted against another, which prescription is best to follow? The release of this DVD, which allows viewers to revisit a silent film masterpiece directed by Robert Wiene in 1920 (namely *The Cabinet of Dr Caligari*) whilst discovering the musical version created by Thierry Zaboitzeff (alias ‘Dr ZAB’), may well provide an answer. As luck would have it, at the very same time, *The Cabinet of Dr Caligari* was being screened at the Berlinale in a restored version set to music by John ZORN, who is hardly a paragon of ‘normality’ either. This is a sign that, in 2014, this work – which left its mark on the history of German Expressionist cinema – continues to linger in people’s minds. This manifesto-film, structured as a story within a story, has not only influenced a great many other cinematic works (from *Nosferatu* and *The Night of the Hunter*, which draw on its set design, *Edward Scissorhands*, in which the make-up of the character played by Johnny DEPP echoes that of the somnambulist portrayed by Conrad VEIDT, right through to *Mulholland Drive* and *Shutter Island*, for the way they deceive the viewer by making them follow a character’s dream or delirium…), but has also left its aesthetic mark on heavy metal, glam rock and new wave (BAUHAUS…). For, in addition to the actors’ expressionist performances (led by Werner KRAUSS and Conrad VEIDT), the film’s visual audacity contributed to its fame. There is the outrageous stylisation of the sets, that tormented graphic universe, built on broken lines, light and dark patches, oblique perspectives and jagged angles; these distorted and tortured spaces serve as clear signs of the paranoia of the character Francis, who sees Dr Caligari as an embodiment of Evil. It is hardly surprising that this ‘Caligarism’ (the name given at the time to this cinematic aesthetic) also inspired Thierry ZABOITZEFF, especially as, with ART ZOYD, he had already set other cult silent films to music (Nosferatu, Faust, Häxan). *The Cabinet of Dr Caligari* was missing from his collection, but that is no longer the case – and has not been since 2010, the year he began performing on stage in the form of a film concert, or a live musical accompaniment during the screening of the film. As in his previous cine-concert experiences with ART ZOYD, the multi-instrumentalist has carefully avoided any notion of ‘illustration’ and has focused on developing an evocative score with multiple points of reference to enable the listener/viewer to find their way through this hallucinatory and psychotic cinematic labyrinth. Dr ZAB’s music is, of course, in keeping with this, evolving within an electro-acoustic style typical of its composer (and at times reminiscent of the Art Zoyd era), revealing the tensions and underlying turmoil of the action, whilst occasionally employing a touch of irony. Thus, there are noises, sounds and recurring themes depending on the scene. In this respect, ZABOITZEFF’s approach follows WIENE’s choice to colour the film differently depending on the scene (in beige, green, blue, pink, yellow…), or to reuse the same sets for several scenes, so as to create a coherent and defined world both visually and musically. Certain themes are therefore played several times, but in different versions depending on the dramatic tension emerging from the images. This DVD thus allows viewers both to rediscover WIENE’s film set to music by ZABOITZEFF, and to watch one of the latter’s film-concert performances, filmed at the Théâtre Toursky in Marseille in 2013 (plus a music video). In the first instance, we simply watch the film; in the second, it feels as though we are watching two films simultaneously: Wiene’s film projected onto a screen, and, at the same time, the musical and theatrical performance by Thierry Zaboitzeff, alone on stage, utterly focused on his machines, keyboards, boxes, cello, guitar and percussion, just as in his show *Cross The Bridge*. He directs the progression of the music just as Dr Caligari (or the man believed to be him) directs his psychiatric institution. It is, moreover, delightful to draw a parallel between the scene where Dr Caligari presents his attraction (the somnambulist Cesare) at a funfair, and to see Thierry Zaboitzeff playing the part of a high-tech minstrel in a theatre, accentuating the irony of the situation by performing an offbeat theme reminiscent of circus music. And just as the asylum director, in a visually stunning scene, disciplines himself into believing he is Dr Caligari (the phrase ‘Du Musst Caligari werden’ appearing as a superimposed text in several places within the frame, like a thought looping endlessly), one can easily imagine Thierry telling us, ‘Du Musst die Musik des Drs. ZAB zuhören’! Without us really knowing whether this music is meant to be a remedy for the madness expressed in the images or a factor that fuels alienation… This virtual artistic alliance between Dr ZAB and Dr Caligari proves, in any case, to be a meeting of the minds.

TRAVERSES (F)
Stépnane Fougère