Das Cabinet Des Dr Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr Caligari)

This 1919 silent movie is one of the founding works of European cinema. Its influence is immense, but to its eternal credit it has certain things that still remain its own, not to be repeated.
It is still a decent watch. The plot rolls along decently and we have a surprisingly innovative use of storytelling trickery, along with, for the cinema of that time, a revolutionary ending. This just about holds the attention.
The really interesting part of the film though is the way it looks. The sharp angles of houses, the sloping roofs, the deeply expressionist sets. The uneasiness, the Kafka-esque sinister silliness of the character's top hats. The gritty macabre of Dr Caligari himself, the oddness, the mixture of toyness and horror or the somnambulist itself. All these are distinctly its own. The sets are stunning. One can barely think of a film where such imagination and sheer artistic thought has been put into the expressionist facades. This is the kind of visual art that cinema all too rarely attempts, in its desperate search for realism.
And the horror scenes contain their own kind of poetry. The placings of the actors, there framings within the inventively changing light, creates some beautiful and macabre tableaus.
Of course, it can be a little dull and has some odities that now would be ironed out. For this though, the look of the film remains a lesson.