BRIDPORT’s atmospheric Electric Palace begins a season celebrating a centenary of cinema on Sunday 25th January at 3pm, with a screening, accompanied by a live score, of Robert Wiene’s 1920 masterpiece, Das Cabinet des Dr Caligari.

Written by Hans Janowitz and Carl Mayer, this is the quintessential work of early German Expressionist cinema and is one of the most influential films in cinema history.

Set in a small German town during a carnival, it tells the story of Dr Caligari (Werner Krauss), a mysterious hypnotist who unveils his eerie attraction: Cesare (Conrad Veidt), a sleepwalker said to predict the future. Caligari uses Cesare to commit murders.

The film features a dark, twisted visual style, with sharp-pointed forms, oblique, curving lines, structures and landscapes that lean and twist in unusual angles and shadows and streaks of light painted directly onto the sets.

It is a work that shocked audiences at the time, and had a massive influence on the industry, altering the course of filmmaking. With its jagged, dreamlike sets and chilling atmosphere, the film redefined how stories could be told on screen, leaving an indelible mark on the evolution of horror, film noir, and gothic cinema.

At the Electric Palace, it will have live musical accompaniment by musician Hugo Max, who will perform an original score on viola.

On Thursday 12th February, the cinema is showing Buster Keaton’s 1924 classic comedy Sherlock Jr, with a soundtrack featuring REM’s Monster. And on Thursday 30th April, musician and film historian Neil Brand marks the centenary of Laurel and Hardy’s 1926 movie debut, 45 Minutes from Hollywood – the following year they became an official comedy partnership.