|
Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922 Prana-Film GmbH Dir. F. W. Murnau)
 Our intrepid hero, walks towards a door... a door to HORROR!
Ah, how beloved is this first version of Dracula ever filmed? Well, not beloved if you ask Mrs. Stoker who tried to have the film destroyed. See it was used without permission and the studio went bankrupt so there was no money to pay Stoker's widow with, so the courts ordered the whole thing be destroyed. If they had succeeded, Nosferatu would have been a lost film instead of one of the most famous films from the silent era.
 Once again an example where glass would prevent people from getting in.
I don't know of my own knowledge how many people had an experience like mine, but I am fairly sure that Nosferatu is the first full length silent movie I ever saw. Before that the only thing I'd seen were Chaplin shorts, so as you can imagine this was more than a change of pace. I won't say it was actually particularly frightening, because in many ways you need to be a little more grown up to be scared by something like this.
I've said it before and I'll say it again... pimpin' ain't never been easy.
There are many changes made between the original book and this version of the movie. There are superficial changes in names (Jonathan Harker becomes Thomas Hutter and Mina is Ellen) and instead of London we have Wisborg Germany, but the changes run a little deeper than that. The personalities are changed and story points are shifted, in many ways until they hardly resemble their novelic counterparts. Thomas is almost childlike in his exaggerated movements and gestures as opposed to Jonathan's seriousness. At one point in fact, so childlike does Thomas become that he throws a blanket over his head when Orlok comes calling.
 You want to me give a hickey? Oh GOD that joke sucks! ... Yeah, I see what I did there. Sorry
The story does still follow the same basic pattern as Dracula, but with many subtle differences. The movie starts by introducing Thomas and his wife in a small domestic scene. If you have an analytical mind you might try to suggest things about the marriage, but I don't intend to go there. In order to get the plot moving Thomas is sent by this movie's version of Renfield, here called Knock, to Transylvania to see Count Orlok. Instead of being in a mad house, Knock is Thomas's employer and a confederate of Orlok's.
 Just a little, tiny bit Freudian.
Upon arriving in Transylvania Thomas stops at an inn for a night and picks up a book of folk lore. This book will give us much of the information the audience gets about vampires within the movie. Thomas is then driven out to the middle of no-where to meet with Orlok's driver. As usual the driver is of course Orlok himself, but we don't know that yet. There is an interesting trick which sort of works and sort of doesn't. When Thomas gets in the black carriage, the film is under cranked so everything moves much faster. Then there is a shot that is in negative, but because they used a white carriage in that shot, it still appears black, as does the driver and horses. When we come to the castle the film is once again the positive image with the black carriage. It's interesting, but it doesn't exactly work for me.
 Positive  Negative
As is usual, at dinner Thomas cuts his hand and Orlok decides to attack. This attack is strangely off screen, we only really see Orlok approach and then sit down across from Thomas. Thomas then wakes up in the chair, having clearly slept there all night. The implication is clear, but the actual consummation is left to the individual viewer as to what exactly happened. With Thomas at least partly in Orlok's thrall, he remains with Orlok for some time.
 They told me this would be slimming. Is it?
One of the interesting features of this movie is that the tinting actually matters here. The blue tints for the night shots, orange for the day, yellow for night and so on. There were almost no real night shots in silent films, because the cameras needed a great deal of light in order to properly film action. For this reason, without the blue tints it looks like the whole movie is shot between eleven in the morning and three in the afternoon, which is foolish.
Orlok's shadow puppets were a favorite at sleepovers.
When the big revel of Orlok comes for Thomas to finish the job, Ellen steps in and sends a signal by psychic radio to save him. This moment is sadly laughable, but we do get to see some cross cutting which was something of an innovation at the time. It also manages to transfer the count's interest from the husband to the wife. From there Orlok begins his trip to Germany, by stacking up boxes of earth and strangely getting a boat. I've never understood the need for the boat. Surely Germany is closer by land than by sea, right? After Orlok leaves Thomas makes a break for home as well, but gets hurt and ends up in a hospital for a while before getting home to warn people.
Stupidest place for a cemetary I've ever heard of.
During a short period where the story lags, we see the Van Helsing for this story explain how the natural world has things that are like phantoms and vampires. A venus fly tray and a microscopic polyp are given as representatives of the darkness in the real world. During this time, Knock goes nutso and begins to describe himself as a spider, eating flies he snatches out of the air. While this goes on, Ellen waits by the sea shore for Thomas, or possibly Orlok who is on the boat for no good reason.
That's a happy man.
The boat does give a good chance for some serious creeps though, which is probably a good enough reason. And of course on the boat you get that famous scene where the count rises up out of his coffin, seeming to be lifted on a board that has its juncture point somewhere around his ankles. He raises without movement beyond his right hand that extends out to scare the bejezzues out of someone. While on the boat, the count picks the crew off one by one, but through sickness instead of blood loss.
Really, this is jsut forced perspective. He's actually only 3 feet tall
Interestingly, when Orlok shows up he seems to bring plague instead of bloodshed. The plague takes many victims, and it's clear that this is sickness we're talking about. Several scenes go by where parades of coffins are seen, people discuss the sickness, and we're meant to understand this is all from the vampire being around.
 Dude, they're called nail clippers and they aren't expensive.
We never actually see Orlok try and stalk anyone after the boat until he finally makes an attempt to get to Ellen. After Orlok has been in town a while, Knock escapes from his captors and is mistaken by the mob as being the source of the plague. Knock is chased down but they loose him and decide to kill a scarecrow instead when they loose him.
I wasn't going to show this one, but then I was told that there is a law that you have to have a screen cap of thise scene every time you do a review of this movie.
When Orlok finally comes for Ellen, she sends Thomas away to get him out of the way. Then of course Orlok comes for her, but she keeps him away from his lair until day break. In a completely new idea and one that would endure through out vampire lore, Orlok is destroyed by the sunlight. As far as I know, this is the first time that the sun proves deadly for a vampire, but it would be taken up and used by many writers and film makers later. With Orlok dead, Ellen slips away leaving Thomas alone and broken. The last shot of the film is a broken castle keep on a hill, clearly meant to be the final remains of Orlok's castle which has crumbled without him being alive to keep it up.
That tuft of hair behind his ear? Drives the ladies WILD!
You could start analyzing this movie in the morning and not be done by bed time, which is why I'm not really going to try to do it here. I leave it to the viewer of the film to perform that task in their own good time. My copy of the DVD is pretty good. There are scratches and grain, but it's got a serviceable commentary and two separate musical tracks. I've been told there are better versions of the movie out there, but I've never gone looking for it because this one dose well enough. I suppose that says all that needs to be said about it.
Everyone sing "Fade into You" By Mazzy Star! Yeah, I got nothing. |
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
retroflix's journal