An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu is the quintessential silent vampire film, crafted by legendary German director F. W. Murnau (Sunrise, Faust, The Last Laugh).
Rather than depicting Dracula as a shape-shifting monster or debonair gentleman, Murnau’s Graf Orlok (as portrayed by Max Schreck) is a nightmarish, spidery creature of bulbous head and taloned claws — perhaps the most genuinely disturbing incarnation of vampirism yet envisioned.
Nosferatu was an atypical expressionist film in that much of it was shot on location. While directors such as Lang and Lubitsch built vast forests and entire towns within the studio, Nosferatu’s landscapes, villages and castle were actual locations in the Carpathian mountains. Murnau was thus able to infuse the story with the subtle tones of nature: both pure and fresh as well as twisted and sinister. —kino
To this day German filmmaker F. W. Murnau remains one of the most influential directors of cinema. After studying art and literature history at the University of Heidelberg, he became a student of director Max Reinhardt until serving in World War I as a combat pilot. During a flight, he accidentally strayed into Switzerland and stayed there till the war’s end. He made his directorial debut in 1919 back in Germany; although he made several films over the next three years, most of them have been lost. Murnau first gained international renown with Nosferatu the Vampire in 1922. Unlike others, Murnau filmed this still chilling masterpiece on location. His next film, The Last Laugh (1924), utilized unique camera techniques that later became the basis for mise-en-scene. He continued making German films, notable for their pessimism and pervading sense of doom, until he moved to Hollywood in 1926 to work for Fox studios. His first American film, Sunrise: A Story of Two Humans (1927), is considered… read more
Still possibly the most horrific version of Stoker's classic novel. Max Schreck gave the quintessential vampiric performance here and still can raise goosebumps some 90 years later. Atmospheric, haunting, chilling ; a true symphony of horror. Many classic cinematographic moments; the rising from the coffin, the ghost ship, shadowplay and the classic closing scene. It doesn''t get much better than this,
ignacioleopoldowr, Cinesthesia (aka Duncan), Alek Gartland, Algitya
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The version with English title cards still names the characters Harker, Mina, Renfield, and Van Helsing. And you can see that the story holds very closely to Bram Stoker’s original novel except that… read review
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Murnau crea grandes climas, el manejo del suspense es inmejorable, todos los mitos alrededor de “Nosferatu” son, sin lugar a dudas, toda una leyenda cinematgráfica. Tembien son excelentes el manejo… read review
