See “Shadow of a Vampire” to find out.
whoever said it’s “The Quintessential Vampire Movie”? canons? lists? critics? don’t trust those…
I’m surprised no one is raving yet about the overrated Let the Right One In.
I thought it was alright, nothing to write home about. Gimme Herzog’s Nosferatu any day.
Gimme Herzog’s Nosferatu any day.
YES.
To me “Nosferatu” has a power that comes from several things:
The silent film-making techniques impart a dream-like quality that fits the look of the story perfectly. The old film stocks, the crooked sets, they all add to the idea of a world askew and wrong.
Max Shreck’s make-up and performance. His cadaverous look, all fingers and teeth, suggests both “alienness” and rot and death; a perfect visual metaphor for an era where superstition and fear of pestilence were still strong.
His arrival on the ship makes him appear much like the Black Plague in person.
The Vampire generally has been portrayed as a Jekyll-and-Hyde figure; debonair gent by day, bloody killer by night (few films have really done up the purely sexual metaphors of this creature.)
With Shreck, there is no way to disguise that he is, at least, very strange-looking. Even by silent-film standards, he would not fit into any kind of ‘normal’ world.
So, with “Nosferatu” it is not just the horror of what he does, it is what he represents in people’s minds. The fears, the darkness, the unknown, coming from “elsewhere”….the actual attacks almost take second place to this.
This version of the legend has that more than the subsequent ones.
It adds up to a disturbing, unforgettable film.
Since “The Right One” was mentioned: I think it is deserving of its praise.
It takes the Vampire legend and makes it effective again, no mean feat.
It does so by making the creature not only completely ordinary and invisible, but by going one step further and making it a cute (if somewhat off-beat) little girl.
The story preys on contemporary fears. Not the plague. Not demons.
We live in an era where high-schoolers and younger kids have been convicted of murder.
Eli is the perfect Vampire for our day.
Give me “Ganja and Hess”
On a separate topic, does anyone else besides me think that the vampire as a cultural myth is finished? I just cannot contemplate any other iterations this figure can take. Once you have sparkly emo vampires you know that it is pretty much finished.
“What else makes this movie work outside of the technical craft? Because it takes the vampire genre seriously? Because it stands outside the cliches, the jokes & the sarcasm?”
It came first.
Echo Matt Parks: it’s quintessential because it came first.
To add to this: there are two predominant images of the vampire. One is a beautiful, mysterious debonnaire who hides his vampirism as a dark, mystical, alluring secret; the other is a sulking, animalistic hunter, hideous and waiting in the shadows. The first vampire is Stoker’s, and it survives in… you know… Blade, Interview with the Vampire, etc etc etc.
The second vampire image, which survives in I Am Legend, 30 Days of Night, etc, is directly descended from Murnau. He was the first to give us an image of the vampire as a hideous outcast pariah, with a perverse, repulsive sexuality, rather than a tempting and alluring one.
See Daybreakers and the later Blade movies for mythologies that manage to fit both types of Vampire.
when you do something first, its almost canonical by default.
Murnau’s “Nosferatu” was not the first vampire movie, Bobby. “Vampire of the Coast” (1909), “The Vampire” (1913) and some other films came first.
If I say From Dusk Til Dawn is the best vampire movie, does that mean I’m arrogant ;)
“It came first”
Watch Les Vampires. It’s on Netflix Instant Watch.
“Because it stands outside the cliches, the jokes & the sarcasm?”
Well, it’s an adaptation of Dracula, so yes on the jokes and sarcasm and no on the genre-creating cliches.
“Max Shreck’s make-up and performance”
Yes. Iconic. Remember that early cinema for people was very psychologically affecting, unlike audiences of today who are used to and (in their own way) literate about moving pictures. The shadows of Nosferatu cast upon the wall probably haunted people’s dreams for decades.
“I’m surprised no one is raving yet about the overrated Let the Right One In.”
Well gee uh I guess since you brought it up…. (seriously, don’t want to talk about it, don’t talk about it).
—PolarisDiB
I think people should remember also that it was mostly based on Stoker’s “Dracula” novel (his family tried to sue the filmmakers for a reason), where we find many of the elements of the vampire mythos originating. When we think of a vampire dying from sunlight, one can’t help but think of that seminal moment in the finale of Murnau’s “Nosferatu”, and how it influenced so many others.
I’ll have to watch the movie again. It’s been some time since I’ve seen it. Time to refresh my memory.
I should point out too that people should go to YouTube and check out the old TV program “In Search Of…” and their “In Search Of…Dracula” episode (hosted by Leonard Nimoy). With their eerie music and various scenes from Nosferatu, I remember it creeping me out as a kid, even though it was more a mini-documentary on Vlad The Impaler, though it does get into the vampire mythos also.
And personally, I was bored by Herzog’s take on Nosferatu. Visually beautiful, but a bit of a chore to sit through.
i didnt know there were other vampire movies before “nosferatu”. were they dracula myths, or adaptations of stoker’s novel?
i’ll back anyone that says “from dusk till dawn” is an excellent movie. that and “the vampire’s kiss” are my two favorites.
Les Vampires isn’t a vampire movie.
The first vampire films were based on the dracula myths, but not on the novel. But “Nosferatu” was in fact also no actual adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, but Murnau and his producers from Prana Films stole the material without purchasing the legal rights. The story of the film was of course strikingly similar, and they tried to overshadow the theft by changing the title and the names. Bram Stoker’s widow wrote to the British Incorporated Society of Authors, and finally won the case against the producers of “Nosferatu” in 1925.
Herzog’s is better.
Watch Les Vampires. It’s on Netflix Instant Watch.
I own it on DVD. As Aibohphobia already said, it’s not a vampire film. Neither was The Vampire (1913). There was an adaptation of Dracula shot in Russia in 1920, but it is lost, as is the 1921 Hungarian film Drakula halála . . . as is “Vampire of the Coast”, I believe.
Non-vampire sequences of the film might seem the most interesting.
Nina sleep-walking on the balcony – 5 stars. Reminds me of Magritte for some reason.
The scene on the beach, when Nina is waiting for her husband, while the other two are playing (croquet?), then come down with a letter. 5 stars.
Wonderful shots of the town. One shot from the roof reminds of “400 Blows” in a distant way.
The tracking shot towards the ship at sea. Wow! It’s 1922! I wonder was Murnau the first to do such a thing?
. . .
The problem with all this: do the beautiful and innovative elements fit at all in a story with such a pessimistic message (and a rather caricature-like vamp)?
dp
should the beautiful and the innovative be mutually exclusive with the pessimistic?
-The tracking shot towards the ship at sea. Wow! It’s 1922! I wonder was Murnau the first to do such a thing?-
Tracking shots? No.
Nosferatu is essentially my favorite film of all time. I mean I have a Nosferatu tattoo which pretty much takes up my entire calf. But anyway, what makes this a great film is that it isn’t really about vampires or vampirism. Although the films’ principal character happens to be a vampire, the theme of the film is loneliness. Feeling love for someone and not being able to obtain their love proves to be a very lonely and tragic feeling by the films’ end.
Let’s talk about Interviews With The Vampire. Beautiful and dramatic and succeeds without the hang-ups of the usual vampire flick. Wonderful film, maybe not quintessential but up there.
-The tracking shot towards the ship at sea. Wow! It’s 1922! I wonder was Murnau the first to do such a thing?
-Tracking shots? No.
Not tracking shots themselves. I meant were they the first to film a ship this way?
This film feels utterly modern and like miles ahead of its peers.
should the beautiful and the innovative be mutually exclusive with the pessimistic?
Well, “innovation” may probably be used to any purpose… The same is true for “beauty”, especially if the message of the film is tragic, “the loneliness of evil”, as Tommy says. But does the vampire really looks that tragic? Isn’t he rather a caricature?
the theme of the film is loneliness.
Gotta re-watch it. For now the main theme feels to be that all things in the world are interconnected, but especially humans are connected/ attracted to evil. This is horrifying.
I might suggest, without having seen the film in quite a few years, that Davril and Tommy could both be essentially correct in that there seems to be the suggestion that people alone, without companionship or support, are drawn towards evil. Night could be seen as a representation of solitude and doubt regarding relationships. The spreading of evil that occurs happens during the time when people are most alone both literally in the sense they are cloaked in darkness and asleep where everyone is on their own, and metaphorically in the case of the vampire that seems to represent the fears and unhealthy desires that fight with our daytime social demeanor.
You see, Nina is not that lonely. Her marriage appears to be a happy one. So maybe to the most frightening moment is when we see her embroidering “I love you” near the end of the film. Is it for her husband or for the vampire?
Yes, I didn’t mean loneliness in a constant sense, more of an alternating state, one is consoled by daylight, bereft at night, a sort of dichotomy of being that is an intrinsic part of humanity if one accepts day and night as sorts of metaphor for our condition.
John
F.W. Murnau is a technical genius. He lost his life at the peak of his career & we can only imagine what other works he would’ve made had he lived. Like Wong Kar-Wai, his style is visually eccentric & his use of tracking shots, in-camera effects & composition of his imagery are far more imaginative than a great proportion of today’s top directors. He uses his technical craft as a service to the concerns & thoughts of his characters. It was no surprise to me that when I saw Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, I was seeing the work of a director who was extremely well planned, hard working, intellectually gifted & confident in his vision.
Therefore, I can’t explain why but Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror puzzles me.
Within the framework of his budget (e.g. Murnau only had one camera at his disposal), I certainly see Murnau’s technical genius (use of oblique camera angles, subtle colour tinting, choice of soft focus etc) but I don’t know what makes this the quintessential vampire movie.
What else makes this movie work outside of the technical craft? Because it takes the vampire genre seriously? Because it stands outside the cliches, the jokes & the sarcasm? I admire Murnau’s technical craft, his ability to craft a great story from a vague narrative & his use of shadows but what makes Nosferatu a great movie?