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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
Shadow Of The Vampire
The movie "Nosferatu" ("plague-carrier") was made in 1922 by a German director named F.W. Murnau. This classic vampire silent film was originally intended to be about the most famous of vampire legends, Count Dracula. Unfortunately for Murnau, the rights to use the source material are denied by Stoker's widow. Unfased, he basically renames his bloodsucker "Count Orlock" and proceeds with his Dracula rip-off. Max Schreck, the actor who played Murnau's Orlock, went on to do a little more work, then faded into obscurity. His work on Nosferatu however, is hailed as one of the best vampire performances ever. I havent seen the full film myself, but what ive seen over the years is pretty scary. There are cuts from the movie in the band Queen's "Under Pressure" video, and Orlock can be found here and there in several others. I ordered it and the "Cabinet of Dr Caligari" last week off Amazon for 6.99 apiece, and just got the shipping confirmation today, so I'm looking forward to seeing both these silent classics in full soon!
The premise of the movie "Shadow Of The Vampire" is a behind the scenes sort of tale about the manic and driven Murnau (John Malkovich), who in going for realism actually finds a real vampire to perform in his movie. His crew is all told before they meet Max Schreck, that he is a character actor that completely immerses himself in his parts. Thus, he will be "in character" the entire time, and will only perform at night and in full makeup. And effective he is, as Willem Dafoe plays the ancient "Nosferatu" with hilarious abandon. This is a different type of vampire than the long-canined, well-dressed, and well-mannered and spoken Dracula that we know from Hollywood. This is, I think the style of vampire of medieval Eastern European countries' monster lore, where the vampire is more of a horrific, almost feral creature. With long rodent-like incisors not canines, huge eyebrows, long bony fingers with yellowed fingernails, and pointy ears. Anne Rice undead traipsing around in lace and frills, he definitely is not. He's no spring chicken either, apparently hundreds of years old, and he shows it in his hideous greyed and balded glory. He seems stiff and tired, and appears quite disenchanted with his immortality as he recalls glories of centuries past (What he can remember, anyway) while clutching a vial of blood Murnau brings him as payment. The crew dont suspect anything other than a very eccentric actor, and laugh along at the strangeness which is actually authentic, as he boozes it up with them mid-film. I'm somewhat sympathetic to this vampire wretch, he seems miserable and terribly lonely, and unlike other vamps his memory and sanity is fading over the countless years. One of the most powerful parts of the film for me, is when he takes one of Murnaus projectors, and plays on the wall scenes of daylight, something he longs for more than anything. This movie is filled with small, powerful parts like that. Inbetween all the grimaces and strangeness, Nosferatu is at his core just an old broken man. He falls for a Hollywood bimbo starlet lead in the film, perhaps reminding him of his own love hundreds of years prior. Murnau promises he can have Greta in the end if he will perform for him. This usually would seem a bit cliched, but here it works for me and doesnt seem hokey at all.
Murnau by mid-movie is obviously aware of the true nature of Max Schreck, and was all along. As crew members start either disappearing or going practically catatonic with unknown terror, Murnau becomes increasingly maddened as the vampire keeps issuing new demands of the embattled director. I wont go into any more than that, but it is a hilarious conflict that I truly enjoyed between Murnau and Nosferatu. Dafoe is great in this film, he is at the same time powerful yet pathetic, scary yet comical. As in the style of silent films, expressions and actions are exagerrated quite a bit to help convey the story, and many times Dafoe need not even say a word, it's all right there in his face and body language. The shadows and the lighting were so much more prevalent as a major aspect of film making in the past, and in this modern film they are used well. The makeup is really great, and the whole production itself is well polished and edited.
Im a sucker for realistic timepieces, and this version of 1920's cars, hairstyles, and movie making are excellent and convincing. A behind the scenes look at 1920's film production is something Ive never seen, and it was quite entertaining and somewhat informative. I would say Malkovich is over the top in this film, but from ive read of Murnau, he was a bit "over the top" himself. Also, the opiate Laudanum is being used alot by Murnau, I dont know how true this is, but it would surely contribute to his manic behavior. I particularly like how he talks the actors thru the scenes, he plays each part himself in his head. This is a man with a vision and a passion, and Malkovich rants thru it perfectly IMHO. There is particular speech he gives his crew in the beginning, played transposed over their train ride to Czechoslovakia, that sums up his approach to his goal.
"We are scientists engaged in the creation of memory,
but our memory will neither blur nor fade.."
This one is a 2 thumb-equivalents up, I watched it twice this week! I liked it more the second viewing because there are some subtleties and things I didnt catch the first time around. Some of the accents are so heavy, and things sometimes evade you the first time thru.
The Good-
- Dafoe doesnt need to say a word most times, it's right there in his face and actions. He's great!
- Realistic portrayal of 20's film production and atmosphere.
- Great makeup, Nosferatu is hideous.
- A different portrayal of vampires than I know, but keeps the core mythology of the nocturnal bloodsuckers intact.
- Mid-movie, Nosferatu reads "Dracula", given to him by Murnau. He reads the story and recounts it totally different, with sadness, when asked.
"How can Dracula welcome this man into his castle after so long, and act human? Can he remember how to set a table, prepare a meal? Can he remember how to make a bed, can he remember anything about how men act or what they do?"
Im paraphrasing, but this is a glimpse into the mind of this poor old wretch and it works quite well in humanizing him a bit. I liked it.
The Bad-
- Plot holes, there are a couple, but they arent show-stoppers.
- Too many of the crew look alike, sound alike, and act alike. Hard to tell them apart sometimes.
- The accents are very thick on some characters, yet Murnau himself has really no German accent.
- Nosferatu's accent is a bit too thick at times for this American tiger, I had to replay a few parts numerous times to understand it.
- There is the "scared peasant woman who demands crucifixes", which I wish they would have left out. It's just a horror token appearance if I've ever seen one.
Sites about this great film-
http://www.auntiemomo.com/cakeordeath/burned.html
http://www.mogulsoft.com/shadow/home/index.html
-Edited for spelling and all that 
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“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain
Last edited by xSamhainx on Sun May 23, 2004 6:53 am; edited 1 time in total |
Sun May 23, 2004 1:06 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
I´ve seen Nosferatu in an open air cinema with live music played by a small 3 people band disguised as Nosferatu. 
It was great. The movie started at sundown on a warm summer evening. It was around 20° C. Warm enough to wear a T-Shirt but cold enough that the gentle breeze caused occasional shivers. Add a lot of beer and you can imagine that this was an enjoyable evening. Although red wine would have probably been a more adequate choice.
The movie itself is a true masterpiece. Meaning it´s a great, daring, original piece of art. The director obviously didn´t care for a second if it could be sold to a mainstream audience.
The work with light and shadows is simply outstanding. Of course it´s rather slow from today´s point of view and the story is known, except the ending, which hasn´t been used for decades in a vampire movie, I think. It doesn´t matter, though. Nosferatu is the original (big) vampire movie, the others only copied it.
Nosferatu is still surprisingly watchable if you´re willing to concentrate on the experience. I clearly prefer it to the 1979 remake by Werner Herzog. He did better movies with Klaus Kinski. Especially Aguirre: The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo and Herzog´s docu about Kinski My Best Fiend are fascinating movies with with some stellar scenes (for example a real steamboat dragged over a mountain) or stories (e.g. how the indios offered to kill Kinski during the shooting of Aguirre or how Herzog forced Kinski at gunpoint to turn his boat around and return to the set to complete the movie). Beware of art!  Fascinating does not imply everything is enjoyable.
I really like good silent movies. There disadvantage is also their biggest advantage: the dialogs are short and to the point. No pathetic standard dialogs like in 99% of today´s movie. Instead they have to talk with pictures.
IMHO the silent Ben Hur from 1925 is better than the overrated remake with Charlton Heston because they left out an hour of religious stuff.
Shadow of the Vampire just made it back on my to watch list. I had totally forgotten about it.
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Webmaster GothicDot |
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Sun May 23, 2004 4:56 am |
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Gorath
Mostly Harmless
Joined: 03 Sep 2001
Posts: 6327
Location: NRW, Germany |
Hey Tiger, how about an update on this?
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Webmaster GothicDot |
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Mon Jun 07, 2004 12:09 am |
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xSamhainx
Paws of Doom
Joined: 11 Sep 2002
Posts: 2192
Location: San Diego |
Sure, I was going to fire up this topic again this week. I watched Nosferatu again a couple nights ago by myself late night, and feel that I got a little more out of it than I did before when watching it with others. I also noticed quite a few shots and phrases literally used in "Shadow Of The Vampire", that were quite interesting to see in their original context.
I enjoyed Nosferatu quite a bit, and it definitely is a worthy addition to my chronicles of horror. It didnt seem to impress neo-goth Brother Sam much, because it is so spoon-fed, which it had to be for that era. Expressions and actions are quite overdone to help convey them, and it leads to a very relaxed, simplistic viewing experience. For some, stretching this out over 80 minutes will bore them, but I enjoyed it. Besides, just the experience of seeing a film as old as Nosferatu in itself is like viewing some ancient relic.
I think it was rather well-done for the time. Shapeshifting is handled a bit differently than Van Helsing's monsters approach it. It's inferred, like many things in this film. When Hutter arrives and stays at an inn the first night, there is a jackal outside near the inn. The dog just kinda looks around, not particularly menacing or focused on anything at all. It looks like this dog just walks up, looks around, and walks away. Cut to horses suddenly running away from the inn. Hutter waking up the next morning, reads a page of the "Book Of The Vampires" the locals leave instead of a bible on the nightstand. The page he just happens to read says in Old English font -
"Men do not always recognize the dangers that beasts can sense at certain times"
Now the jackal appears again, closer up, then cut to shot of peasant women clutching each other in fear. Then the dog bolts, and it's clear that the jackal was Nosferatu. Yes, it's ridiculously spoon-fed at times, but it's also effective enough to appreciate. There is a Nosferatu attack on Hutter, but I guess it turns out to just be a dream. But was it? He does have some strange marks on his neck, must be a BIG mosquito. Murnau does the dream/not a dream thing well, I was impressed. The continuity of the whole plot, linked with the "Land of Phantoms" reference first uttered by Hutter's boss, and his subsequent descent into madness, gives the movie more depth than some modern prime time drek as the vampire makes his way to claim Ellen for his own. Maybe it's just that "Shadow of.." has corrupted my thinking on this matter, but I cant help but be a tiny bit sympathetic to the old guy ='.'=
Dead set eyes on the unexpected has always freaked me out. Looking around, or waking up and seeing someone or something staring at you is creepy, and there are some unexpected long creepy dead-set stares from Nos that are kinda chilling. It is a great film, and I can see myself watching it quite a few more times.
The bit of prehistoric CGI we get of some fade effects are done suprisingly well enough for me, even by today's standard. The way some of it goes into hyperdrive fast motion (as when Nos is loading up his caskets on the horses) makes me wonder if that is fast-motion effect to give him some sort of celerity power, or not. There are other instances where horses are galloping unbelievably fast as well, maybe that is just a way to "speed up" monotonous parts or something to that effect. Sort of comical looking ='.'=
The Cabinet of Dr Casey was great too for a 20's expressionist movie, I enjoyed it. My foray into silent films has been rewarding, I want to check out some others now like Golem or Metropolis.
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“Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving.”-Mark Twain |
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Mon Jun 07, 2004 5:16 am |
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