For someone who’s a self proclaimed ‘film fanatic’ I have seen surprisingly few classic films. Anything pre-1970 you can probably guarantee I’ve not seen it, and a lot of that comes down to me not always knowing where to start. I don’t often get on with films from Hollywood’s golden era, and once you get as far back as Citizen Kane I find it difficult to enjoy films because of their technical limitations. But every now and again I do surprise myself, and I’m not opposed to watching classic films should they more or less land in my lap. I have seen sections of F. W. Murnau’s vampire classic Nosferatu before, it’s kind of hard to avoid some of the most iconic sequences, and I also studied some scenes during my time at school. But when I saw that the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square were screening it with a live score, I simply couldn’t resist finally seeing the entire film. I mean, how often do you get a 1922 silent film playing on the big screen with live accompaniment?
Germany, 1832, and Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) travels to Transylvania to meet a prospective buyer for the property situated across to his own home. The buyer is one Count Orlok (Max Schreck), a recluse whose name is enough to strike fear into the locals.
It doesn’t take long for Orlok’s peculiarities yo be apparent to Hutter, who quickly suspects him to be a vampire. However, the deeds have already been signed and Orlok makes way for his new home, bringing pestilence and disease with him, and with his eyes on claiming Hutter’s wife, Ellen (Greta Schröder), as his own.
Germany, 1832, and Thomas Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) travels to Transylvania to meet a prospective buyer for the property situated across to his own home. The buyer is one Count Orlok (Max Schreck), a recluse whose name is enough to strike fear into the locals.
It doesn’t take long for Orlok’s peculiarities yo be apparent to Hutter, who quickly suspects him to be a vampire. However, the deeds have already been signed and Orlok makes way for his new home, bringing pestilence and disease with him, and with his eyes on claiming Hutter’s wife, Ellen (Greta Schröder), as his own.
It’s no easy feat reviewing a film that’s a century old, especially when you’re not well versed with other films of the time. But I must say that if there’s a way to watch Nosferatu, it’s on a big screen, with a group of fans. The atmosphere was positively electric, and that did wonders for getting me in the right headspace for the film, as well as luring me in to the film’s creepier aspects.
Whilst I’m sure in 1922 Nosferatu was one of the most terrifying films ever made, a modern moviegoer simply will not be scared by it. But there was a palpable sense of atmosphere, an eerie feeling I couldn’t shake throughout, and the score does a fantastic job of sending chills up your spine as Schreck’s unsettling figure lurks in the background of shots. It’s not scary, not anymore, but it’s absolutely unsettling.
The parallels between the fears the film preys on, and those being felt in Germany post WWI are difficult to ignore. A foreign, property hoarding, disease spreading, woman stealing, bloodsucker, with a long nose and gaunt frame, the resemblance to the Jew stereotype are obvious I feel, and whilst it would be some time until these fears and paranoias manifested into actual persecution and genocide, the idea that Germany was scared of what was theirs being taken was very much on display here.
Schreck’s performance is totally captivating, the way he stares with those dead eyes, the stiffness of the arms, and that inhuman walk. He totally commits to that character, and it never becomes caricature.
Whilst I’m sure in 1922 Nosferatu was one of the most terrifying films ever made, a modern moviegoer simply will not be scared by it. But there was a palpable sense of atmosphere, an eerie feeling I couldn’t shake throughout, and the score does a fantastic job of sending chills up your spine as Schreck’s unsettling figure lurks in the background of shots. It’s not scary, not anymore, but it’s absolutely unsettling.
The parallels between the fears the film preys on, and those being felt in Germany post WWI are difficult to ignore. A foreign, property hoarding, disease spreading, woman stealing, bloodsucker, with a long nose and gaunt frame, the resemblance to the Jew stereotype are obvious I feel, and whilst it would be some time until these fears and paranoias manifested into actual persecution and genocide, the idea that Germany was scared of what was theirs being taken was very much on display here.
Schreck’s performance is totally captivating, the way he stares with those dead eyes, the stiffness of the arms, and that inhuman walk. He totally commits to that character, and it never becomes caricature.
I loved the way night and day so drastically change the mood of the image. With daytime casting a warm orange glow to the black and white pictures, and nighttime frosting it with an icy blue. This was long before colour films, but the subtle shifts in tint evoke such a strong tonal shift. You feel safer in the daylight, the orange is your friend.
Then of course there’s the music, the whole reason I went to watch the film in the first place. From what I understand the score composed was an original work by Hugo Max, as the original score has been lost to time and subsequent re-releases of the film tend to have new scores made for it. It was chilling to say the least, and I felt that being there in the room with the musician made for a considerably more intimate experience. I felt every note course through me, with every thud, screech, and pluck feeling as though it told me something new. It’s one of the few films where I have genuinely appreciated and really noticed the score, and that may be because of the circumstance, but I think I’ll remember the sounds long after the pictures fade from my mind.
I hate to sound like I’m jumping on the bandwagon, but Nosferatu really is a film every film enthusiast should see at least once. The dated nature of the film will prove a difficult bar for entry for general audiences, but if you consider yourself in any way a film buff then this should be on your radar. The way that Murnau and Schreck use everything that was available to them at the time in order to bring their unofficial Dracula film to life is captivating, and the eerie imagery is definitely enough to unsettle even if it may not be outright scary anymore. I’m also going to take this moment to promote film screenings with live scores, if you have the opportunity to see one then you simply must do it. It brings a whole new level of intimacy with the film, and you can just feel that the energy in the room is so different to that of a traditional film screening.
Then of course there’s the music, the whole reason I went to watch the film in the first place. From what I understand the score composed was an original work by Hugo Max, as the original score has been lost to time and subsequent re-releases of the film tend to have new scores made for it. It was chilling to say the least, and I felt that being there in the room with the musician made for a considerably more intimate experience. I felt every note course through me, with every thud, screech, and pluck feeling as though it told me something new. It’s one of the few films where I have genuinely appreciated and really noticed the score, and that may be because of the circumstance, but I think I’ll remember the sounds long after the pictures fade from my mind.
I hate to sound like I’m jumping on the bandwagon, but Nosferatu really is a film every film enthusiast should see at least once. The dated nature of the film will prove a difficult bar for entry for general audiences, but if you consider yourself in any way a film buff then this should be on your radar. The way that Murnau and Schreck use everything that was available to them at the time in order to bring their unofficial Dracula film to life is captivating, and the eerie imagery is definitely enough to unsettle even if it may not be outright scary anymore. I’m also going to take this moment to promote film screenings with live scores, if you have the opportunity to see one then you simply must do it. It brings a whole new level of intimacy with the film, and you can just feel that the energy in the room is so different to that of a traditional film screening.