Nosferatu
As a special Halloween treat, this newly restored version of one of silent cinema’s undisputed classics –Nosferatu – receives a theatrical release as part of Eureka’s award-winning The Masters Of Cinema series, and as part of the BFI’s Gothic Season.
Filmed in 1921 by legendary director W.F. Murnau(Sunrise, Faust, and Tabu), the German expressionist horror Nosferatu - A Symphony Of Horror is the first screen adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, albeit an unauthorized one, since the studio could not obtain the rights. Hence, the main action takes place in the fictional town of Wisborg (filmed in Wismar and Lübeck), in the year 1838. Additional scenes were shot in Slovakia (substituting for Transylvania), and JOFA film studios in Berlin.
While the main characters from Stoker’s novel remain, (though obviously with German names), other characters, like Arthur Holmwood, Quincy Morris, and the three vampire brides, had been scrapped altogether.
For example, Mina Harker here is Ellen Hutter (Greta Schröder), while Jonathan Harker is Thomas Hutter (portrayed by Gustav von Wangenheim). Mad Renfield has his name changed to Knock, and actor Alexander Granach plays him with a perfect mixture or utter repulsion and troll-like mischief.
The most prominent change, however, is that of the film’s title character – no longer Dracula in Murnau’s silent classic, but Count Orlok instead. Berlin-born stage actor Max Schreck (Schreck means ‘terror’ and ‘fear’ in German) delivers an unparalleled performance as the tall and cadaverous looking bloodsucker, whose pointy ears and sharp teeth resemble a terrifying combination of a skull and a bat’s head. Equally unnerving are the count’s elongated fingers and fingernails, more like talons really.
Schreck’s ‘Count Orlok’ obviously provided the visual inspiration for Reggie Nalder’s vampire character ‘Kurt Barlow’ in the 1974 Stephen King adaptationSalem’s Lot. There is nothing even remotely romantic or seductive about Count Orlok, and the famous scene in which we see his shadow climbing up a staircase has influenced numerous expressionist and film-noir style movies!
The story starts with Ellen Hutter, who is troubled by melancholia and sleepwalking, affectionately petting a cat, and then embracing her beloved husband. The idyllic scenario soon is clouded however, when it emerges that Thomas Hutter, an estate agent, has been commissioned by none other than Knock to set off to Transylvania and set up a contract with Count Orlok, a client who wishes to purchase property in Wisborg. In fact, the property happens to be almost opposite from the Hutter home. Leaving his beloved Ellen in the care of his friend Harding and sister Anne, Hutter embarks on the long journey into the unknown. During a stay in an inn, the locals warn Hutter of Orlok’s castle in the Carpathians, while the following day, the coach drivers refuse to take him any further than to a bridge. Laughing off the superstitious beliefs of the locals, Hutter takes his bag and continues his journey by foot.
“And when he had crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him.”
In this case, a disguised Count Orlok and his phantom coach come to meet him, taking him to the castle. This particular scene feels odd, because the sequence is filmed in fast motion, whereas modern audiences will agree that a coach rolling along filmed in slow motion as much more eerie!
At the castle, not much time is wasted to unfold the terror awaiting Hutter. Forget about seductive vampire brides or creepy servants. The Count dishes up dinner himself and studies the contract, while his guest heartily tucks into his meal. It’s only when his cuts himself while slicing bread that he realises his host seems more than a little strange. Unnerved, he reclines for the night and reading a book which the concerned people at the inn gave him. Legends of Nosferatu, the ‘bird of death’, seem to come true when Hutter is bitten that very night…
Meanwhile, Count Orlok leaves with several coffins, shipped down river by gypsies on a raft before they are loaded onto a schooner set for Germany. By the time the schooner arrives at the destination, captain and crew are dead, apparent victims of the plague. No one suspects the presence of pure evil in the shape of Orlok has arrived with the ship. The rest of the story isn’t too far removed from the Dracula story, with the vital difference that in Nosferatu it’s not only the vampire who comes to an end, but also the female heroine – Ellen Hutter – who sacrifices herself to save her husband and the town.
Despite various deviations from the original source, the screenplay by Henrik Galeen (The Golem, The Student Of Prague) delivers a feel of unsettling and claustrophobic terror. It remains a classic of its genre – spawning a 1979 remake by director Werner Herzog (with Klaus Kinski in the title role), as well as inspiring the movie Shadow Of The Vampire (2000), in which Willem Dafoe takes on the role of the bloodsucker.
Expertly restored by the world-renowned Friedrich-Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung, Nosferatu promises to frighten and thrill on a grand scale, and with a score to match!
