Nosferatu
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List Price: $19.99
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Features
• Color
• DVD-Video
• Full Screen
• NTSC
In Theaters : 03 June, 1929
DVD Release : 02 January, 2001 |
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Nosferatu description
As noted critic Pauline Kael observed, "... this first important film of the vampire genre has more spectral atmosphere, more ingenuity, and more imaginative ghoulish ghastliness than any of its successors." Some really good vampire movies have been made since Kael wrote those words, but German director F.W. Murnau's 1922 version remains a definitive adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Created when German silent films were at the forefront of visual technique and experimentation, Murnau's classic is remarkable for its creation of mood and setting, and for the unforgettably creepy performance of Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a.k.a. the blood-sucking predator Nosferatu. With his rodent-like features and long, bony-fingered hands, Schreck's vampire is an icon of screen horror, bringing pestilence and death to the town of Bremen in 1838. (These changes of story detail were made necessary when Murnau could not secure a copyright agreement with Stoker's estate.) Using negative film, double-exposures, and a variety of other in-camera special effects, Murnau created a vampire classic that still holds a powerful influence on the horror genre. (Werner Herzog's 1978 film Nosferatu the Vampyre is both a remake and a tribute, and Francis Coppola adopted many of Murnau's visual techniques for Bram Stoker's Dracula.) Seen today, Murnau's film is more of a fascinating curiosity, but its frightening images remain effectively eerie. --Jeff Shannon |
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Nosferatu Customer Reviews
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"Your Wife has a Beautiful Neck"
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The German silent film classic "Nosferatu" was nearly lost to history less than three years after its release in 1922. The movie follows the exact same plot as all other adaptations of Bram Stokers "Dracula", so I won't continue with a review of an already well known story. The film itself has a history that is every bit as interesting as the movie's storyline. The film's director F.W. Murnau, had applied for the rights to the book, as well as the play adaptation, so he could make them into a movie. While waiting for the rights to be accquired, Murnau went ahead with production, changing character names and locations, in the hope that this would get him around the copyright laws. He seemed to know that the rights would never be his, and on a shoestring budget, he rushed from one hugh outdoor set to the next, to complete his masterpiece. Bram Stoker's widow, Florence sued the movie's studio Prana-Film, and won her case. The studio in turn filed bankruptcy, and the film dissappeared from the publics view shortly after its release. Florence Stoker eventually decided to have the court produce an order for the films destruction, which they did, that order included every known copy in existence. However, then, as today, you had people who made pirated copies of the film to keep as their own. And that is the reason this film exists today. It was a movie ordered destroyed because it had pirated its own storyline, but in the end, was saved for later generations by piracy of the movie itself. A true paradox in film history.
The title character is played by a then unknown German actor named Max Schreck, and together with Murnau, they created the most terrifying vampire ever brought to the screen. Nothing in film, has come even remotely close to Schreck's Count Orlok for outright repugnance. Unquestionably, the character remains the ugliest vampire ever created. More animal like than human, Schreck had an overly large, mostly bald head, with pointed ears and a large hooked nose. His hands had extremely long, talon like fingers, that one could actually envision him using while on his unending quest for blood. Fittingly, Schreck's Count was also as pale and skinny as a corpse, a fact which seemed to be at odds with the remarkable, and seemingly effortless feats of strength he was capable of performing. For example, he carries a full sized, dirt filled, wooden coffin from the London docks all the way to his newly accquired home, under one arm, like anyone else might carry a small suitcase. The films other characters almost seem needless once Schreck appears on the screen, in fact, they appear as nothing more than targets of the vampires blood lust, as he travels from his Carpathian home to London. Of course, in the end, good triumphs over evil, and the vampire is killed through a selfless act of love.
Had the film not been kept from the public's view for so long, Schreck would have been a well remembered star in his day, and Murnau would have gotten the recognition he deserved for this film, as it was quite an accomplishment for its time. But that is something he would never see, since he was killed at the age of 43, in a car crash in 1929, only seven years after completing "Nosferatu". Despite all of this, it appears as if his film, like vampires themselves, will have a long and undying history that is already rich in little known details. It remains one of the best silent films ever made; and it will continue to stand on it's own merits, against the test of time. |
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Nosferatu dvd movie.