SAT 12 OCT
Coming Soon to
Chelsea Theater
94 mins |
Rated
PG
Directed by F.W. Murnau
Starring Max Schreck, Gustav von Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, Georg H. Schnell, Ruth Landshoff
In preparation for the acclaimed Robert Eggers' NOSFERATU remake coming this Christmas – and in celebration of 100 Years of Vampire Cinema – we go back to the beginning not just of vampire cinema, but of film art itself with F.W. Murnau's German Expressionist masterpiece, NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (1922).
One of the most influential films in the history of cinema, NOSFERATU (1922) was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula, which arrived just as the medium of moving pictures was beginning. The film adaptation was made by a German production company for a German audience, so character names and locations from the novel were altered to appeal to the German public.
As was the name, NOSFERATU, which never before this film appeared in any vampire lore or writings. It is likely a misremembering/mispronunciation of a Romanian word overheard by the producer Albin Grau when stationed in Romania during WWI. The word would go on to be uttered for the first time in a sound film nearly a decade later in the first three minutes of Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi’s famous 1931 Universal Pictures film DRACULA, cementing the name in film history and in the continuity of vampire lore forever.
All these alterations would not be enough to keep the filmmakers from being plunged into the litigation hell of copyright lawsuits filed against them by Bram Stoker's widow.
But the bat was out of the cave, so to speak, and vampire lore and the silver screen would find themselves intertwined, altering one another, growing, and influencing one another's histories forever. For example, the vampire who bursts into flame when exposed to the light rather than merely being weakened or affected by light is an addition or expansion of vampire lore belonging to the age of cinema.
In the realm of light, the shadow of the vampire has become much greater than its inception into popular lore and culture. I hardly need to explain the appeal, for those who paint with light, of the Vampire’s mystique. On the silver screen this immortal being cast an ever-lengthening shadow upon its rise through generations of film.
And at the Chelsea, the shadows lengthen still.
He is coming…
FURTHER READING:
Vampire Cinema: The First One Hundred Years by Christopher Frayling
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Read more...
In preparation for the acclaimed Robert Eggers' NOSFERATU remake coming this Christmas – and in celebration of 100 Years of Vampire Cinema – we go back to the beginning not just of vampire cinema, but of film art itself with F.W. Murnau's German Expressionist masterpiece, NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORROR (1922).
One of the most influential films in the history of cinema, NOSFERATU (1922) was an unofficial adaptation of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula, which arrived just as the medium of moving pictures was beginning. The film adaptation was made by a German production company for a German audience, so character names and locations from the novel were altered to appeal to the German public.
As was the name, NOSFERATU, which never before this film appeared in any vampire lore or writings. It is likely a misremembering/mispronunciation of a Romanian word overheard by the producer Albin Grau when stationed in Romania during WWI. The word would go on to be uttered for the first time in a sound film nearly a decade later in the first three minutes of Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi’s famous 1931 Universal Pictures film DRACULA, cementing the name in film history and in the continuity of vampire lore forever.
All these alterations would not be enough to keep the filmmakers from being plunged into the litigation hell of copyright lawsuits filed against them by Bram Stoker's widow.
But the bat was out of the cave, so to speak, and vampire lore and the silver screen would find themselves intertwined, altering one another, growing, and influencing one another's histories forever. For example, the vampire who bursts into flame when exposed to the light rather than merely being weakened or affected by light is an addition or expansion of vampire lore belonging to the age of cinema.
In the realm of light, the shadow of the vampire has become much greater than its inception into popular lore and culture. I hardly need to explain the appeal, for those who paint with light, of the Vampire’s mystique. On the silver screen this immortal being cast an ever-lengthening shadow upon its rise through generations of film.
And at the Chelsea, the shadows lengthen still.
He is coming…
FURTHER READING:
Vampire Cinema: The First One Hundred Years by Christopher Frayling
Dracula by Bram Stoker
