A WORD TO BRING FEAR INTO ALL YOUR HEARTS: "NOSFERATU"

Ok, update on the personal front. I have started working even further back into film history. Having got my hands on some truly historic (from a cinematic point of view) works, I have been watching them eagerly and with fascination. Now, by historic I mean the firsts in cinema. And old. As in 1920’s silent films that constituted the various firsts of their kind. Now, these, I must warn you, are not the kind of films you would watch for ordinary cinematic entertainment – don’t expect to be swept up in the storyline or anything. Our generation, whose expectations from a film have become very much the same as those we have of a theme park, will be sorely disappointed by Nosferatu. You may even find F.W. Murnau’s film dating from 1922 comical. In which case, I strongly recommend you go watch a Mr. Bean film or an American Pie film (in my very humble opinion one of the silliest franchises invented by the way, but there you go), it will serve the same purpose and you won’t be being disrespectful. If, however, you are curious as to how we got to Avatar… If, for example you are a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer – or indeed any sort of horror film and are curious to see their great great grandfather… I strongly recommend you watch Nosferatu, which is a true work of art and piece of history, as it is the first horror film ever to be made…
The story is easily told, it is adapted from Braham Stoker’s Dracula. In the small town of Wisburg, lives Thomas Hutter and his beloved wife Ellen. One day, a letter arrives from Transylvania. Count Orlok has decided to buy a house in their small village and Mr. Knock the real-estate agent wants Hutter to go to his castle and get the count to sign the papers… Hutter, eager at the prospect of a windfall money-wise, sets off at once. But the small village close to Orlok’s castle is dark and trembling with fear and the castle is dark and foreboding… I wonder what adventures await Hutter within?
Now, needless to say, from many points of view, the film is very, VERY primitive… Number one, this is a silent, black and white film, so the acting is accordingly over-done in a way nothing our modern experiences have prepared us for. The characters and the storyline are simplistic (and sometimes hard to follow because of the deterioration in the quality of film!) and they openly show the prejudices of the day. For example, a book Thomas Hutter finds in the inn near the castle and takes with him, the “book of vampires”, states that “beasts sometime feel dangers men do not”. This is coupled by scenes of skittish looking animals, horses etc Hutter sees from his window but later,by his wife back in Wisburg hallucinating and feeling Hutter is in danger… Please remember that these were the days (or just after them anyway) when women were considered only a little better than animals in some quarters and very openly “inferior” to men… At the most optimistic, this can be interpreted as women being “emotional as opposed to intellectual, thus more open to feelings than thoughts” but still… As a woman, I didn’t find it pleasant. In the day though, it appears to have been considered normal…
Then, there is the technical side of it. First of all, camera movements had not been invented yet. The camera neither tracks, nor pans, nor rolls. It stands. We cut from one scene to the next. Closeups were also not invented yet. The closest we get to the actors is from the shoulders up, with the slight exception where Hutter discovers a bite on his neck (and assumes it’s mosquitoes – although the film had deteriorated so much I only figured this out later as he wrote a letter to his wife) and even that is not very close. Framing? Yes well, there is a bit of that but the angles and composition are so odd… One example – I couldn’t help giggling – was when Nosferatu (a vampire as you probably gathered) rises from his coffin. He is tall and imposing and… Half his head doesn’t fit into the frame… Yep, the frame cuts half his head off, something that would NEVER pass today but it possibly made the vampire seem more gigantic and scary in the 20’s… Not to mention shots seemingly from miles away with the character running from one weird point to another of the screen. What else? Well, you will have heard of filming a subject from a lower point to make it look imposing but there are bits this is taken to a fault (the camera, for all intents and purposes seems to be filming from the bottom of a well). The editing is positively sluggish in places with tons of footage we would consider completely superfluous today. ..
However, it is also a fascinating film. It is the starting point, what films started off as. Just watch the film and try and spot what is different from films today on a technical level and you will have greatly advanced your technical knowledge of films and editing. It puts everything into perspective. And, despite all of this, Max Shreck’s performance of Nosferatu is terrifying (for all that was lacking they knew a thing or two about costumes and make-up back then, he looks “positively evil !” as Mom put it) and for all their naïveté while in character Gustave von Wangenheim and Greta Schröder (Thomas Hutter and Ellen) along with the direction of Herr Murnau seem to be doing something right because you can’t help but get excited as you watch the film (not scared though). All you need is a little imagination, don’t expect to be spoon-fed the way we are today; back in those days people read a good deal more and could use their imaginations to get “into” movies with a good deal less then what we’re used to… Just as long as you read books as a kid, you should be ok…