Around the World in 24 Frames 07.09.10: Nosferatu The Vampyre
Posted by Len Archibald on 07.09.2010
"Around the World..." continues to examine the films of Werner Herzog with startling proof that, yes...A successful horror remake is possible.
Good Friday to all! Hope the weather is keeping you on your toes, as temperatures in Ohio are averaging a brisk 87 degrees. I don't mind the heat so much because of my Jamaican genes, but my wife who is as lily white as the snow is not coping too well.
So I have come to terms that after the mild success that Beating Traffic encountered at the beginning of the year, things are starting to cool down. That's okay with me, as I've already copyrighted my next screenplay and am in talks to acquire funding. In the coming months, I will hope to have something in place in regards to selling copies of Beating Traffic on DVD for those who are interested.
The title of my next film? The Stone Whisper. Ominous, I know. I do feel it is a more complete story than Beating Traffic, with a deeper core of characters and an underlying theme that is near and dear to me, which is the faith and spirituality of mankind. I have always said that the filmmaker closest to my heart is Ingmar Bergman; and his stories that deal with the themes of human existence attempting to co-exist in a world where we are not sure whether or not God exists have always resonated with me. This is my love letter to those films based on the style I chose to write the story in, but with my own spin based on my own experiences in life. I hope to begin filming in the Spring of 2011 in hopes that I will be able to showcase it during the fall and winter months of that year.
Yes, I am aware that is Oscar Season. No, I do not expect to win any Oscars from it but, yes, I have a method and strategy in place for releasing it in the season I hope to release it in. More details to come as they develop.
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I love movies. They represent escapism, art, intellect and spirituality. Some are nothing more than popcorn flicks, designed to ease the burden of "real-life" for a couple of hours. Some bring important issues to the forefront that challenges how we perceive our surroundings. The most important thing for me if one is a serious filmgoer is to constantly expand and discover new movies. This includes experiencing stories told outside of North America.
Yes, I know: "I don't like to read while I watch movies". Well, neither do I, but I won't use that to prevent me from finding a great story within the screen. It is important, as human beings to discover other cultures and expand our perceptions of those different from us and how they see the world. There are reasons that Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini, Ozu and Truffaut are important in the movie world They are just great at what they do.
I intend to highlight a new film every week that is considered "foreign-language"; now that definition is simple, yet broad and complex. For example, if you need subtitles to understand the events of the plot, I will discuss it. If it is a film from a primarily English-speaking nation, but is *NOT* in English (i.e. Leolo or Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner from Canada), I will discuss. If it is a film from outside the U.S. and it *is* in English, I will not discuss (sorry, Brits & Aussies) for now. My goal is to shed light on some of these gems, and help quell the insatiable appetites for those who can't live without seeing a new movie. Enjoy!
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht: Nosferatu: Phantom of the Night aka Nosferatu the Vampyre
Country: West Germany
Runtime: 107 min
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release Date: October 5th, 1979
Directed by Werner Herzog
Cast
Klaus Kinski
Isabelle Adjani
Bruno Ganz
Roland Topor
Walter Ladengast
Dan van Husen
Jan Groth
Carsten Bodinus
Martje Grohmann
Rijk de Gooyer
Clemens Scheitz
Lo van Hensbergen
John Leddy
Margiet van Hartingsveld
Tim Beekman
Contrary to what one may think of how I feel about it, I do not fall into the camp of thinking every remake of a movie is the absolute worst thing to ever happen in the history of mankind. In fact, I believe that some stories have benefited from being remade - such as The Fly, John Carpenter's The Thing, and Michael Haneke's remake of his own film, Funny Games - an iconic film in its own right, The Maltese Falcon is a remake of an earlier story concerning Sam Spade, and even the great Yasujiro Ozu went back in time and re-told his own Floating Weeds for a "modern" audience, and through it, crafted one of the greatest films of all time. I'm not even that offended by the whole Karate Kid remake.
Of course, there are times when peers or the audience will take a step back and lambaste a filmmaker or studio for fixing what isn't broken. Gus Van Sant felt that when he remade Hitchcock's Psycho shot-for-shot. Audiences rolled their eyes at Tim Burton's re-telling of Planet of the Apes - so much so that a sequel never panned out. The fad of remaking J-Horror films based on the success of contemporizing 1998's Ringu into 2002's The Ring became overkill. Then there's Rob Zombie and his "re-imagining" of Halloween; I've always debated that the film itself isn't bad per se It just would have served Zombie better to just create a new horror figure instead of naming him Michael Myers. Of course, there's always a studio exec or a filmmaker who feels they have balls of steel and believe ANYTHING can be remade. I am still waiting on the individual who feels that The Godfather, Citizen Kane, 2001: A Space Odyssey or Star Wars needs an "update." I probably don't even want to be in the country where that may happen.
Werner Herzog may have faced that potential backlash when he endeavored to re-tell F.W. Murnau's infamous Nosferatu. Yes, Herzog may have had it easier than most: by then, the Bram Stoker-inspired story had already been re-told, re-done and re-molded in contemporary cinema hundreds of times by then (most famously through Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee), but still, there was only one Nosferatu. There was only one definitive portrayal of the bald, pointy-headed, bat-eared, rabbit-tooth-fanged creature of the night. For many, especially vampire-enthusiasts, Nosferatu is the definitive horror film, the definitive vampire film and the movie that best and accurately portrays Bram Stoker's opus - which is brilliant in its own right, since the film studio lost a copyright infringement suit to the Stoker estate because it was rightfully encroaching on Stoker's ideas without permission. In all fairness, I could understand at the time if audiences were mildly skeptical of the prospect.
At the same time, when examining this particular remake we have to look back and understand cinema art and movie business in the late 1970's. Unlike now, the studios were not interested in "nostalgia" where they looked back at facets of entertainment from their (or their children's) childhood and decided to remake every film and television show from the 1950's. In fact, television as a mainstream technology wasn't even thirty years old as of yet. The studios rescinded all creative power to the directors led by the "Holy Four": Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola and Scorsese who found success by way of their own ingenuity, creativity and opened sharecropping of ideas and talent. How else could Harrison Ford hop from making Star Wars to Apocalypse Now to Raiders of the Lost Ark?
I digress, this is about Nosferatu and Werner Herzog. Herzog considered Murnau's Nosferatu to be the greatest film ever to come out of Germany, and was keen to make his own version, with the versatile Klaus Kinski in the leading role. In 1979, by which time the copyright for Dracula had entered the public domain, Herzog proceeded with his updated version of the classic German film, which could now include the original character names. As was common for German films during the 1970s, Nosferatu the Vampyre was filmed on a minimal budget, and with a crew of just sixteen people. Herzog could not film in Wismar, where the original Murnau film was shot, so he relocated production to Delft, the Netherlands. Parts of the film were shot in nearby Schiedam, after Delft authorities refused to allow Herzog to release 11,000 rats for a scene in the film. Dracula's home is represented by locations in Czechoslovakia.
In all honesty, I should not need to re-count the events of the film, as if you've seen even one rendition of Dracula - even if it's Francis Ford Coppola's stylish 1990's vision, you know the story: Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) is an estate agent in Wismar, Germany. His boss, Renfield (Roland Topor), informs him that a nobleman named Count Dracula wishes to buy a property in Wismar, and assigns Harker to visit the count and complete the lucrative deal. Leaving his young wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) behind in Wismar, Harker travels for four weeks to Transylvania, Romania, to the castle of Count Dracula. He brings with him the deeds and documents needed to sell the house to the Count.
The opening of Herzog's Nosferatu is indeed a strange piece of macabre fare: the audience is given glimpses of grotesque, mummified bodies in a gloomy cave as the brooding score envelopes the atmosphere and increases in intensity. As usual in the 1970's and 80's, Popol Vuh created the music to accompany Herzog's vision. The handheld camerawork on these faces is a strange and brilliant way to suck (ha!) the audience in right away into the atmosphere and tone that the film wants to convey. Where is this cave? Where do these bodies come from and most importantly, who is keeping them? We know the answers to these questions, but the opening is so unlike any other Dracula-inspired film festering with dread and muted tones from the outset, that it is startlingly gripping and eerily beautiful.
On his journey, Jonathan stops at a village, where locals warn him of the castle's 'evil', pleading for him to stay clear of the accursed castle, providing him with details of vampirism. But Harker ignores the villager's pleas as wild superstition, and continues his journey unassisted. This is a good moment to expand on notes where Herzog expanded on and perhaps even surpassed Murnau's vision; in the 1922 original, this was treated as a quick scene, almost a throwaway where this film slows it down, focusing on the environment and the faces of those whom Harker has unknowingly frightened. Herzog's cinematic gift has always been his unspoken mantra of images and moments over dialogue and it plays true in this film he may have been another genius in the days of the Silent German Expressionist movement in the early days of cinema with Murnau and Fritz Lang if he worked during that era. This scene may seem cliché in today's context, where the townspeople fall silent at the drop of a name, but this is a moment done right, paced properly, and given visual emphasis on those who warn, and Harker's casual dismissal of their fears.
Soon after, Harker arrives at Dracula's castle, where he meets the Count (Klaus Kinski). The mysterious nobleman is a strange, ancient, almost rodent-like man, with large ears, pale skin, sharp teeth and long fingernails. Despite these horrifying traits, however, Dracula proves surprisingly accommodating, offering Harker his full hospitality. Kinski, who is known for being a ranting, raving, walking pile of anger and madness, plays a very subdued count sad, lonely, vulnerable, and very aware of his curse. This was a very different portrayal of Dracula that was played up to this point a precursor to Gary Oldman's wronged Vlad The Impaler. We are never given a full backstory to Dracula in Nosferatu, but it's obvious in the few moments we are introduced to him that this Dracula didn't choose the life of vampirism.
I have to take some time to highlight not just the other performances throughout Nosferatu, but the style as well. There is a grand, theatrical application of acting craft is that is used in Herzog's universe which is a 180-degree switch from the more oddball, yet neo-realistic portrayals that are usually accustomed to Herzog's films. Like most adaptations of Dracula, the count and Lucy share a psychic connection, almost sexual in nature but how it is portrayed in Nosferatu is reminiscent of the silent films of the 1920's and 30's big eyes, grand gestures of the arms, mouth and hands, and over-exaggerated faints. These would look out of place in modern film even in 1979, but somehow Herzog was able to achieve an almost Shakespearian world and language out of his interpretation. Walter Ladengast, who plays the infamous Dr. Van Helsing, is more restrained in the way he approaches the eventual "plague" that infests Wismar upon Dracula's arrival (in fact, Van Helsing's entire approach and fate is one of the changes Herzog made in his adaptation, and it completely changes the tone of the story into an inspired tragedy.)
Isabelle Adjani, whose natural beauty is mind-boggling, plays Lucy as a modern woman in a simpler time: even though she is placed in a world where a woman's role is enclosed based on traditions of the 1800's, she acts quickly, and more importantly rightly, in how she will face the count and the plague that followed him. Her acting is taken straight from that of silent star Lilian Gish, who moves her arms and her eyes in a dramatic, theatrical fashion to express horror and pain. Bruno Ganz, whose most infamous role is in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire, (which was remade as City of Angels) tackles the always-challenging role of playing the unfortunate Jonathan Harker. It is a difficult role to play, as Harker starts off as a man without superstition, to prisoner, to ailing rescuer, to helpless observer of the inevitable. There is a major twist that Herzog tosses in to complete Jonathan's arc, and it is all the credit of Ganz that he is able to masterfully pull off this complete and dramatic shift in character by the film's end.
The visuals that Herzog and cinematographer Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein are haunting; two moments in particular come to mind, and I also must credit editor Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus for the structure and execution - both moments involve moments before Dracula makes an assault on his victims. The first has Dracula, silhouetted as he emerges down a long corridor and finally popping up with only his face illuminated in a blue-tinted light to suddenly appear in a bedroom, and the next has the count looking down from a window in his Wismar home, to again pop up suddenly by another's bedside. The pacing for both of these scenes are flawless, with that sudden cut making an incredible impression on the viewer, as it literally presents the count as a specter that can transport himself to any location within the blink of an eye. It is frightening in his jarring simplicity.
There are obvious differences between Nosferatu and Bram Stoker's novel, but not too many that are distracting. The more noticeable deviations are the fates of three of the four main characters, as well as the combination of Mina Harker and Lucy Westenra (in name only) as "Lucy Harker." The one true similarity from Murnau's and Herzog's films, respectively, is that of Dracula's look: Kinski's Dracula make-up, with black costume, bald head, rat-like teeth and long fingernails, is a suitable homage of Max Schreck's makeup in the 1922 original. A number of shots in the film are faithful recreations of iconic shots from Murnau's original film, some almost perfectly identical to their counterparts, but this was done as homage rather than imitation.
Herzog produced two versions of the movie simultaneously, at the request of 20th Century Fox (the distributor) to appeal to western audiences. Scenes with dialogue were filmed twice, in German and in English, meaning that the actor's own voices (as opposed to dubbed dialogue by voice actors) could be included in the English version of the film. I suggest to just watch the German language version since the performances are more natural in its native language. This is an epic production that maintains an element of horror, with numerous deaths and a grim outlook, but it features a more expanded plot than many Dracula productions, with a greater emphasis on emotion and the vampire's tragic loneliness. If you are looking for gore, numerous and gratuitous shots of nudity and endless supplies of blood, you are in the wrong place. This is a film that moves, but not based on plot advances, but internal struggles and fears.
Nosferatu is highly regarded as one of the greatest remakes ever made. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes indicates that the film is praised today, having a rating of 96%. Reviewer John J. Puccio of DVDTown considers it a faithful homage to Murnau's original film, significantly updating the original material, and avoiding the danger of being overly derivative. Vincent Camby of the New York Times calls the film, "an almost gentle evocation" of F.W. Murnau's 1922 original.
Honestly, I am a little surprised that Hollywood, or even indie filmmakers, have not gone back to the silent films of cinema's infancy to construct re-tellings of those stories. It would make sense, actually some of these films were made when the technology was still new and fresh, and even if the story was compelling, sometimes it didn't translate too well on screen because of the technological limitations. It would be an interesting exercise to see if anyone could tackle Murnau's The Last Laugh or King Vidor's The Crowd. Of course, it could be that filmmakers nowadays just don't understand, whether by ignorance or lack of film history education how and why those films worked on audiences back then. Even though Herzog went to remake a beloved silent masterpiece, he didn't try to "contemporize" the story. The main pitfall of remakes nowadays is the idea that everything must be "updated" for audiences. They don't realize that doing so 1) dates the film, and 2) possibly strips the story of its heart. Perhaps that is why Dracula is considered timeless: at its core, the story deals with the loneliness and helplessness of man and how the simple dawning of a new day can eradicate it completely.
Nosferatu, The Vampyre is currently available on DVD.
Trailer for Nosferatu, The Vampyre
{Film Passport Stamped]
Coming Attractions: The final part of a look into the mad mind of Werner Herzog about a man who mysteriously entered a town.
Here is the list of festivals that may potentially show Beating Traffic; if you want to see the film played in your area, email the organizers. The best way to ensure to see a movie you want to see is to express the demand for it. Click on the links to get more information!
