The last time I saw Nosferatu (1922) was on the big screen with live organ accompaniment, which is how it should be seen, if possible. Today I watched at home in the middle of the day which isn't the same thing.
Even so, Nosferatu remains the best cinematic adaptation of Dracula to date. The repeating motif of archways and the incredible, eerie, spider-like appearance of Count Orlock, with the strange movements that lanky actor, Max Schreck gives him make Orlock an iconic vampire who still holds up incredibly now, almost 90 years later.
I' m sure everyone her has seen it. If not, then you should. The restored version available from Kino is gorgeous to look at.
Several years back an art gallery in town hosted a showing of Nosferatu at the very gothic-y chapel of one of our local colleges with accompanying organ... transcendent!
ReplyDeleteHappy Countdown!
Forget just vampires, He's one of the creepiest and scary ALL TIME movie monsters.
ReplyDelete^ Agreed. Best vampire ever, and one of the most frightening movie monsters ever. No wonder everyone on the cast and crew thought Schreck was really a vampire.
ReplyDeleteI need to get a new DVD version. I'd been making do with my old VHS copy for a while until I realized that the cheapo (but surprisingly high-quality, for the most part) 50 Horror Movies DVD set has Nosferatu in it.
ReplyDeleteI popped it in last night and was horrified (not in the good way) to find that they'd redone all the cards to make the story better reflect Stoker's novel.
Orlok was now named Dracula, Hutter was now Harker, etc. Saddest of all though, Hutter's wife was "Nina."
Definitely get the Kino version. It's worth the money. The print is so pristine looking that it's hard to believe it's from a 90 year old movie. It's a startling contrast to any other print I've seen.
ReplyDeleteThere's a link to it at the bottom of the post itself.
Just ordered it. :)
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