Stephen and Melvin are joined by Shirleon to discuss the highly revered classic vampire film Nosferatu, a film with a 100-year legacy!
Topics:
- (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 30-minutes talking about our October/Halloween plans, from movies to habits! (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)
- Nosferatu is a very simple movie about a vampire, a man, and his wife.
- This was Shirleon’s second time watching Nosferatu. The first time was great. The second time… not so much.
- Stephen observed how Nosferatu can feel slow and boring for a modern audience, yet also feels Nosferatu is an effective film overall.
- Melvin had a unique experience in which he was confronted with his mortality. Why? Because everyone involved in Nosferatu, from its conception, plagiarism, and preservation is dead.
- Nosferatu is shot during a time when movies were “plays on film”, and thus didn’t contain the same freedoms and creativities we are now accustomed to movies that separate themselves from the stage.
- Count Orlock is grotesquely charismatic, parading the film with a transfixing nature.
- Discussing the hardship of film preservation and audience engagement for a film that is both pre-talkie and had a court case resulting in the destruction of all original film negatives.
- Back in the days of yore, black and white films could be colored by painting on the film itself, and musicians could perform original music for the film based upon their talents and interpretations. With this in mind, the concept of preserving the “original experience” of older films becomes far more complicated, as it cuts down as deep as regional and local creativity.
- Nosferatu seems to present a message around the overbearing presence of predator vs prey, from not only a man vs man angle (Hutter vs Orlock) but also man vs nature (the town vs the plague). Primarily, it seems Nosferatu is expressing a horror unique to nature.
- Despite Count Orlock’s diabolical design, there is still an expressionistic depiction of sensuality throughout Nosferatu.
Recommendations:
- Frankenstein (1931) (Movie), or any other classic Universal Monsters movie.
- Absentia (2011) (Movie)
- And I Darken by Kiersten White (Book)
Nosferatu is Not Rated. It features Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Gustav von Wangenheim, and Greta Schröder. Directed by F.W. Murnau. Nosferatu is public domain.
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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. He’s written fiction and nonfiction for over a decade with short stories featured on the Creepypasta Wiki and Wattpad. His novelette Ethereal Temptation, a teen drama with a tinge of magical-realism, can be read for free here. His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!
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