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Home Feature

Nosferatu: The Vampyre (1979)

Olly Buxton by Olly Buxton
December 8, 2021
in Feature, HE Reviews
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Several great film makers and actors have had a go at the Dracula story since FW Murnau’s stunning Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens in 1924, and each extrapolates something very different, but still bewitching, from the same raw material: And so it is that Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu – the Vampyre – ostensibly a remake of Nosferatu itself – does nothing more than borrow the odd visual motif from Murnau.

Nosferatu the Vampyre is decidedly an expressionist film so, if your interest lies in the bloodlust and suspense of the Dracula story, then look elsewhere: The only flowing blood you’ll see – honestly – is when Jonathan Harker cuts his thumb. Instead, Herzog builds a haunting atmosphere through some quite startling cinematography. The credits roll over hundreds of desiccated cadavers arranged in a crypt; on his way to Castle Dracula Jonathan Harker struggles into the Carpathian Mountains against all nature can throw at him: verdant Romanian valleys give way to cathedralesque caverns, furious waterfalls, and still, through seemingly impassable mountain terrain, Harker battles on. But when we reach the castle, Kinski’s morose portrayal of the Count, drawn on a psychic level to Lucy Harker, poses questions of a curiously more unsettling variety: Who is the victim in all this, and who is the predator? The lonely, pallid count, drawn like a wasp to the honey-pot or the seemingly pure-in-heart Lucy Harker, dressed head to toe in virginal white, but with tresses of black hair befitting a black widow? If you think I’m reading too much in to this, consider Lucy’s makeup: it’s virtually identical to Dracula’s – sickly white skin and black, sunken eyes. And consider the outcome of the film (which I won’t give away here).

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In its final twenty minutes Nosferatu really makes its mark, and one scene in particular gave me the willies: In Delft’s main square, the Black Plague has taken hold, and Lucy runs through stray farm animals, miscellaneous household furniture and contaminated townsfolk who are intoxicatedly celebrating their own last hurrah. What makes the scene so striking is that it is totally silent (and thus reflective of the original Nosferatu), and accompanied by an extraordinary piece of polyphonic choral music. The credits don’t mention it, and after about three days trying to track it down I’ve finally found it: it is a traditional Georgian folk song entitled Tsintsqaro (“At the Spring”) which you may track down on the internet. This confluence of music and images is perhaps one of the most haunting scenes Herzog has captured on film (which, given his gift for such scenes, is saying something).

The DVD presentation is great – I don’t think the English version of the film is significantly inferior to the German one (Adjani, who’s French, was dubbed in both languages anyway) and in a couple of places had a nicer touch – Kinski’s groan of irritation at laying eyes on a crucifix is funnier in the English version, for example. The commentary from Herzog is also well worth listening to. In other words, I watched the same film three times in five days, and I’m still singing its praises!

DVD reviewed: Anchor Bay DVD (region 2)

Film Rating: ★★★★★

DVD Rating: ★★★★☆ 

Like the review? Want the film? Buy it here!

Tags: bruno ganzclassicdraculaexpressionistgermanhorrorklaus kinskiPhantom der Nachtwerner herzog
Olly Buxton

Olly Buxton

Olly lives amongst the lush olive groves and cypress trees on the slopes of Mount Muswell, just north of London, where he has a thirty five acre lifestyle orchard and farm with lifetime partner Bridget and their small ('but growing!') herd of alpacas. When he's not darting around the corniches of Hamstead and Highgate on his convertible BSA motorcycle ('it's more of a cabriolet, really') or tasting his latest batch of extra virgin oil with the orchard's head oliculturalist, Ned, Olly researches for his forthcoming novel, a science fiction fantasy in which, courtesy of a time machine, it is David Bowie and not namesake Jim who is left to defend the Alamo from the siege of the Mexican Army. A committed Radical Marxist Ironist, Olly made his fortune during the world-wide anti-capitalist riots of 1999 on the back of the simple but ingenious idea: selling packed lunches and bottles of diet coke to hungry protesters at a huge mark-up. "FeedtheCommie.com", as he styled his fledgling business, quickly became an enormously profitable multinational operation, quenching thirsts and filling bellies of protesters, dissidents, exiles and other militant intellectuals during times of civil unrest and civil protest in thirty six countries around the globe, from its headquarters in Seattle. The company also secured lucrative sponsorship deals with (among others) Amnesty International, Greenpeace and the Socialist Workers' Party. Olly then consolidated his net worth by securitising the income streams from FeedtheCommie.Com, negotiating a successful IPO and selling his entire holding ('mostly to student Marxist Radicals I had befriended, I would point out') at the top of the market. As of its public debut, FeedtheCommie.com is yet to make any revenue and is currently trading at 6 per cent of its par value. Nevertheless, Olly doesn't feel too bad about the sub-class of bankrupt Marxists he has created. "It's what they would have wanted". Now the second richest man in the world, Olly has settled into a life of writing political philosophy, voyaging on journeys of self discovery ('I find something new about myself every day. This morning it was dandruff'), and ceramic painting (pointillism).

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