Nosferatu - A symphony of horror

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Movie
Original title Nosferatu - A symphony of horror
Prana Movie Poster Nosferatu.jpg
Country of production Germany
original language German
Publishing year 1922
length 94 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau
script Henrik Galeen based on motifs from the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker
production Enrico Dieckmann
Albin Grau for Prana-Film
music Hans Erdmann
camera Fritz Arno Wagner
Günther Krampf
occupation

Not in the opening credits

Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror is a German fiction film from 1922 by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau in five acts . The silent film is an - unauthorized - adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula and tells the story of Count Orlok ( Nosferatu ), a vampire from the Carpathians who falls in love with the beautiful Ellen and brings horror to her hometown Wisborg. Nosferatu is considered to be one of the first representatives of the horror film and exerted a great influence on the genre with his visual design. At the same time, the work, with its demonic main character and its dream-like, tortured state of mind reflecting staging, is considered one of the most important works in the cinema of the Weimar Republic . The film was supposed to be destroyed after a lost copyright dispute in 1925, but survived in countless cut versions and is now available in several restored versions.

action

A chronicler reports how the plague came to the port city of Wisborg in 1838 : the real estate agent Knock receives a written assignment from a Count Orlok from the Carpathian Mountains to look for a house for him in Wisborg. The real estate agent, apparently enthusiastic about the count's request, instructs his young employee Thomas Hutter to travel to Orlok and offer him the dilapidated house across from Hutter's apartment. Hutter is full of energy and is looking forward to the trip. Hutter's young wife, Ellen, reacts to her husband's travel plans with concern and dark premonitions. He leaves his wife in the care of his friend, the shipowner Harding, and sets off. Before he reaches the Count's castle, he stops at an inn. The locals are afraid of Orlok and warn the young man to continue his journey. The “Book of the Vampyre”, a compendium on bloodsuckers that Hutter had already taken with him when he left Wisborg, could have served as a warning, but Hutter ignores all concerns and continues his journey. When his guides leave him in fear and panic, he is picked up by the count's mysterious carriage in an eerie forest and reaches Orlok's gloomy castle.

Count Orlok is no less eerie than his dwelling, a gaunt, almost bald figure. Supper has been prepared for Hutter. When he accidentally injures his finger with a knife, Orlok wants to greedily ravage the blood, but then lets go of Hutter. The count asks the young man to linger. After a night of heavy sleep, Hutter wakes up with two bite marks on his neck. When Count Orlok happened to see the portrait of Hutter's wife Ellen in a medallion the following evening, he immediately accepted Hutter's offer and signed the sales contract without looking. Hutter suspects that he has invited doom to his hometown. Orlok approaches the sleeping Hutter that night to suckle his blood, but in the far distance Ellen wakes up in Wisborg screaming and extends her hands pleadingly. The count lets go of his sacrifice.

Ellen falls into a trance-like state and begins to sleepwalk . Meanwhile, Hutter explores Orlok's castle during the day and finds the count lying in a coffin in a death-like sleep. In the evening Hutter sees the count hurrying to load coffins filled with earth onto a wagon. As soon as Orlok has laid himself in the last, empty, coffin and pulled the lid over him, the eerie cart sped away. Hutter escapes from the castle, passes out and is rescued by locals who nurse the feverish patient to health in a hospital. Orlok has meanwhile arranged for the coffins to be transported to Varna on a raft and loaded onto a sailing ship. The Empusa sets out for Wisborg with Orlok on board, while Hutter, recovered, hurries home by land. On board the Empusa , the crew members die, one after the other, of a mysterious illness. When the sailors investigate and open one of the coffins, a horde of rats escapes him . When finally only the captain and his first mate are still alive, the count climbs out of his coffin at night. The mate jumps overboard and the captain ties himself to the rudder. The Empusa rides, a ghost ship the same, in the port of Wisborg, where the port workers only find the dead captain on the ship.

Knock, who has since ended up in the madhouse because of his appetite for live flies , is delighted that the “master” is finally here. The count, a coffin and the rats in tow, leaves the ship and wanders through the city at night. The shipowner Harding found the log book on the orphaned Empusa that reported the fatal disease. The city declares a state of emergency, but it is too late: The plague spreads in Wisborg and claims countless victims. Even the “ Paracelsian ” Professor Bulwer, an expert on epidemic diseases, cannot find an antidote to the epidemic. Knock has escaped from the asylum and is pursued by a mob who blames him for the plague, but he is able to escape and hide outside the city.

Hutter also managed to reach Wisborg. He brings the "Book of Vampyres" with her, in which Ellen reads that only a woman with a pure heart can stop "the vampire" by giving him her blood to drink of her own free will and thus making him "forget the rooster". Meanwhile Orlok has moved into the desolate house across from Hutters. Longingly and imploringly, he looks out of the window into Ellen's room. The young woman pretends to collapse and sends Hutter off to get a doctor. Now she can sacrifice herself to the vampire undisturbed, just as she read in the book. Orlok, unsuspecting, believes that his wishes are about to be fulfilled, sneaks into her room and approaches Ellen to drink her blood. As he feasts on her, he suddenly starts up: The first cock crow can be heard! Nosferatu has forgotten the time because of his lust. Dawn is already here, and with the first ray of sun the vampire turns to smoke. Hutter reaches Ellen's room with the doctor and takes her in his arms, but it's too late - Ellen is dead. But as Ellen had hoped, the plague is over with the end of the vampire.

Origin and publication history

Script and preproduction

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau

Nosferatu was the only film production of the Prana-Film, founded in 1921 by Enrico Dieckmann and Albin Grau . Grau had the idea of ​​making a vampire film. The inspiration for this comes from a war experience of his: In the winter of 1916 a Serbian farmer told him that his father was a vampire and undead. Dieckmann and Grau commissioned Henrik Galeen to write a screenplay based on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula , although the film rights to Stoker's book were not acquired by Prana-Film . Galeen was regarded as a proven expert in romantic and romantic fabrics; he had already worked on The Student of Prague (1913) and written the screenplay for The Golem, How He Came Into the World (1920). The scriptwriter moved the novel from London (or Whitby ) to a fictional northern German port city called Wisborg and changed the names of the characters. He also brought the aspect into the story that the vampire brings the plague transmitted by rats to Wisborg. He renounced the figure of the vampire hunter Van Helsing. Galeen's script was rhythmized like a poem, but without being as fragmented and choppy as, for example, the books by the author Carl Mayer , who was strongly influenced by Expressionism . Lotte H. Eisner calls Galeen's script “full of poetry, full of rhythm” .

Dieckmann and Grau won over to directing Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, who had only been making films since 1919, but had made a name for himself as a talented filmmaker with his first seven productions. Grau, who had studied at the Dresden Art Academy , took over the artistic direction and designed decorations and costumes. The music director of Prana-Film Hans Erdmann was responsible for the film music . The unknown theater actor Max Schreck from Munich was hired for the title role. Actors trained by Max Reinhardt's Expressionist Theater, such as Greta Schröder , Gustav von Wangenheim and Alexander Granach , a former schoolmate of Murnau at Reinhardt's drama school of the German Theater, took on other roles .

production

The shooting of Nosferatu began in July 1921 with outdoor shots in Wismar . A shot from the tower of St. Mary's Church over the Wismar market square with the water art served as the opening scene for the Wisborg location. Other locations were the water gate , the west side of the Georgenkirche , the courtyard of the Holy Spirit Church and the harbor. In Lübeck , the abandoned salt store building was used as a filming location for Nosferatu's new domicile in Wisborg , the coffins were carried down on the Depenau , the Aegidienkirchhof , the Israelsdorfer Eiche and other places in the city also served as a backdrop. Further outdoor shots followed in Lauenburg , Rostock and Sylt . The film team then traveled to the Carpathian Mountains , where the Arwaburg served as the backdrop for Orlok's half-ruined castle. Other locations were in the immediate vicinity; This is how the recordings of Hutter's rest in Dolný Kubín were taken , and the raft trip with the coffins was filmed on the Waag . The film team used the panorama of the High Tatras for the mountain shots . From October to December 1921, the interior shots were taken in the JOFA studio in Berlin-Johannisthal , and a few other exterior shots were shot in the Tegel Forest .

  • Production sites

  • Hutter's departure from Wisborg was filmed in the courtyard of the Holy Spirit Church in Wismar, here a picture from 1970.

  • The Aegidienkirchhof, here a photo from 1909, served as the location for Hutter's house.

  • The Israelsdorfer Oak 1892

  • One of Lübeck's salt storages (3rd from left), here an ensemble recording before 1919, was used as a location for Orlok's house in Wisborg.

For cost reasons, the lighting cameraman Fritz Arno Wagner had only one camera available for the shooting, so there was only one original film negative. The director followed Galeen's script very precisely and only added handwritten instructions and notes on camera positioning, lighting and the like. Twelve pages of the script were rewritten by Murnau, however, Galeen's corresponding texts are missing in the director's working copy. These are the last scenes in the film, in which Ellen sacrifices herself and the vampire dies from the first ray of sunlight. Murnau worked with meticulous preparation; There were preliminary artistic drawings for each scene that were supposed to correspond exactly to the later film image. He used a metronome to add rhythm to the actors' playing .

Premiere and theatrical release

The Marble Hall in the Berlin Zoological Garden, shown here on a postcard from around 1900, was the première of Nosferatu .

In the run-up to its release, the film was advertised with great effort. Shortly before the premiere, those responsible placed an advertising series in the magazine Bühne und Film No. 21/1922 with a synopsis, scene and factory photos, production reports and essays, including a treatise Graus about vampirism. The premiere of Nosferatu took place on March 4, 1922 in the Marble Hall of the Berlin Zoological Garden . This event, which was planned as a large social evening, was invited under the title “The Feast of Nosferatu”, whereby the appearance of the guests in Biedermeier costumes was desired. A prologue , written by Kurt Alexander and based on the model of Goethe's prelude in the theater , opened the film showing, during which the Otto Kermbach band played the film music under the direction of the composer. The performance of Nosferatu was followed by a dance game "The Serenade" written by Erdmann, performed by a solo dancer from the State Opera . The costume ball that followed attracted many prominent Berlin filmmakers, including Ernst Lubitsch , Richard Oswald , Hanns Kräly , Johannes Riemann and Heinz Schall . The theatrical release of Nosferatu finally took place on March 15, 1922 in the Primus Palace . The film was first shown on German television on June 23, 1969 on ARD .

Contemporary criticism

Nosferatu brought the director Murnau increasingly into the public eye, especially since his film The Burning Acker was released only a few days later. The press reported extensively on Nosferatu and its premiere, whereby the voices of praise predominated and were occasionally criticized that the technical perfection and clarity of the images did not match the horror topic. The Filmkurier of March 6, 1922 criticized that the vampire in the film was too corporeal and too brightly lit to appear really scary: “What is an advantage in […] realistic films, has to be rated the opposite in a work from unreality. Here the artistic ambiguity of the shades must predominate. [...] Because with the increasing brightness every bogeyman loses its horror. ” The film of March 12, 1922 also noted that the vampire figure would have had a greater effect“ if the people in the action were more in the foreground and he more than shadows would come under them. "

Hans Wollenberg called the film in Lichtbild-Bühne No. 11 of March 11, 1922 a “sensation” and praised Murnau's nature shots as “mood-creating elements”. The staging was a “masterpiece”, the script “of the most effective, balanced structure.” In the Vossische Zeitung of March 7, 1922, Nosferatu was given a specific cinematic quality, the staging was “foreign to the speaking ramps, hostile to books; its own film style. ” The film of March 12, 1922 also praised the selection of images, which was made“ with an outstandingly fine painterly sense ”.

Roland Schacht ruled on April 15, 1922 in Das Blaue Heft that Nosferatu was only "moderate average" and a copy of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (1920, directed by Robert Wiene). He scoffed: "Then there is this vampire who doesn't care about lugging around with a coffin, like someone who wants to post a Christmas parcel shortly before seven, when the post offices close, and doesn't really know where to try it." Alfred Rosenthal was also busy in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger on March 6, 1922 with the vampire figure: “Max Schreck from Munich took on the unsympathetic main role. He was faced with a difficult task. It was only a small step with this blood-sucking ghost from the sublime to the ridiculous. "Ultimately, he found words of praise:" I rarely saw a work in which the mood of the manuscript is so perfectly reflected in the landscape, where the interplay of the actors is so well toned and where the fateful cliff was surmounted so safely by characters who walked on the divide between comedy and tragedy for five acts. ” Béla Balázs praised the focus of the film on nature and judged in The Day of March 9, 1923, The reason why the film is so effective is "because the strongest notion of the supernatural can be obtained from nature." Only the medium of film can do this effectively, because language is too rational for the representation of the fantastic.

Bankruptcy of prana and copyright litigation

Nosferatu became a financial failure. The UFA refused to include the film in the program of its large movie theaters , and so Nosferatu was only shown in a few smaller cinemas that were independent of the market leader. As early as April 1922 rumors arose that the Prana-Film had taken over financially. The several million marks that Prana had received as start-up capital from investors in Silesia inexperienced in the film business had been used up, which was attributed on the one hand to the large-scale advertising campaign for the film and on the other hand to Dieckmann and Graus' lavish spending. Murnau had received 25,000 marks for his directorial work, and at Christmas 1921 the Prana bosses had also offered him a percentage share in the film's grossing. In August 1922 bankruptcy proceedings against the Prana were opened and the film was seized .

In the year of the premiere, Bram Stoker's widow Florence Stoker tried to take action against the copyright infringement committed through prana . She joined the British Incorporate Society of Authors and sued a lawyer in Berlin against the legal successors of Prana. A settlement in which Stoker demanded £ 5,000 for the rights did not come about. In July 1925, the Berlin court ruled in the final instance that all of the film material, including all copies of Nosferatu, should be destroyed. The Film Society in London planned despite this court decision, the performance of a copy is located in England, while Florence Stoker intervened. However, it was possible to hide the copy from destruction. When four years later the Film Society made another attempt to show the film, Florence Stoker prevailed and the copy was destroyed. Meanwhile, Stoker had started negotiations with Universal over the film rights to Dracula . The film studio acquired the rights for $ 40,000 and produced the first authorized film adaptation, Tod Browning's Dracula , in 1931 .

Other versions

Despite Florence Stoker's efforts to have the existing copies of the film destroyed, many remained unscathed. The film had already been sold abroad and there were versions in many countries that differed in terms of editing and subtitles. In the late 1920s, a French cut version that, unlike the German version, only contained 31 subtitles , became very popular among the surrealists around André Breton . This French version eventually made it to the United States and was subtitled in English. After Stoker's novel, the characters were named Jonathan and Mina Harker, Dracula, Renfield and so on. The place of action Wisborg became Bremen .

In 1930, a version of the film subsequently set to music by Deutsch-Film-Produktion was published under the title Die twelfth hour , without Murnau's authorization and without being named as a director. Waldemar Roger, as the artistic editor, had received additional film material from Albin Grau on the condition that the material was alienated through editing and sound in such a way that no further infringement of rights could be recognized. Roger changed the names of the protagonists; Orlok became Wolkoff, Knock became Karsten, Hutter was called Kundberg, Ellen was named Margitta, and Harding became Hartung. A scene with the happy couple Hutter and Ellen, which Murnau's version was in the first act, was set by Roger as a happy ending at the end of the film. He also shot other scenes, including a funeral mass with Hans Behal as a priest, which fell victim to censorship. Some incised rural folkloric scenes were taken from cultural films . The new score for the film's needle tone came from Georg Fiebiger .

Due to the original copyright infringement by the Prana and since neither they nor the subsequent company had applied for the copyright for Nosferatu in the USA, the film was considered a public domain there . He gained fame when he appeared in a greatly shortened version in the series Silents Please! was broadcast on US television. Many companies that videos produced, made themselves the fact of copyright freedom to Use and distributed the film under different names like Dracula , Terror of Dracula and Nosferatu the Vampire and different in versions quality, many derivations of an edition of Blackhawk Films from the early 1970s.

Reconstructions and restorations

Starting in 1981, Nosferatu was first reconstructed and restored on the initiative of the Munich Film Museum . German, French and Spanish editing versions were used as the basis, including a copy of The Twelfth Hour in the Cinémathèque française . However, this version was not viraged like Murnau's original version , but in black and white. The subtitles were reconstructed from a film copy in the GDR State Film Archive . A colored version of this restoration - the viragings were created by copying them through a filter - had its world premiere on the occasion of the Berlin International Film Festival on February 20, 1984, where the film was shown in honor of Lotte H. Eisner . A salon orchestra played Erdmann's original music. A version based on this version, but supplemented by Enno Patalas and corrected in the Viragen, was shown from February 1 to February 5, 1987 in the Carl Orff Hall in Munich's Gasteig . Under the direction of Berndt Heller , the Graunke Erdmann Symphony Orchestra played the original film music. This version was also broadcast on ZDF on December 29, 1988 , with color and contrasts being post-processed using video technology and the presentation speed being reduced to 18 frames per second. Hans Posegga wrote the music for this TV version .

Another attempt at restoration was made in 1995 by the Lumière project . On the basis of a nitrate copy of the first generation of the film found by the Murnau specialist Luciano Berriatúa in the Cinémathèque française , a revision was carried out under the leadership of the Cineteca di Bologna and again the Munich Film Museum under Enno Patalas. This version, which has been revised again, especially in terms of the coloring based on the early copy, was shown at various film festivals, for example in Cannes, Bologna and London.

From 2005 to 2006, Luciano Berriatúa and the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation created a revision in which the film was completely digitized and every single image was processed in order to clean it, remove age damage, retouch adhesions and stabilize the scrolling. The film material used came from a viraged French copy. Missing scenes were supplemented by two backup copies of the film archive of the Federal Archives from 1939 and 1962, which in turn were based on a Czech version from the 1920s. Here, too, a copy of "The Twelfth Hour" was used. The original, German subtitles were inserted into the restored version from a backup copy of the Federal Archives Film Archive. Missing subtitles have been redesigned and adapted to the original typography. This version, underlaid with Erdmann's music, was released on DVD by Transit Film in Germany .

DVD publications

There are around a dozen different DVD versions of Nosferatu on the western market (as of 2007). The fact that works published before 1923 and thus also Nosferatu are considered public domains in the USA has contributed significantly to this multitude . The DVDs range from cheap pressings to more or less complex restorations. Both viraged and black and white versions with subtitles in different languages ​​and various film music are available.

Staging

Visual style

Choice of location and composition

On the Arwaburg , here a watercolor by Thomas Ender from the 19th century, the scenes playing in Orloks Carpathian Castle were filmed.

What was unusual for a German film of this time was the large number of outdoor shots and the intensive use of real film locations. In doing so, the director refuses to accept the art worlds of expressionist film , as seen in films like Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari ( Robert Wiene , 1920) and The Golem as He Came into the World ( Paul Wegener and Carl Boese , 1920) were fashionable. In contrast, Murnau's recordings were naturalistic and, according to Eisner, contained “something of the almost documentary quality of certain Dowshenko films ”. The film thus achieves its horror effect through the intrusion of the uncanny into everyday life, through the reversal of meaning in idyllic, naturalistically filmed locations. Gehler and Kasten note: “The horror arises from the familiar, not from the abnormal.” Murnau succeeds in expressive expression through the means of scenic design, the camera and the cadrage , despite his passive, merely documenting attitude towards the depicted world create. Lotte Eisner refers to the scene in which black-clad pallbearers come down a narrow alley in a long procession when she realizes: "The 'most expressive expression' that the Expressionists demand has been achieved here without artificial means."

Murnau creates this expressiveness especially in the interplay of the film character and architecture: the vampire often stands in front of angled entrances, under arches or in front of coffin-like openings. Its shape with the crooked nose and hump is associated with architectural vaults and arches. Frieda Grafe sees a “parallelization of body and structure” that continues into the metaphorical: both Orlok's Carpathian Castle and his new house in Wisborg are barren and ruinous, corresponding to his loneliness and his position between life and death.

Lighting and camera work

The lighting in Nosferatu is designed in the low-key style , especially in the spooky scenes . Only individual figures or areas of the image are directionally illuminated, while the rest of the image remains in the twilight or in the dark. This creates three-dimensional shadow effects, in particular the body shadow of the vampire, who runs ahead of him "like a bad omen" and thus expands the scenic space into the off . Murnau, who was trained in art history, refers in his lighting design, according to Silke Beckmann's opinion, to role models in painting, namely to Rembrandt , Vermeer , Hendrick ter Brugghen and Frans Hals . Murnau adhered to the conventions of the time when it came to the color codes for the viragings: the night scenes were colored blue, the interiors sepia brown during the day and yellow- orange at night. Murnau chose a pink coloring for the scenes at dawn.

Since the camera in Nosferatu mostly remains static and unmoved, Murnau works with movement and staggering within the rigid cadre in order to dynamize the action. As Orlok's ship slowly travels through the film image from right to left, Murnau uses, according to Eisner, the “powerful impression of the transverse movement” to create tension. The same purpose is served by subjectivizations of the camera view , for example when the vampire is filmed from a frog's perspective on the ship or when parts of the frame and bars protrude into the picture when looking out of windows. The climax of the subjectified gaze are the scenes in which the vampire figure - looking directly into the camera - turns towards the viewer and thus the fourth wall is broken through: “Due to its gigantic nature, the vampire seems to burst the dimensions of the screen and threaten the viewer directly . ”Other elements in Murnau's camera language are attempts to work with depth of field ; for example, the sleeping Hutter is associated with the vampire appearing behind him in the door frame in a kind of internal montage .

Visual effects

Murnau uses film tricks in Nosferatu to mark Hutter's transition into the count's world. By switching the camera individually, a jerky time-lapse effect is created during Hutter's carriage ride . When the director uses negative images in another scene and thus reverses the tonal values, the impression is created that the carriage is driving through a white ghost forest. By double exposure arising in some scenes with the vampire transition effects that can let him go ghostly disembodied through closed doors. Thomas Koebner denies these effects have any disturbing effect and calls them "cheerful picture jokes from the time of the magic lantern ". Also Siegfried Kracauer believes that the transparency of the tricks would prevent its lasting impact on the viewer: "It is understood that film sensations of this kind become exhausted quickly."

dramaturgy

Narrative style

Superficially , Nosferatu is a simple, folk-fairy tale- like story that is linearly heading towards an end of inevitable consequence. A similar narrative structure can be found in Murnau's The Last Man (1924) and Faust - a German folk tale (1926). On closer inspection, however, the many different narrative instances become apparent , through which the story is illuminated from the most varied of perspectives: the chronicler of the plague, Hutter's boss, the superstitious villagers, the "Book of the Vampyre", as well as other written narratives such as the ship's log, diary texts , Letters and newspaper clippings. The viewer remains in the dark about the truthfulness and reliability of the individual sources, especially since the narrative positions are often vague and poorly defined. Frieda Grafe, for example, notes that the chronicler's report is “too personal for a chronicle, too fictional for a diary.” For Michael Töteberg, Nosferatu is “an attempt to explore the possibilities of film,” an experimental field for the salary Truth in the illustration and a sounding out of the position of the film as a narrative authority.

The subtitles have an important narrative function . At 115, their number is unusually high. The titles calligraphed by Albin Grau show in the report of the chronicler a stylized Latin script on a paper-like background, in the dialogues a brightly colored, more modern script, and in the letters a German current script . Pages from the "Book of Vampyres" appear in broken print . The subtitles work like cinematic shots : Fade in and fade out frame them, the camera moves towards or away from them, pages are turned over.

Cut and assembly

With over 540 settings is Nosferatu , a very fast cut for those times film. The influence of David Wark Griffith's revolutionary Editing in Intolerance (1916) is evident. According to Thomas Elsaesser, however, the viewer's impression of tempo is slowed down by the fact that the individual scenes are monolithic units in themselves and Murnau does not insert any harmonious connections that accelerate the flow of action, i.e. does not cut according to the criteria of continuity montage. The director does not assign the events a clear chronological sequence and does not network them according to criteria of causality. The impression that emerges for the viewer is that of a “ dream logic” in which cause-effect mechanisms are overridden and the comprehensibility of the events takes a backseat for a more psychological representation of mutual dependencies and attractions of the characters. Seeßlen and Jung therefore describe the film as "a great mood picture much more than a film 'narrative'".

This film-making in the manner of a dream that is never fully understood leads to obvious logical breaks. So it remains unclear why the count is interested in the ruined house in Wisborg before his love for Ellen has even flared up, or why Ellen is waiting for Hutter on the beach, when she should actually wait for him back overland. These and other "mistakes" in time and space culminate in a montage in which the vampire and Ellen are connected to one another, even though they are hundreds of kilometers apart: The count, still in his Carpathian castle, looks off to the right , followed by a shot in which Ellen, while in Wisborg, extends her hands pleadingly into the left off. The line of sight of the two figures is connected and the spatial distance is overcome. The scene evokes "not the impression of a spatial relationship, but that of a premonition or visionary gift of the characters," notes Khouloki.

Elsaesser calls these breaks in space and time the “logic of imaginary space”, suitable for indicating the dependencies and manipulations of the protagonists: Orlok manipulates Knock, Knock manipulates Hutter, Ellen manipulates Orlok in order to be able to manipulate Hutter. The mutual “currents of force of attraction and repulsion” showed a “secret kinship” among the figures: they were all “both active and passive, initiator and victim, calling and disreputable”.

music

Hans Erdmann titled his film music for Nosferatu as "Fantastisch-Romantische Suite"; According to Berndt Heller, the title reveals a “common misunderstanding”. Contrary to what the film subtitle, Symphony of Horror, suggests, Erdmann relies less on elements generally associated with the vampire material such as horror, shudder and shock than on atmospheric images corresponding to the intention of the director, in which the transfiguration of nature and the fairytale-like folk-saga character of the film are reflected reflect. Like Murnau, Erdmann clarifies in his music "the entanglement of demonies in legends, fairy tales and nature".

Erdmann's score was published by Bote & Bock in editions for large orchestra and for salon orchestra . The ten individual pieces have typical cinema titles designed for reusability : Idyllic , Lyrical , Spooky , Stormy , Destroyed , Wohlauf , Strange , Grotesque , Unleashed and Disturbed . Since the total playing time of the work is only about 40 minutes, Berndt Heller suspects that individual parts were repeated for the performances, for example to accompany the characters with a leitmotif . Heller also believes that the repeated use of individual movements for new scenic situations by modifying the character of the play, for example by changing the performance information in terms of tempos and dynamics , is possible.

In 2003, the Spaniard José Maria Sánchez-Verdú wrote a new film music for Murnau's work, which commented on the film in a modern, coherent way and was very successfully shown live in Spain and Germany. In 2015 Murnau's film Nosferatu with the soundtrack by Matthew Aucoin with the participation of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and under the direction of the composer was shown at The Theater at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles.

A rare version of the film includes the musical framing based on motifs by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by 17 musicians from the Basel Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Armin Brunner.

The film also became the basis for improvisation concerts several times, for example in 2014 with Gabriela Montero at the piano in Berlin or in 2013 with Mathias Rehfeldt on the concert organ in Edmonton .

Themes and motifs

nature

From the micrograph of a: In addition to the landscapes, the director presents a panoply of flora and fauna polyps over a Venus Flytrap , one for a werewolf einstehende striped hyena to shying horses extends the arc of nature shots used. Murnau thus symbolizes a “fatal chain of relationships between eating and being eaten”, Elsaesser notes. Seeßlen and Jung comment: "Nature in all of its devouring and sucking aspects demands its right." According to Frieda Grafe, the scenes that mainly arise from cultural films have the function of "naturalizing the vampire", embedding him as part of nature in order to make his Effective power even more uncanny, because it is natural and thus to make it appear irrevocable. As an “undead” he is “beyond the categories of guilt and remorse”, as Hans Günther Pflaum notes.

Franz Marc : Animal fates , 1913

In addition to his human-rational and animal-animal properties, the vampire himself is characterized by his rigidity and his jerky movements also with a mechanical component. The figure thus breaks all attempts at categorization; one aspect of viewer uncertainty: "All of our certainties, which are based on clear boundaries, order, and classifications, fluctuate." On the other hand, the strong connection between the vampire and nature is cause for the viewer to empathize with the figure: "If the terrifying one Gestalt is identified as part of nature, it is no longer possible to evade all feelings of compassion. ”This becomes particularly clear in Orlok's dying scene; the cockcrow evokes suspicions of betrayal, the repulsive being becomes human in agony.

Seeßlen and Jung see pantheistic aspects in the comprehensive appropriation of all manifestations of nature : there is a divine connection between all things that strive for harmony and perfection, but they also harbor a latent demonic danger. The instinct of the animals (in the film the shy horses) is the first to perceive this threat. In this context, Gehler and Kasten also refer to Murnau's artist friend Franz Marc and his metaphysical depictions of animals, in particular to the picture Animal Fates from 1913, which depicts the creatures fighting for the original harmony of paradise.

Romanticism

Caspar David Friedrich : Woman at the Window , 1822

With the settlement of its history in the early 19th century and its emphasis on nature, Murnau follows a trend of the 1920s to seek a transfiguring and romanticizing view of pre-industrial times. As is also the case with Fritz Lang with films like Der müde Tod (1921), an escapist tendency towards the “old German”, Biedermeier subject can be recognized, which can be interpreted as fear of modernity and the upheavals in post-war society. On the other hand, these directors used the most modern production techniques and organizational forms of the time to look back. Klaus Kreimeier therefore does not consider Murnau to be a reactionary artist: "The technicality, the geometry-consciousness of his film works show him [...] as a decidedly modern ."

In his representations of nature and pictorial compositions, however, Murnau clearly draws on longing and transfiguring elements of Romanticism , most obviously on motifs by Caspar David Friedrich , whose objectifications of transcendent states seem to have been Murnau's godfather for many scenic constructions. In the scenes with Ellen in particular, Grafe recognizes numerous references to works by Friedrich, for example to Frau am Fenster or to Friedrich's beach pictures. In these artificially designed film images, Ellen is “the embodied melancholy that Freud described as a bleeding of the inner life”, Grafe notes. Other romantic topoi such as the soulfulness of nature and the power of fate are introduced early in the film: Ellen asks her husband, who brings her a bouquet: "Why are you killing the beautiful flowers?"; a passer-by casually warns Hutter: "Nobody escapes his fate."

politics and society

In his book Von Caligari zu Hitler (1947), Siegfried Kracauer places the cinema of the Weimar era in connection with the emergence of the dictatorship in Germany and calls the figure of the vampire “like Attila [...] a 'scourge of God', [...] one Bloodthirsty, sucking tyrant figure . ”The people are in a kind of“ love-hate relationship ”with this tyrant: on the one hand they abhor the despotism's tyranny, on the other hand they are driven by an anti-enlightenment longing for redemption and exaltation through an unfathomable power. Kracauer's point of view is followed by Christiane Mückenberger, who calls the film "one of the classic tyrant stories", and Fred Gehler and Ullrich Kasten, who also classify Nosferatu as a "tyrant film". Seeßlen and Jung also see the vampire as “the metaphysical symbol of political dictatorship”. Like many similar characters in the silent films of the time, he is only tyrannical because he feels he is not loved; he can only be conquered by love.

Albin Grau confirms that Nosferatu should directly reflect the events of the First World War and the turmoil of the post-war period. The film relates to the experience of war and is "a tool to understand, even if often only unconsciously, what lies behind this monstrous event that roared like a cosmic vampire". Gehler and Kasten also refer to the social and political instability of the time and see the vampire figure as a manifestation of collective fears. Nosferatu's shadow stands “over a society that is often endangered, unstable and tormented by dark fears. He comes into a universe that has become vulnerable to violence and terror. ”Koebner speculates that the plague epidemic could be a representation of the Spanish flu pandemic that has just been overcome and points out that in Nosferatu the figure of Van Helsing, the vampire slayer, has no equivalent. Instead of actively defending themselves against ruin, the figures remained passive and as if frozen; they thus join the tradition of Weimar film and have “a share in the contemporary pandemonium of reduced existences that do not seem to wake up from their nightmares”.

Anton Kaes sees “ anti-Semitic structures and motifs” in the representation of the terrifying foreignness in the figure of the Orlok : Like the “ Eastern Jews ” who migrated at the end of the 19th century, the Count came from Eastern Europe. The characterization as "bloodsuckers" and the images of the rats spreading the plague awaken the association with anti-Semitic stereotypes in Kaes, such as those used in Fritz Hippler's propaganda film The Eternal Jew (1940). Thomas Koebner, however, considers this opinion to be absurd; it is too clumsy to transfer the instrumentalization of these motifs from the time of National Socialism to Murnau's film.

sexuality

The dependency and manipulation of the characters among one another in the editing of the film can also be transferred to the area of sexuality . Gunter E. Grimm describes Nosferatu as “the traumatic compensation for the sexuality forbidden in bourgeois society”. When Ellen finally allows the vampire entry into her bedroom, this can be read as a representation of the old popular belief that an innocent virgin could save a city from the plague. On the other hand, it is obvious that the young woman is rebelling against the compulsory institution of marriage with her act and is trying to overcome the sexual frustration of her relationship with Hutter. Contrary to the asexually portrayed Hutter, the vampire is "the suppressed sexuality that breaks into the idyllic life of the newlyweds," as Kaes notes.

For Koebner, Nosferatu is therefore a “strange, only half-encrypted triangular story” and the animal count “the puritanical encryption of sexual appetite”. The unbridled instinctuality to which Ellen and Orlok indulge in does not go unpunished in the film: Both the Count and Ellen die, and Hutter is only free again after his wife has reunited with the monster in a fatal, fatal manner. Elsaesser also evaluates the sexual connotation of the film biographically: in the figure of Orlok, the homosexual Murnau thematizes "the displacement and repression of one's own homosexual desire for potent doppelgangers who reflect the dark side of one's own sexuality." Even Stan Brakhage assumes a biographical background. The figure constellation refers to Murnau's "own [n] personal most [n] childhood terror"; Hutter is reduced to the fearful child who is passed out to the "father" Nosferatu. Ellen is the mother figure who saves the child through her being and her actions.

Occult symbolism

The realistic staging of the film gives the impression that supernatural processes are naturally anchored in the real world. In the drawing of the vampire as a magical, but nevertheless real figure, who is endowed with secret knowledge in an elitist and learned manner, the influence of Graus on the film becomes clear, which pervaded occult circles. This influence is particularly evident in the design of the letter that Knock receives from Nosferatu at the beginning of the film. In two short shots, which together only last a few seconds, you can see a cabbalistic -looking ciphertext, the code of which Sylvain Exertier considers to be entirely interpretable. In addition to signs such as the Maltese cross and a swastika , letters from the Hebrew alphabet and astrological symbols can be recognized. Sylvain Exertier interprets the text as the announcement of Orloks - also spiritual - journey in the field of tension between the male principle, represented by Jupiter , the female, symbolized by Venus , and death, for which Saturn stands. There are also decorative drawings of a skull, a snake and a dragon, which Exertier considers “more spectacular than authentic”. It remains to be seen whether the letter is "a coquetry of the director or a wink for the occultists".

Modern reception

Classification and evaluation

Ulrich Gregor and Enno Patalas rate Nosferatu as a quantum leap in Murnau's cinematic work, Murnau's talent becomes "visible for the first time in every shot". The innovation lies in the revolutionary design of the vampire, notes Lars Penning, who is "undoubtedly the most terrifying figure that the cinema has known to date". For Gunter E. Grimm, the film is “without a doubt the most powerful of the old vampire films, which to this day has hardly lost any of its fascination for modern filmmakers”.

Thomas Elsaesser emphasizes the appeal of the film from the conflict between technical perfection and its mainly psychological theme: “Murnau's poetry was the result of a distant, almost clinical application of the technical mastery of German photo and camera work on emotionally charged, deep-seated fears and feelings linked topics. ”The dream-like staging that appeals to the subconscious gives the film a“ only shadowy, decipherable, hidden logic ”, which preserves the film“ to this day, strong appeal character ”, says Thomas Koebner. Klaus Kreimeier also emphasizes this film effect and certifies Nosferatu an "authenticity of the dream - and the fictional (that is: based on conventions) character of what we call reality".

William K. Everson judges that the film suffers "from the extroverted and excessively exaggerated game of Alexander Granach [...] and practically all other members of the cast, out of shock." Lotte H. Eisner also criticized the clumsy play, the performance of the actors was "by no means significant", which she attributes to the fact that Murnau was not yet experienced enough in acting at that time.

Aftermath

“Nosferatu” vampire in the Babelsberg Film Park
Caricature of a "Nosferatu" vampire

Lars Penning refers to Nosferatu and to Caligari and Golem when he states: “The American horror film of the 1930s is inconceivable without the fantastic German silent film cinema.” With this film, Jörg Buttgereit even sees Germany as “a birthplace of the horror film, which has since been vilified -Genres. ”Nosferatu had a lasting effect on the genre especially in films that built on the horror of sublime imagination instead of superficial, terrifying effects, such as Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr - The Dream of Allan Gray (1931) and the films Val Lewtons for RKO in the 1940s. Especially the design of the role by Max Schreck, who sometimes allowed the relatively unknown actor to merge with the film persona in the public perception, and the conception of the mask with a bald skull, pointed ears, the two centrally located bite teeth and elongated extremities went into the Canon of popular cultural standards. Buttgereit states that the vampire from Tobe Hoopers Burning Must Salem (1979) is, for example, an “exact Nosferatu copy”, and that the flying vampires in Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) are modeled on Nosferatu.

In 1979 Werner Herzog made a homage to Nosferatu under the title Nosferatu - Phantom of the Night . Herzog's film with Klaus Kinski in the role of the vampire is largely a remake and partly copies Murnau's shots in detail. He provided his work with a more pessimistic ending (Hutter / Harker becomes the new vampire after the death of the Count) and designed it with extensive dialogues that highlight the loneliness and forlornness of the vampire. Everson rates the film as a "failure" because the popular Kinski lacks "the anonymous, incomprehensible, and supernatural" from Murnau's character.

In 1989 the metal band Helstar released an album called Nosferatu .

E. Elias Merhige's film Shadow of the Vampire (2000) deals in a fictional manner with the shooting of Nosferatu and is based on the premise that Max Schreck, played by Willem Dafoe , was a real vampire. The film deals with the exploitative, vampiric qualities of filmmaking itself and makes use of the repertoire of Murnau's stylistic devices in a postmodern way.

Nosferatu was included in the film canon by the Federal Agency for Civic Education .

literature

Web links

Commons : Nosferatu  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , August 2007 (PDF; test number: 35 648-a K).
  2. ^ A b Christiane Mückenberger: Nosferatu. In: Günther Dahlke, Günter Karl (Hrsg.): German feature films from the beginnings to 1933. Henschel, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-89487-009-5 , p. 71.
  3. ↑ a b Lotte H. Eisner: Murnau. The classic of German films. Friedrich, Velber / Hannover 1967, p. 27.
  4. ↑ Albert Klein / Raya Kruk: Alexander Granach - Almost blown traces. Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-108-X , p. 82.
  5. ↑ In addition to the Aegidienkirchhof also originally Aegidienkirche provided the backdrop for the film. However, the Lübeck Senate refused to give its consent. Wismarer Marienkirche was chosen as their replacement . It is said that this location was the numerical factor behind the fact that there were more locations for the film in Wismar than in Lübeck and that the name Wisborg was chosen for the port city.
  6. ↑ Luciano Berriatúa and Camille Blot: On the transmission of the films. In: Hans Helmut Prinzler (ed.): Murnau - A melancholic of film. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 222. At that time it was common practice to shoot with at least two cameras in parallel in order to be able to produce a larger number of copies of the film. Usually one negative was used for the copies for domestic use and one for foreign use.
  7. ↑ Lotte H. Eisner: Murnau. The classic of German films. Friedrich, Velber / Hannover 1967, p. 28. Since neither Stoker nor Galeen's script mentions that vampires die in daylight, this aspect canonized later in the popular vampire myth can only be ascribed to Murnau.
  8. ↑ Frieda Grafe , Enno Patalas (ed.): Light from Berlin. Lang Lubitsch Murnau. Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-922660-81-9 , p. 117.
  9. ↑ Lotte H. Eisner: Murnau. The classic of German films. Friedrich, Velber / Hannover 1967, p. 60.
  10. ^ Filmlexikon and Spiegel.de .
  11. ↑ a b Quoted in: Hans Helmut Prinzler (Ed.): Murnau - Ein Melancholiker des Films. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation, Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 131.
  12. ↑ a b c d Quoted on filmhistoriker.de .
  13. ↑ Quoted in: Hans Helmut Prinzler (Ed.): Murnau - Ein Melancholiker des Films. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 129.
  14. ↑ a b Quoted in: Michael Töteberg: Nosferatu. In: Michael Töteberg (Ed.): Metzler Film Lexikon. 2nd Edition. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2005, ISBN 978-3-476-02068-0 , p. 463.
  15. ↑ Herbert Lewandowski: A look behind the scenes. In: Klaus Becker: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. A great film director of the twenties. Issued by the Stadtsparkasse Kassel. Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag, 1981, p. 121.
  16. ↑ Daniela Sannwald: A great stranger. In: Hans Helmut Prinzler (ed.): Murnau - A melancholic of film. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 71.
  17. ↑ a b Enno Patalas: Nosferatu does not want to die. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich . Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 26.
  18. ^ Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 14.
  19. ↑ Lotte H. Eisner: Murnau. The classic of German films. Friedrich, Velber / Hannover 1967, p. 64.
  20. ↑ There is an overview of various publications on video and DVD at silentera.com .
  21. ↑ However, this was not the first television broadcast of the film; on June 23, 1969, ARD had already broadcast a version of Nosferatu , with a new score by Peter Schirmann .
  22. ↑ http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=4112494
  23. ↑ Further information on restorations and their publications can be found on filmblatt.de .
  24. ↑ a b Jörg Gerle: Changeable Revenant . Nosferatu: Looking for the definitive version. In: film service . Vol. 60, No. 25 , 2007, p. 46-47 .
  25. ↑ Lotte H. Eisner : The demonic canvas. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-596-23660-6 , p. 99.
  26. ↑ a b c Fred Gehler , Ullrich Kasten : Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Henschel, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00373-7 , p. 45.
  27. ↑ Lotte H. Eisner : The demonic canvas. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-596-23660-6 , p. 100.
  28. ↑ Frieda Grafe , Enno Patalas (ed.): Light from Berlin. Lang Lubitsch Murnau. Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-922660-81-9 , p. 111.
  29. ↑ a b William K. Everson, Joe Hembus (ed.): Classics of the horror film. Goldmann, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-442-10205-7 , p. 199.
  30. ↑ Rayd Khouloki: The cinematic space - construction, perception, meaning. Bertz + Fischer GbR, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-86505-305-3 , p. 44.
  31. ↑ Silke Beckmann: Nosferatu. A symphony of horror from a film semiotics point of view. An examination of the language of film and its character. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller , Saarbrücken 2008. ISBN 978-3-639-06761-3 , p. 72.
  32. ↑ a b Michael Töteberg: Nosferatu. In: Michael Töteberg (Ed.): Metzler Film Lexikon. 2nd Edition. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2005, ISBN 978-3-476-02068-0 , p. 463.
  33. ↑ Lotte H. Eisner : The demonic canvas. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-596-23660-6 , p. 101.
  34. ^ Klaus Becker: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. A great film director of the twenties. Issued by the Stadtsparkasse Kassel. Deutscher Sparkassen Verlag, 1981, p. 51.
  35. ^ A b Thomas Koebner: The romantic Prussian. In: Hans Helmut Prinzler (ed.): Murnau - A melancholic of film. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 25.
  36. ^ A b c Siegfried Kracauer : From Caligari to Hitler. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 3-518-28079-1 , p. 86.
  37. ↑ a b Thomas Elsaesser : The Weimar Cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930916-24-X , p. 171.
  38. ↑ Thomas Elsaesser : The Weimar Cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930916-24-X , p. 172. Murnau thus approaches the narrative structure of Stoker's novel, in which the text parts are assembled in a similar way like a collage.
  39. ↑ Frieda Grafe. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 10.
  40. ↑ Enno Patalas: Nosferatu does not want to die. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 26. Murnau is still a long way from his later postulated idea that the ideal film can do without subtitles. Three years later, in The Last Man , Murnau only uses a single insert.
  41. ↑ Enno Patalas: Nosferatu does not want to die. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 27.
  42. ↑ a b c d Thomas Elsaesser : The Weimar Cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930916-24-X , p. 172.
  43. ↑ Thomas Elsaesser : The Weimar Cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930916-24-X , p. 173.
  44. ↑ a b Georg Seeßlen , Fernand Jung : Horror - history and mythology of horror films. Schüren, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-89472-430-7 , p. 111.
  45. ↑ Rayd Khouloki: The cinematic space - construction, perception, meaning. Bertz + Fischer GbR, Berlin 2007. ISBN 978-3-86505-305-3 , p. 93.
  46. ↑ a b Thomas Elsaesser : The Weimar Cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930916-24-X , p. 175.
  47. ↑ a b Berndt Heller: The music for the 'Festival of Nosferatu'. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 30 f.
  48. ^ Los Angeles Opera, Nosferatu. Retrieved November 4, 2016
  49. ↑ NOSFERATU, FW Murnau. Gabriela Montero improvises LIVE movie score. Retrieved November 26, 2019 (German).
  50. ↑ Fish Griwkowsky Updated: November 1, 2013: 2o13.1o.31 ~ vampire weeknight | Edmonton Journal. November 1, 2013, accessed November 26, 2019 .
  51. ↑ Georg Seeßlen , Fernand Jung : Horror - history and mythology of horror films. Schüren, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-89472-430-7 , p. 112.
  52. ↑ Frieda Grafe , Enno Patalas (ed.): Light from Berlin. Lang Lubitsch Murnau. Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-922660-81-9 , p. 109.
  53. ^ Hans Günther Pflaum: German Silent Movie Classics. Transit Film / Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, Munich, Wiesbaden 2002, p. 68: “As 'undead' beyond the categories of guilt and remorse”.
  54. ↑ Frieda Grafe. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 11.
  55. ^ Hans Günther Pflaum: German Silent Movie Classics. Transit Film / Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, Munich, Wiesbaden 2002, p. 72: "When the terrifying figure is identified as a part of nature, it is no longer possible to evade all feelings of compassion.".
  56. ↑ Frieda Grafe. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 13.
  57. ^ A b Fred Gehler , Ullrich Kasten : Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. Henschel, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-362-00373-7 , p. 46.
  58. ^ Klaus Kreimeier : The Ufa story. History of a film company. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-596-15575-4 , pp. 130 f.
  59. ↑ Frieda Grafe , Enno Patalas (ed.): Light from Berlin. Lang Lubitsch Murnau. Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-922660-81-9 , p. 89.
  60. ↑ Frieda Grafe. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 12.
  61. ^ Hans Günther Pflaum : German Silent Movie Classics. Transit Film / Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation, Munich, Wiesbaden 2002, p. 66.
  62. ^ Siegfried Kracauer: From Caligari to Hitler. A Psychological History of the German Film . 1st edition. Princeton University Press, 1947.
  63. ↑ Georg Seeßlen , Fernand Jung : Horror - history and mythology of horror films. Schüren, Marburg 2006, ISBN 3-89472-430-7 , p. 109.
  64. ↑ Quoted in: Frieda Grafe , Enno Patalas (Ed.): Licht aus Berlin. Lang Lubitsch Murnau. Brinkmann & Bose, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-922660-81-9 , p. 11.
  65. ^ A b Thomas Koebner: The romantic Prussian. In: Hans Helmut Prinzler (ed.): Murnau - A melancholic of film. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 24.
  66. ^ A b Anton Kaes : Film in the Weimar Republic. In: Wolfgang Jacobsen , Anton Kaes, Hans Helmut Prinzler (Hrsg.): History of German film. Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar 1993. ISBN 3-476-00883-5 , p. 52.
  67. ↑ a b c Gunter E. Grimm: Monster and Galan. Count Dracula's cinematic metamorphoses. In: Oliver Jahraus / Stefan Neuhaus (ed.): The fantastic film. History and function in the media society. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 2005, ISBN 3-8260-3031-1 , p. 46.
  68. ↑ Thomas Koebner: The romantic Prussian. In: Hans Helmut Prinzler (ed.): Murnau - A melancholic of film. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 21.
  69. ↑ Thomas Elsaesser : The Weimar Cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930916-24-X , p. 185.
  70. ↑ Quoted in: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 24.
  71. ↑ Silke Beckmann: Nosferatu. A symphony of horror from a film semiotics point of view. An examination of the language of film and its character. VDM, Saarbrücken 2008. ISBN 978-3-639-06761-3 , p. 76.
  72. ↑ Sylvain Exertier: The overlooked letter Nosferatus. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 39.
  73. ↑ Sylvain Exertier: The overlooked letter Nosferatus. In: Fritz Göttler (Red.): FW Murnau - Nosferatu. A publication by the cultural department of the City of Munich. Kulturreferat, Munich 1987, p. 41.
  74. ↑ Ulrich Gregor , Enno Patalas: History of the film 1. 1895-1939. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1976, ISBN 3-499-16193-1 , p. 55.
  75. ^ Lars Penning: Nosferatu. In: Alfred Holighaus (ed.): The film canon - 35 films that you must know. Federal Agency for Civic Education. Bertz + Fischer, Bonn, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86505-160-X , p. 14; also online Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror on the website of the Federal Agency for Civic Education
  76. ↑ Thomas Elsaesser : The Weimar Cinema - enlightened and ambiguous. Vorwerk 8, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-930916-24-X , p. 164.
  77. ^ Thomas Koebner: Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. In: Thomas Koebner (Ed.): Film directors - biographies, descriptions of works, filmographies. 3. Edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-15-010662-4 , p. 527.
  78. ↑ Klaus Kreimeier: The drama and the forms - attempt on a melancholic. In: Klaus Kreimeier (Red.): Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau. 1888-1988. Bielefelder Verlagsanstalt, Bielefeld 1988. ISBN 3-87073-034-X (publication for the exhibition of the same name; Bielefeld, October 26th – November 25th, 1988, Düsseldorf, December 1st, 1988 to January 15th, 1989; cultural office and adult education center of the city of Bielefeld and Filminstitut Düsseldorf).
  79. ↑ a b William K. Everson, Joe Hembus (ed.): Classics of the horror film. Goldmann, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-442-10205-7 , p. 207.
  80. ↑ Lotte H. Eisner: Murnau. The classic of German films. Friedrich, Velber / Hannover 1967, p. 63.
  81. ^ A b Lars Penning: Nosferatu. In: Alfred Holighaus (ed.): The film canon - 35 films that you must know. Federal Agency for Civic Education. Bertz + Fischer, Bonn, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86505-160-X , p. 16.
  82. ↑ Jörg Buttgereit: Only a Movie? In: Hans Helmut Prinzler (ed.): Murnau - A melancholic of film. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 135.
  83. ↑ Jörg Buttgereit: Only a Movie? In: Hans Helmut Prinzler (ed.): Murnau - A melancholic of film. Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation. Bertz, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-929470-25-X , p. 136.
Vatican film list
religion

La vie et la passion de Jésus Christ (1905) • The Passion of the Virgin of Orléans (1928) • Monsieur Vincent (1947) • Francis, the juggler of God (1950) • The Word (1955) • Ben Hur (1959) • Nazarin (1959) • The 1st Gospel - Matthew (1964) • A man in every season (1966) • Andrei Rublev (1969) • Mission (1986) • Sacrifice (1986) • Thérèse (1986) • Babette's Feast (1987) • Francis (1988)

values

Intolerance (1916) • Rome, Open City (1945) • Isn't life beautiful? (1946) • Bicycle thieves (1948) • The fist in the neck (1954) • Friends to the last (1956) • The seventh seal (1957) • Wild strawberries (1957) • Uzala der Kyrgyzstan (1975) • The wooden shoe tree (1978) • The hour of the victor (1981) • Gandhi (1982) • Goodbye, children (1987) • Decalogue (1988–1989) • Schindler's List (1993)

art

Nosferatu - A Symphony of Horror (1922) • Metropolis (1927) • Napoleon (1927) • Four Sisters (1933) • Modern Times (1936) • The Great Illusion (1937) • The Wizard of Oz (1939) • Ringo (1939 ) • Fantasia (1940) • Citizen Kane (1941) • Luck came overnight (1951) • La Strada - The Song of the Road (1954) • Eight and a Half (1963) • The Leopard (1963) • 2001: A Space Odyssey ( 1968)

This article was added to the list of excellent articles on May 8, 2009 in this version .