I must confess something strange here, the original 1922 "Nosferatu" is one of my all-time favourite movies even though its a horror - I always loved silent movies and old black & white, pre-code movies - I just think they are wonderful, inspired and original as opposite to what came afterwards and looks dated. It might be strange to genuinely love horror movie, but it is what it is. It is a hypnotic quality, that creeps on you like a nightmare that will haunt your dreams for the rest of your life. Same for "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari".
I also like director Robert Eggers a lot. At first his movies were disturbing, repulsive and strange but eventually I realised this is actually good, someone who dares to be original and who is not dumbing down his movies for commercial success - everything I have seen from him so far was excellent. So I was not even surprised when I found out he will direct new version of "Nosferatu", since he is a but unhinged, it makes a perfect sense and better Eggers than someone else who might make a musical with product placements advertising in them.
As soon as I heard that this new "Nosferatu" arrived in the cinema, I went immediately. I was so determined to see it and to enjoy it properly, that I even went by myself - this was too important to be ruined by someone talking trough the movie or asking me to explain everything. On top of it, I decided it must be seen in recently renovated little art cinema Lab 111 that has creepy atmosphere like of the ex sanatorium (the building itself was a hospital and pathological lab with its mortuary), where I even got myself a free film poster while waiting for screening to start.
The movie was, thanks God, excellent - its basically a story of "Dracula" stolen from the original but the names were changed as Bram Stoker's widow refused to allow it for the movie. And if you loved the silent original, there is much to enjoy here, since Ebbert is excellent filmmaker and he obviously love 1922. version - for this movie he even developed a technique to replicate how the human eye perceives colour under moonlight by excluding red and yellow tones - the result is a total moonlight and it looks very good. Visually, the movie is spectacular and very effective - it is a thrill to see Nicholas Hoult (in Jonathan Harker-kind of role) walking trough the night with the snowflakes slowly falling around him or how he approaches the castle of his new client who wants to purchase a new property in Germany. If there is one thing to complain, it is that director might have been too respectful to the original - the story is what it is, it never was very deep or complicated or multi layered, it was just a basic skeleton of Dracula and nothing more - you could probably explain it in a few sentences. And Eggers does not dare to add anything new to it - he does include some sex scenes here and there (ugly and disturbing as they were) but that's it. Than again, even the original was always more about the atmosphere and feeling than the story. I wish that I could love it more but its still just a affectionate tribute to the 1922. original, not Eggers best movie - so far that was "The Lighthouse".
p.s.
Almost forgot to mention the most important:
This is a very original Nosferatu - unlike the bald original and 1970s version (sadly dated now, but Klaus Kinski was excellent) or later glamorous Hollywood vampire, this vampire is a creepy undead creature who actually has something from the historical Romanian Vlad the Impaler although the director makes conscious decision not to show him clearly - he is mostly in the dark or far away or in the corner of the screen. Makes the monster more effective this way, as we fear things we cannot see clearly.
No comments:
Post a Comment