Nosferatu (The Ultimate Two-Disc Edition)
by F.W. Murnau
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alexander Granach, Georg H. Schnell, Greta Schr?der, Gustav von Wangenheim, Max SchreckDirector: F.W. Murnau
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); German (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Restored, Silent, Special Edition, Surround Sound
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-11-20
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: KINO VIDEO
Movie Reviews of Nosferatu (The Ultimate Two-Disc Edition)
Movie Review: Kino raises the bar
Summary: 5 Stars
For sheer technological artistry, it's difficult to see how the Kino remastering of "Nosferatu" could be surpassed. Visual quality is excellent and the original 1922 Hans Erdmann score is (at long last) made available. Supplementing the digitalized film is an hour-long documentary on the making of "Nosferatu," as well as clips from director F.W. Murnau's other films. All in all, Ausgeseichnet!
"Nosferatu" really is an amazing film (and I say this as someone not particularly fond of the vampire genre). Murnau's expressionist cinematography creates an eeriness that's never been matched. The long, lean Count Orlok (Max Schreck), his fingers unnaturally talon-like, arms stiffly at his side like a corpse's, eyes wide open but somehow dead, can frighten even modern audiences who've been trained by special effects artists to demand much from spooky movies. The shipboard scene of Nosferatu rising from his coffin is uncanny. Murnau also speeds up the camera when he films Nosferatu in motion, thereby suggesting that what the viewer is seeing is unnatural, other-worldly.
For the most part, Gustav von Wangenheim's Hutter (parallel to Stoker's Jonathan Harker) is competent, although there are a few of those overdone melodramatic moments one associates with silent film. At one point, for example, Hutter slams a book about vampires on the floor to express his amused contempt for such superstitions. But the scene is so over-acted that it comes across as more funny than anything else. Greta Schroeder's Ellen (Stoker's Lucy) is a flop. Schroeder seems incapable of not overacting in the grand style of silent movie queens satirized in "Sunset Boulevard." Alexander Granach's Knock (Stoker's Renfield) is, in my judgment, the real star of the film. Granach perfectly captures the creepy madness of Knock/Renfield. His performance is stellar.
The libidinal tension implicit in all vampire stories also comes through in "Nosferatu." In one scene in which Nosferatu is preying on Ellen, she cups one of her breasts and Nosferatu's shadow cups the other. A gripping, masterful image, and one that's not been bested by the thousand and one Dracula re-makes since "Nosferatu."
Summary of Nosferatu (The Ultimate Two-Disc Edition)
As noted critic Pauline Kael observed, "... this first important film of the vampire genre has more spectral atmosphere, more ingenuity, and more imaginative ghoulish ghastliness than any of its successors." Some really good vampire movies have been made since Kael wrote those words, but German director F.W. Murnau's 1922 version remains a definitive adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Created when German silent films were at the forefront of visual technique and experimentation, Murnau's classic is remarkable for its creation of mood and setting, and for the unforgettably creepy performance of Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a.k.a. the blood-sucking predator Nosferatu. With his rodent-like features and long, bony-fingered hands, Schreck's vampire is an icon of screen horror, bringing pestilence and death to the town of Bremen in 1838. (These changes of story detail were made necessary when Murnau could not secure a copyright agreement with Stoker's estate.) Using negative film, double-exposures, and a variety of other in-camera special effects, Murnau created a vampire classic that still holds a powerful influence on the horror genre. (Werner Herzog's 1978 film Nosferatu the Vampyre is both a remake and a tribute, and Francis Coppola adopted many of Murnau's visual techniques for Bram Stoker's Dracula.) Seen today, Murnau's film is more of a fascinating curiosity, but its frightening images remain effectively eerie. --Jeff ShannonA cornerstone of the horror film, F.W. Murnau s NOSFERATU is triumphantly reborn in this breathtaking new restoration by the F.W. Murnau Foundation. Backed by an orchestral performance of Hans Erdmann s 1922 score (recorded in 5.1 stereo surround), Kino International edition presents Murnau s masterpiece in this all-new restored HD transfer with unprecedented clarity and faithfulness to the original release version. This double-disc collection presents the film with the original German intertitles as well as with newly-translated English intertitles. Accompanying the film is a 52-minute documentary by Luciano Berriat?a which provides a detailed account of the production and explores the filmmakers involvement in the occult. Also includes 'Nosferatu: Historic Film Meets Digital Restoration' - a 3-minute documentary - Lengthy excerpts from other films by F.W. Murnau: Journey Into the Night (1920), The Haunted Castle (1921), Phantom (1922), The Finances of the Grand Duke (1924), The Last Laugh (1924), Tartuffe (1925), Faust (1926), and Tabu (1931) - Photo Gallery - Scene Comparison
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