Movie: Werner Herzog's Nosferatu
Feb. 2nd, 2006 04:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterOne of my shames is that I've yet to see Murnau's original Nosferatu. I've got a vague idea of catching it at the artsy cinema, where they sometimes show silent movies with live piano music. For the meantime, the local Cosmo equivalent came packaged with a DVD of Herzog's remake a few months ago, and since my exam didn't happen (argh), I watched it today.
It's such a quiet, unearthly movie. The light and shadow play is very much inspired by Murnau. The soundtrack compliments the visuals beautifully - the scene where the plague-stricken people dance as a mournful hymn plays out is unearthly. The sheer contrast - Lucy (in this version, Jonathan's wife) looks like a vampire, pale and black-clad, and yet it's the people she passes, dancing and joyful, who are the ones condemned to death.
Kinski's Dracula is a mite too crazy at times, but then he catches the rhythm and is appropriately spellbinding, quite an accomplishment in that makeup. I didn't much care for Bruno Ganz as Harker, except at the end, but I was surprised at how much I liked Isabelle Adjani's performance. I was afraid her Lucy would turn out to be a will-less victim, and I couldn't have been more wrong.
Come to think of it, this is a surprisingly feminist movie.
Also, a guy looking like that has absolutely no business being hot, but somehow his scene with Lucy was scorching. Something about their hands...
(Note: the version I saw was the German-language one. The English one consists of entirely different "speaking" takes.)
It's such a quiet, unearthly movie. The light and shadow play is very much inspired by Murnau. The soundtrack compliments the visuals beautifully - the scene where the plague-stricken people dance as a mournful hymn plays out is unearthly. The sheer contrast - Lucy (in this version, Jonathan's wife) looks like a vampire, pale and black-clad, and yet it's the people she passes, dancing and joyful, who are the ones condemned to death.
Kinski's Dracula is a mite too crazy at times, but then he catches the rhythm and is appropriately spellbinding, quite an accomplishment in that makeup. I didn't much care for Bruno Ganz as Harker, except at the end, but I was surprised at how much I liked Isabelle Adjani's performance. I was afraid her Lucy would turn out to be a will-less victim, and I couldn't have been more wrong.
Come to think of it, this is a surprisingly feminist movie.
Also, a guy looking like that has absolutely no business being hot, but somehow his scene with Lucy was scorching. Something about their hands...
(Note: the version I saw was the German-language one. The English one consists of entirely different "speaking" takes.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-02 08:08 am (UTC)I think with Kinski and Adjani, it's the contrast - his hands are monstrous, clawed, and yet her hands, drawing him near, encouraging him to take more, are the ones that are deadly. Gods, the plotbunnies. Who needs plague rats, anyway?
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-02 08:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-02 08:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-02 08:49 am (UTC)Begone, foul temptress. Now I have to write Christine meeting Krolock, and decide on how Raoul will act during that scene. I think he might have been at the sugar bowl, he's being ridiculously bouncy...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-02 08:54 am (UTC)*coughs*
I mean, I didn't force you to do anything! It's entirely not my fault ;)