Silents Synced: Nosferatu (1922) with music from Radiohead
- Fri, Oct 4
Director: F. W. Murnau Run Time: 94 min. Rating: NR Release Year: 1922
Starring: Georg H. Schnell, Greta Schröder, Gustav von Wangenheim, Max Schreck, Ruth Landshoff
Country: Germany
Language: English intertitles
About the film:
Silents Synced pairs classic silent movies with epic rock music soundtracks. Presented one night only at Gateway Film Center, this presentation of Nosferatu (1922) features Radiohead’s Kid A and Amnesiac albums.
An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu (1922) is the quintessential silent vampire film, crafted by legendary German director F. W. Murnau. Rather than depicting Dracula as a shape-shifting monster or debonair gentleman, Murnau’s Graf Orlok (as portrayed by Max Schreck) is a nightmarish, spidery creature of bulbous head and taloned claws — perhaps the most genuinely disturbing incarnation of vampirism yet envisioned.
“It’s not just a great horror movie. It’s a poem of horror, a symphony of dread, a film so rapt, mysterious and weirdly lovely it haunts the mind long after it’s over.”
—The Los Angeles Times
Nosferatu (1922) was an atypical expressionist film in that much of it was shot on location. While directors such as Lang and Lubitsch built vast forests and entire towns within the studio, the film’s landscapes, villages and castle were actual locations in the Carpathian mountains. Murnau was thus able to infuse the story with the subtle tones of nature: both pure and fresh as well as twisted and sinister.
About the filmmaker:
F. W. Murnau was an influential German expressionist director, producer and screenwriter who crafted a total of 21 films, only 12 of which survived in their entirety. A master of light and shadow, Murnau experimented with new filming techniques, negative exposure, stop-motion, and low angle camera positions. His adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu (1922), is considered a masterpiece of German Expressionist cinema. His other features include The Last Laugh (1924), Faust (1926), and three films made with Fox Studio in Hollywood: City Girl (1930), 4 Devils (1928), and Sunrise (1927), which has been regarded by critics and film directors as one of the best films ever made, and, along with Murnau’s final film Tabu (1931), was selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.
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