Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror film review

Movie Review

Last year, I heaped much praise on the TIFF 2000 Special Presentation "Shadow Of The Vampire", a riff on the making of "Nosferatu". This year, F. W. Murnau's masterwork, arguably the most influential horror film of all time and a landmark in German Expressionist cinema was awarded a deserved spot in the prestigious Elgin lineup, and if the chance to see it on the big screen in one of Canada's most gorgeous theatres wasn't enough, the accompanying score was performed live by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra!

And not just any score, typically, a medley of existing classical pieces. Instead, the TSO performed the ORIGINAL music composed for the film by Hans Erdmann -- literally, the promised "symphony of fear".

"Max Schreck might not have been a real vampire, as last year's light-hearted homage proposed, but his embodiment of the creature became the definitive interpretation"

If you believe "Shadow Of The Vampire", Murnau and Grau deliberately ripped off Bram Stoker's novel and threw caution to the wind. For whatever reason, perhaps even naivete (this was, after all, an era before "intellectual property rights" and clauses devoted to cable, home video, and merchandising tie-ins), Prana-Film neglected to secure the rights to "Dracula" and the shooting script was written to avoid any literal associations. Count Dracula becomes "Graf Orlock", Jonathon Harker becomes "Waldemar Hutter", Mina Murray becomes "Ellen Hutter", Dr. Van Helsing becomes "Professor Bulwer", and Harker's business partner Renfield becomes "Makler Knock". The setting was also changed from London, England to Bremen, Germany (Werner Herzog's superb 1979 remake kept Stoker's names and moved the events to Holland).

Characters were combined and events compressed (as much a consideration for running time, I'd guess), but plot wise, "Nosferatu" resembles Stoker's novel very closely, especially in its first act. Harker/Hutter is sent to the remote castle of Dracula/Orlock to secure a real estate deal for the Count in Bremen. Along the way, Hutter ignores superstitious peasants who warn of the Undead. Once inside and the transaction closed, Orlock develops an instant infatuation with Hutter's wife Ellen back home. Hutter then learns of Orlock's unusual bloodlust, and must flee across Europe on horseback in an attempt to beat the vampire back home, where Ellen awaits. Orlock rises from his coffin on a supply ship, kills the crew, and brings his literal plague of evil into Bremen.

It's at this point that most adaptations of "Dracula" -- even Coppola's alleged "faithful" version -- stray from the text, and "Nosferatu" was the first: Knock falls under Orlock's psychic spell, as does Ellen. A learned academic, Prof. Bulwer, becomes suspicious of the sudden plague and traces it back to Orlock. As Bremen buries its dead, Orlock pursues Ellen, and without Hutter's protection, the girl uses her own spell over the vampire to lure him to his death. Hutter arrives home to find Ellen safe, and Orlock's remains burning in the sun.

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Given the conflicting running times listed for the past 80 years, it was hard for me to determine whether or not the event's print of "Nosferatu" was "complete" --I've seen it many times over the years, and certainly nothing seemed to be missing (I have read of prints running more than 90m, however, but silent films can gain and lose time depending on projection speed). Bram Stoker's widow sued F.W. Murnau and producer Grau shortly after the film's release, and most copies of the film were ordered destroyed. When Universal purchased the rights to "Dracula" for its Tod Browning adaptation, the few remaining prints that survived in the US and the UK were also seized and presumably, burned. Thanks to the work of obsessive historians and restorers, films like "Nosferatu" now resemble their original editions better than ever having been painstakingly reassembled from a multitude of print and video sources, production notes, and even first-hand accounts from staff and/or moviegoers of the era.

Schreck might not have been a real vampire, as last year's light-hearted homage proposed, but his embodiment of the creature became the definitive interpretation, still quoted today in Herzog's remake, "Buffy", and "Salem's Lot". Alternately laughably crude and incredibly sophisticated, "Nosferatu" captured the schizoid channel-switches of our nightmares like no other film before or since and remains the 20th century's most essential bootleg.

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