smokingboot: (Default)
smokingboot ([personal profile] smokingboot) wrote2004-05-13 03:01 am

Nosferatu

Saw it again just now, after several years.

It's too easy to pick the cheese out of old black and white movies. While I can overlook some of the more comedic moments by remembering that Murnau was a forerunner in special effects filmwork, I am still bemused by:

a)The hyena/tasmanian wolf/bat-eared monstrosity that wanders baffled around the set and goes home.

b)The Tyrolean charm of the Count's bonnets.

c) The good ship Demeter and its cargo of deadly sideburns.

d) The powerfully armed (see c)Renfield who sits on a rooftop and gets stoned. These things never happen to me. Maybe I need madder hair.

e)Jonathon Harker's habit of grabbing The Book Of Vampires (left next to his bed in lieu of a Gideon Bible) reading a line of it, laughing hysterically and bunging it in the bin, only to pick it up half an hour later, read a line of it, laugh hysterically and bung it in the bin....

Still, the story being set in Bremen looks great, real Grimm's fairy tale stuff, and Max Schreck is still a luminous monstrosity.
Nosferatu is ridiculous but it's pretty magnificent too. Or maybe sleep deprivation is making me generous.

Today, I received a knicker exchange chain letter. I don't understand my life at all.

Nosferatu

[identity profile] bad-moon-rising.livejournal.com 2004-05-13 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
You should try shadow of the vampire if you havent already, its a rather good movie, esentially a satire about them making Nosferatu.

Re: Nosferatu

[identity profile] smokingboot.livejournal.com 2004-05-13 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
Sounds very interesting. Do you know who directed it?

Re: Nosferatu

[identity profile] bad-moon-rising.livejournal.com 2004-05-13 07:50 am (UTC)(link)
I can check for you I have it at home. It stars people like Eddie Izzard

Re: Nosferatu

[identity profile] smokingboot.livejournal.com 2004-05-13 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
That would be v.cool, thanks!

Shadow of the Vampire

[identity profile] bad-moon-rising.livejournal.com 2004-05-17 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
The director is called E Elias Merhige.It stars william Dafoe.John Malkovitch. Eddie Izzard. :)

Sorry about the delay i clean forgot over the weekend.

Gray

Re: Shadow of the Vampire

[identity profile] smokingboot.livejournal.com 2004-05-18 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
No worries, thanks for this info. Sometimes knowing the director makes the film easier to track down, but with this cast list, it should be pretty unmistakable!