BrokenProjector.com

Kammerspielfilm, Part 3: Nosferatu by F.W.Murnau

Note from the author: This post is Part 3 of a trilogy of articles on German Expressionist Cinema movement of the 1920s and 1930s. The name given to this type of cinema is ‘Kammerspielfilm’ meaning ‘Chamber Feature Film’ in German. This trilogy presents three of the most important films that were made during this period.

Nosferatu is one of the earliest known films that truly frightens. No gab-stabs or surprise sneaking-up-from-behind, instead what the film delivers is an ice-cube of a chill running down the back of your spine solely by its characters and its plot. The presentation of the Nosferatu character in the film is the most accurate personification of evil itself. Max Schreck knows his vampire well. His tall, lean, icy fingers travel out of the shadows on the screen and reach out deep into our hearts and impose a grip of pure fear for the duration of the film.

F.W.Murnau shot the film in 1921 and intended it to be a direct Kammerspielfilm adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. When the film was released in 1922, the studio could not secure the rights to Stoker’s novel and Murnau was forced to change all the main character names. Thus Count Dracula became Count Orlok and Jonathon Harker became Thomas Hutter. But in a subsequent release in English version, the original names of Stoker’s characters were restored, especially the copies available in the public domain.

A Study of the Plot

The film starts with Thomas Hutter and his beautiful wife Ellen together in their home. It is established that both of them are happily married and they love each other very much. Hutter’s employer Knock sends him on an official trip to the Carpathian Mountains to meet with Count Orlok and get him to purchase a house back in Hutter’s hometown of Wismar. Hutter leaves his wife with their trusted friends- the Hardings before embarking on his long journey to the Carpathian Mountains. Knock instructs Hutter to disregard any superstitions that he may receive about Count Orlok or the Carpathian Mountains also known as ‘The Land of the Phantoms’.

Hutter eventually stops at an inn and unknowingly frightens the people there with the mere mention of Count Orlok. He decides to stay at the inn for the night and rents a room. After watching an uncanny view of horses out of his bedroom window, Hutter finds a book called ‘The Book of the Vampires’. He reads about certain noticeable attributes of vampires and eventually dismisses the book as a joke and falls asleep. The following day, Hutter continues his journey in a horse-carriage and towards the end of the day, the cart-driver halts and refuses to go any further into the ‘Land of the Phantoms’. Hutter leaves his carriage behind and proceeds to cross a bridge on foot only to be picked up a mysterious coach on the other side that delivers him to Orlok’s doorstep at an uncanny speed.

Hutter and Orlok discuss the house-deal over dinner where Hutter helps himself to a fine feast. A freak accident with the fruit-knife causes Hutter to cut himself on his finger. As he bleeds he sees that Orlok is clearly stimulated by it. After a long discussion with Orlok in the parlour, Hutter falls asleep in his chair. In the morning when he wakes up, he finds himself in an empty castle and two punctures on his throat. Hutter dismisses them as mere mosquito-bites and writes a letter to Ellen telling her about his uncanny experience at Carpathian so far.

Hutter once again finds ‘The Book of Vampires’ in his luggage and with further reference to it, concludes that Orlok is a Nosferatu (vampire). He is immediately struck with fear with the appearance of Orlok in his room. Orlok attempts to help himself to Hutter’s blood only to be disrupted by a somnambulist scream from Ellen, from hundreds of miles away. The power of love, it seems acts as a force-field against the evil of the Nosferatu.

What follows next is a race to Wismar. Orlok ships himself with a number of coffins aboard a ship bound to Wismar and Hutter journeys through obstacles such as deep woods and bad health. Soon both reach their destination, Orlok in the process, consumes the lives of everyone he encounters along the way. His wave of death is described as an unstoppable plague in the town and everyone is instructed to stay indoors till a cure if found. Nevertheless, the plague continues to storm the town as Orlok moves into the house across the street from Hutter’s home. The effect of the Nosferatu is evident on Ellen as she grows weary as the days go by.

Ellen reads through the ‘Book of Vampires’ even after being restricted from doing so by her husband. She finds the solution to the plague- to keep the vampire awake and unaware of the coming daylight. She conquers the Nosferatu by offering him her blood and keeping him unaware of the rising sun. Orlok is caught like a deer in headlights here and as the sun rises he vapourizes into thin air.

The Style of Nosferatu

Murnau succeeded in creating a dark and chilly atmosphere for his tale of horror. Perhaps, this is the reason why even today it remains one of the most frightening films to be ever made. Murnau’s clever usage of shadows to depict moments of horror makes up for the lack of any available special effects. Then again, special effects don’t guarantee a good chill. Perhaps it is this very lack of any extraordinary camera tricks that gives us an illusion that something like this can find its way in real life, and that, I guarantee is a very scary thought.

Though Nosferatu borrows heavily from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the lack of copyrights to Stoker’s material caused Murnau to come up with some really original elements in the story. For instance- Orlok is a hideous, evil embodiment and is a metaphor to an oncoming plague. Dracula on the other hand, is a charming, seductive hypnotist who is more of an absorbing shadow. Another striking differentiation between both the vampires is that while Dracula is associated with bats (and takes that form often), Orlok finds himself around rats.

Nosferatu features a brilliant ensemble cast of actors. Gustav von Wangenheim brilliantly presents us an optimistic young hero- Thomas Hutter. Wangenheim gives us a very believable character who is as dismissive of things as he is optimistic. Although, initially he may seem to be the protagonist, it is not the case. Nosferatu fills the lack of a clearly defined protagonist by presenting an equal effort by both Hutter and his wife Ellen, played by the glowing Greta Schroder. The only irrelevant characters to the story come in the form of- Professor Bulwer (the German counterpart of Abraham Van Helsing) and the Captain of Demeter. Both characters seem to have no contribution to the film, and are as good as props. It may be argued that Bulwer’s lecture on vampires in the plant kingdom adds a very interesting dimension to the film but it only goes so far. The one actor that steals the show here is the incredible Max Schreck and his memorable portrayal of Count Orlok. Together with Murnau’s untiring vision of a demented horror tale, Schreck gave us a Count Orlok who’d haunt us in our dreams even years after watching the film.

Notable Influences of Nosferatu on World Cinema

The tall lean shadow of Schreck rising up the stairs, his stiff robotic stature, his eerie fingers, his chiselled bald head, his bushy eyebrows and his hinge-like uprising from his deadly coffin-bed have inspired countless filmmakers and films over the following decades.

Once again, director Tim Burton stands first in line in terms of tapping into the beautiful elements of Kammerspielfilm. He pays homage to Max Schreck by introducing a character of the same name in his most-acclaimed gothic tale- Batman Returns (1992). Orlok’s robotic stances have been copied in many horror films and have since become a standard element of Zombie films.

‘Nosferatu’ is available for download here.

Part 1: M by Fritz Lang | Part 2: The Cabinet of Dr.Caligari by Robert Weine