Nosferatu, 100 Years Later
Last month saw the 100-year anniversary of one of the greatest films ever made. I’ve already written briefly about the film here. What follows are some thoughts I had on the film as a part of a larger look at the Christian themes in vampire literature and film several years ago…
Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens, 1922
The vampire became a part of cinema early on. The earliest full-length vampire film was perhaps the Hungarian film Drakula filmed in 1921, but unfortunately no known copies exist. F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu Eine Symphonie des Grauens, or Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror in 1922 stands out as the first great Vampire film ever made. To this day, with all the vampire films in existence, it is still one of the most accomplished films of the genre. Considered one of the masterworks of all German silent cinema, the film is based loosely on Stoker’s novel. It has been changed a lot due to the failure to obtain the film rights from Stoker’s widow who was still alive at the time. She in fact sued the film company and won her case against the movie. The court ordered that the film and all its copies and material be destroyed. This act was never executed successfully, a failure for which film history can be thankful.
As stated, the story is changed substantially. It takes place in Bremen, Germany rather than England, and the characters are changed. Of the original six in the community of faith from Stoker’s novel, only three remain and names have been changed. (This is the first of many name changes the characters will face over the next several decades.) In some versions, Jonathan and Van Helsing retain their names, but their characters are markedly different from the book. Jonathan is a coward and Van Helsing a consummate modernist who denies the existence of the vampire until it is too late. Only Mina, under the name Nina, or Ellen depending on the version, retains some of her original qualities, and it is she who ultimately defeats the vampire, alone.
The film opens with a card indicating that a historian searching out the origins of the plague in Bremen has uncovered the tale of the Thomas and Ellen Hutter. In some versions the couple are named Jonathan and Nina. Hereafter they will be referred to by these names, as they are closer to the originals and will help clarity. The opening scenes are of the two newlyweds beginning their day. Jonathan prepares to go to work. Nina plays with a kitten. Jonathan brings her flowers before he departs. They are obviously in love.
Jonathan briefly encounters the town doctor (Van Helsing’s equivalent) on the way to work. Arriving there, he is called into his boss’ office. The boss is the Renfield type of the movie. Here begins a long history of embellishing the role of the Renfield character in the Dracula myth. It is he who sends Jonathan to Transylvania to sell Dracula (Count Orlock) a property in Bremen. He is already insane, and in some way knowledgeable of Dracula’s evil intentions towards the town and the couple. He reads a letter from the vampire written in occult symbols and suggests that they sell Dracula the building directly across from the couple’s house.
Jonathan sets out against Nina’s wishes. The journey is efficient at taking us from the modern world to the pre-modern. Jonathan stays with gypsy folk who warn him against entering the Vampire’s land. He laughs them off and continues his journey.
The vampire of the film is a hideous looking figure, more like Stoker’s creature than film would later present. At his castle, Jonathan is attacked, but doesn't realize it at first. He continues to be ignorant of the danger and the evil he is faced with. The second night he finally becomes aware of his danger. Jonathan finds the count's resting place, and later observes him leaving for Bremen. He sails there much like Dracula did to England. Jonathan escapes the castle and sets out as well, the race to Bremen is on. The count begins to kill the ship's mates during the journey.
In Murnau’s film, however, the Count brings a new threat unheard of in Dracula. Nosferatu brings the plague to Bremen. In fact, after the vampire arrives in town the viewer sees no attacks on the populace by the vampire. The attacks of the vampire have already been related to the plague in a news clipping seen during the journey. Renfield reads that a "new plague" has broken out in the port cities of the Black Sea, where the count was at the time, associated with two marks on the necks of the victims. Since no attacks are shown, it is up to the viewer to determine whether the townsfolk are dying due to vampire attack or to the plague.
The arrival of the count's ship is unnoticed except by Renfield and Nina, both of whom sense it before it happens. When Dracula’s ship is discovered, the crew is dead, and rats evacuate the ship. The threat of the plague sends waves of panic through the town. The vampire is never discovered. People quickly begin to die off, but the viewer never sees an attack, and the plague is blamed for all the death.
Jonathan’s arrival while the count is unloading his coffins into the house across the street is seen by Nina as her salvation. Unfortunately, it is not.
The other important change in Murnau’s film is the method of destroying the evil. It is up to a pure-hearted woman to kill the vampire by enticing him to remain with her until dawn, when the sun will kill him. This negates the need for a community of faith in defeating the evil, not to mention the fact that Dracula could go about during the day in the novel. Nina does eventually destroy the vampire, dying in the effort. Jonathan and Van Helsing are too late to save her. The end is tragic when the beginning is recalled. The couple, so in love and full of hope, is now separated forever.
In Nosferatu there is a much more fundamental and, in a sense, disturbing distinction from Stoker’s Dracula. In the later, the community of faith is separated from society, to save the world from the threat of evil presented by the Count. In Nosferatu there is not only no community of faith, but there is no one aside from Nina able to take on the vampire. The society of Bremen is full of cowards and men so smug in their modern view of the world that they are impotent to do anything. When Nina saves the city from the vampire one wonders whether it was worth saving. In any case Nina, the one good person in town, dies in a sacrifice for the city.
The issues of evil, its source, and its nature are cloudier in this film than in the novel that it is based upon. To be sure, the vampire is a source of supernatural evil, represented by the film techniques used to film him. However, the film leaves the question as to which is worse: supernatural evil or man’s own evil demonstrated in his inability to view the world as it really is.
In some way, this film is so successful because of the changes to the story and the typology of the myth that it imposes. As the first film in the canon of vampire movies that will emerge, it makes some of the greatest changes of any. The next several films will all lack a true community as seen in the book, but none will question modernity to such an extent. This film is ahead of its time in clouding the issue of evil and its source. The next two and a half decades will retreat from this stance.
Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grauens, 1922
As stated, the story is changed substantially. It takes place in Bremen, Germany rather than England, and the characters are changed. Of the original six in the community of faith from Stoker’s novel, only three remain and names have been changed. (This is the first of many name changes the characters will face over the next several decades.) In some versions, Jonathan and Van Helsing retain their names, but their characters are markedly different from the book. Jonathan is a coward and Van Helsing a consummate modernist who denies the existence of the vampire until it is too late. Only Mina, under the name Nina, or Ellen depending on the version, retains some of her original qualities, and it is she who ultimately defeats the vampire, alone.
The film opens with a card indicating that a historian searching out the origins of the plague in Bremen has uncovered the tale of the Thomas and Ellen Hutter. In some versions the couple are named Jonathan and Nina. Hereafter they will be referred to by these names, as they are closer to the originals and will help clarity. The opening scenes are of the two newlyweds beginning their day. Jonathan prepares to go to work. Nina plays with a kitten. Jonathan brings her flowers before he departs. They are obviously in love.
Jonathan briefly encounters the town doctor (Van Helsing’s equivalent) on the way to work. Arriving there, he is called into his boss’ office. The boss is the Renfield type of the movie. Here begins a long history of embellishing the role of the Renfield character in the Dracula myth. It is he who sends Jonathan to Transylvania to sell Dracula (Count Orlock) a property in Bremen. He is already insane, and in some way knowledgeable of Dracula’s evil intentions towards the town and the couple. He reads a letter from the vampire written in occult symbols and suggests that they sell Dracula the building directly across from the couple’s house.
Jonathan sets out against Nina’s wishes. The journey is efficient at taking us from the modern world to the pre-modern. Jonathan stays with gypsy folk who warn him against entering the Vampire’s land. He laughs them off and continues his journey.
The vampire of the film is a hideous looking figure, more like Stoker’s creature than film would later present. At his castle, Jonathan is attacked, but doesn't realize it at first. He continues to be ignorant of the danger and the evil he is faced with. The second night he finally becomes aware of his danger. Jonathan finds the count's resting place, and later observes him leaving for Bremen. He sails there much like Dracula did to England. Jonathan escapes the castle and sets out as well, the race to Bremen is on. The count begins to kill the ship's mates during the journey.
In Murnau’s film, however, the Count brings a new threat unheard of in Dracula. Nosferatu brings the plague to Bremen. In fact, after the vampire arrives in town the viewer sees no attacks on the populace by the vampire. The attacks of the vampire have already been related to the plague in a news clipping seen during the journey. Renfield reads that a "new plague" has broken out in the port cities of the Black Sea, where the count was at the time, associated with two marks on the necks of the victims. Since no attacks are shown, it is up to the viewer to determine whether the townsfolk are dying due to vampire attack or to the plague.
The arrival of the count's ship is unnoticed except by Renfield and Nina, both of whom sense it before it happens. When Dracula’s ship is discovered, the crew is dead, and rats evacuate the ship. The threat of the plague sends waves of panic through the town. The vampire is never discovered. People quickly begin to die off, but the viewer never sees an attack, and the plague is blamed for all the death.
Jonathan’s arrival while the count is unloading his coffins into the house across the street is seen by Nina as her salvation. Unfortunately, it is not.
The other important change in Murnau’s film is the method of destroying the evil. It is up to a pure-hearted woman to kill the vampire by enticing him to remain with her until dawn, when the sun will kill him. This negates the need for a community of faith in defeating the evil, not to mention the fact that Dracula could go about during the day in the novel. Nina does eventually destroy the vampire, dying in the effort. Jonathan and Van Helsing are too late to save her. The end is tragic when the beginning is recalled. The couple, so in love and full of hope, is now separated forever.
In Nosferatu there is a much more fundamental and, in a sense, disturbing distinction from Stoker’s Dracula. In the later, the community of faith is separated from society, to save the world from the threat of evil presented by the Count. In Nosferatu there is not only no community of faith, but there is no one aside from Nina able to take on the vampire. The society of Bremen is full of cowards and men so smug in their modern view of the world that they are impotent to do anything. When Nina saves the city from the vampire one wonders whether it was worth saving. In any case Nina, the one good person in town, dies in a sacrifice for the city.
The issues of evil, its source, and its nature are cloudier in this film than in the novel that it is based upon. To be sure, the vampire is a source of supernatural evil, represented by the film techniques used to film him. However, the film leaves the question as to which is worse: supernatural evil or man’s own evil demonstrated in his inability to view the world as it really is.
In some way, this film is so successful because of the changes to the story and the typology of the myth that it imposes. As the first film in the canon of vampire movies that will emerge, it makes some of the greatest changes of any. The next several films will all lack a true community as seen in the book, but none will question modernity to such an extent. This film is ahead of its time in clouding the issue of evil and its source. The next two and a half decades will retreat from this stance.
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