Nosferatu, Phantom Der Nacht (1979)
Written and Directed by Werner Herzog
After just finishing Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I was deeply curious to see how Herzog’s interpretation differed from the story’s original form. Nosferatu, Phantom Der Nacht is a re-enactment of one of Werner Herzog’s most cherished films Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror, directed by F.W. Muranau in 1921.
To see Klaus Kinski gothed up and rodent like as the Count is utterly impressive, his movements keen and just, smooth and practiced in his prosthetic makeover. Isabella Adjani as Lucy Harker, the gorgeous heroine of the tale, supports Kinski, and her performance, even though it is almost pushed to one side, is spellbinding.
Instead of the traditional power hungry, rider of midnight bloodlust, this Count Dracula is alone, desperate for love and companionship. During his first visit to Lucy, he confesses his desperation and she mocks him, making the Count appear most sombre and fraught.
The characters are given similar names to those in Stoker’s book but the story is completely twisted from the original; The film is set in Wismar, Germany as opposed to London, Lucy is portrayed as the courageous vampire slayer and Van Helsing as a foolish old doctor. This struck me as being most peculiar as I thoroughly enjoyed Stoker’s book and I did not enjoy this aspect of Herzog’s production… albeit that the book may not have influenced the film directly… so why use the same character names? This could be because F.W. Murnau, Herzog’s inspiration for the project, was unable to use names from the book in his 1922 version as Bram Stoker’s novel was still copyright and this is more of a dedication to him… perhaps I am wrong… perhaps I should not be so caught up in character names but in Jorge Schmidt-Reitwin’s phenomenal display of cinematography. The film simply looks glorious.
I feel this was more of a personal lesson than a feature film experience; interpretations of books and stories are only interpretations, if they were the same then there would be no point in making them. When I watched this film, I was so caught up in what I had read that I was unable to accept the filmmaker’s interpretation and this drastically altered my viewing perception. Learning how to let go of the ‘the book is always better than the film’ attitude is not easy but it is something I am going to make more of an effort to achieve.
This is just an idea, but then again, these are only notes.
The stunning Isabella Adjani plays
Lucy Harker
Copyright Daniel Emmerson 2008 all rights reserved
