NOSFERATU

In 1979, visionary German film maker Werner Herzog was 35. He had already made 18 films (some short, some long) and 1979 saw him embark upon a film project that was very different to anything else that he had done before (or has done since). Essentially, he was to re-make FW Murnau's 1922 classic of German expressionist cinema NOSFERATU: EINE SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS ('Nosferatu: a Symphony of Horror'), though in reality he fused the screenplay for that film with Bram Stoker's original DRACULA novel to create a unique tribute to Murnau's film. NOSFERATU was shot simultaneously in two versions - one was in German ('Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht'), whilst the other was in English ('Nosferatu the Vampyre'). This has led to a somewhat complex history in terms of different releases. 20th Century Fox bought worldwide rights to the film and insisted upon an English dubbed version being made available. Rather than shoot the film in German and then have a new English dub created, Herzog decided to shoot in both languages simultaneously. This interesting experiment led to a unique situation whereby there are two different versions of the same film. Mark Wickum comments on the differences observed between the two cuts: "in comparing the two 106 cuts there are a number of interesting differences that don't have anything to with the language. The English version is edited in such a way that the earlier Jonathan Harker/Lucy scenes play out longer, while some later sequences featuring the Count are cut shorter. The German version is the exact opposite, with the first half of the film more tightly edited than the last. The differences are almost perfectly balanced, making the running times almost identical despite the small editing changes. Nothing vital is lost or added in either version, but the change in pacing from the English to the German is noticeable". When the English language version was released to cinemas it was shortened by around 10 minutes to ~96 minutes and this version was subsequently released on home video. However, both versions of the film originally ran around 107 minutes. When Anchor Bay came to release the film on laserdisc and DVD in 1999 they reinstated the excised footage from the English version and released both versions in their original cuts. These complete versions are also presented here on Anchor Bay UK's release. The English language version of the film on this UK DVD runs the expected ~107 minutes, but the German version runs shorter than this, at around 102 minutes. Both versions are presented at 25fps, so this is presumably down to the English version being a 'true' 25fps PAL transfer and the German version being transferred from an NTSC source (24/25 * 107 = approx 102 minutes).  Interestingly, two other Dracula-themed films came out in the same year as NOSFERATU. They were John Badham's DRACULA (made for Universal) and LOVE AT FIRST BITE, Stan Dragoti's humorous take on the legend (produced by AIP) - neither film has in any way had the influence or stood the test of time so well as Herzog's picture, yet both were more successful financially when released.

Herzog's film follows Stoker's story fairly closely up to the point when Count Dracula leaves Transylvania by ship. It's really not worth me describing the plot, as the Dracula story is so well known that it has become a part of our culture. Some of the more notable differences include the setting (the Harkers live in Germany rather than England, whilst the town in which Dracula is buying his house is in Wismar, rather than Whitby), the imprisonment of Jonathan in the Count's castle, Van Helsing's character, a subplot involving the plague and the shortening of the latter part of the story, plus the fact that Herzog's ending is completely different both to Stoker's novel and Murnau's film.  Also, for some unknown reason Herzog chose to call Mina 'Lucy'.

Herzog's choice of lead actors is one of the key elements in his film's success (or failure, depending on your point of view) - for Dracula, Herzog knew that only one man would do; Klaus Kinski. Kinski had already worked with Herzog in AGUIRRE (1972) and would go on to work with him a further three times, in the same year's WOYZECK, 1982's FITZCARRALDO and 1988's COBRA VERDE. The legendary production difficulties during AGUIRRE had apparently not put Herzog off Kinski - the two had an extremely volatile relationship and there are many legendary stories about them, including attempts to kill each other. Kinski died in 1991 and Herzog would later pay tribute to him in his 1999 documentary MY BEST FIEND, whilst Kinski wrote about Herzog in his infamous 'autobiography' All I Need is Love (1989). Kinski is perfectly cast in the role, bearing a vague resemblance to Max Schreck, who portrayed the Count in Murnau's film. Like Murnau's Dracula, the Count in this film isn't the suave, good looking gentleman to be found in Hammer productions and the like - he's a corpse-like fiend, with bald head, pointy ears, fangs and long sharp nails. Kinski had to undergo grueling 4 hour sessions in the makeup trailer in order to be transformed into Dracula, and he became more and more obsessed with the character, declaring "I am Nosferatu!" Herzog also chose to cast French actress Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker. At this time, Adjani was best known for her role in Polanski's THE TENANT (1976), but Herzog chose her for her strange, ethereal beauty. She is fascinating to watch in NOSFERATU, though her very theatrical method of acting can be a little grating at times. Two years later she starred in Andrzej Zulawski's ultra-weird POSSESSION, before returning to mainly French cinema. She is one of those actresses that you either love or hate; I tend towards the latter emotion but I don't think she is as bad in this film as some people seem to feel. Bruno Ganz, who plays Jonathan Harker in the film, was a fairly well known Swiss actor - Ganz probably puts in the least remarkable performance of the main actors. One interesting side-note is that the French author Roland Topor (who wrote the novel THE TENANT) plays Renfield in the film. Adjani and Topor had to be dubbed in both the German and English versions of the film.

Herzog's NOSFERATU isn't perfect, but it manages to create an atmosphere and mood unlike any other version of the Dracula story. There are many unforgettable images - the opening scenes showing (real) mummified bodies (shot in Mexico), Jonathan's journey to the Count's castle, the scores of rats in Wismar, the crazed townspeople in the town square and numerous images of Nosferatu moving through the night. Herzog's film also has a very authentic feel to it - it was filmed in Holland and Eastern Slovakia and features genuine Roman gypsies plus the beautiful Slovakian scenery and the Count's decaying castle. Herzog is notorious for his perfectionism and this is evident in the care that he takes with each shot, and in scenes such as those featuring a plague of rats, which Herzog actually let loose in the town where they filmed (they used 11,000 rats according to Herzog). His version of Dracula reminds me strongly of Jean Rollin's vampire films - in both cases the vampires are pitiful, miserable creatures doomed to live for eternity and unable to enjoy the pleasures of human existence. Nosferatu essentially craves love in Herzog's film, and this leads to some remarkable scenes, such as when Lucy refuses his attempt to seduce her ("The absence of love is the most abject pain"). Rather than attacking her or forcing himself upon her, Kinski's Nosferatu merely groans horribly and slinks away into the night. This scene (and others like it) will either make the viewer laugh or, as Herzog intended, make the viewer emphasise with Nosferatu's plight and misery. Herzog makes him a much more human character than in other Dracula films, whilst at the same time making his appearance less human. This creates an interesting ambiguity about the character, giving him more dimension than other tellings of the tale. The idea of the vampire as plague bringer (the root of the word 'nosferatu' ) is also unusual and works very well here. All these little differences, plus Kinski's performance and Herzog's direction, add up to an unusual and rewarding experience, and one that will linger in your memory for a long time.

DVD Specification
Original year of release - 1979
Running time - 102m 02s @ 25 fps (German version) / 106m 49s @ 25fps (English version)
Aspect ratio - Widescreen 1.85:1
System - PAL (colour)
Rating - 18
Sound - Dolby Digital 5.1/DD Mono (German) / DD Mono (English)
DVD release - Anchor Bay UK
Region Coding - Region 0 (code free)

DVD Extras
Audio Commentary by Werner Herzog (with Norman Hill)
Behind-the-scenes featurette (13 minutes)
Trailers for the dubbed US release, subtitled US release and the Spanish release

DVD Ratings (out of 5)
Picture - 4
Very good. There is some grain evident in certain scenes, especially the darker ones, but sources seem to indicate that the film looked a bit grainy and also a little muted even when it showed in theatres. The image is very clear and there's no artifacting whatsoever. The film is presented in its original aspect ration on both versions, and both versions are anamorphically enhanced, where the US release (understandably, since it was a very early DVD release) was not. The (optional) subtitles are very easy to read but have an annoying tendency to simply not appear for some lines of dialogue, particularly during the first few minutes. Van Helsing's name seems to be translated as 'Von Helsing' and Van Helsing at random, and there are several grammatical/spelling errors. I presume that Anchor Bay have simply re-used the subtitle script from the US release, and standards were evidently not as high in the early days of the format as they are now. Overall, a very pleasing visual presentation. One small criticism to make: this is one of those releases where the company responsible has decided to include a selection of images from the film before one can get to the menu. This is OK the first couple of times but becomes pretty darn annoying after the tenth time or so. I'm not sure why they decide to do this, but I wish they wouldn't.

Sound - 3
The audio tracks featured here are the same as those to be found on the US release. The German track was one of the first DD5.1 remixes that Anchor Bay did and this is perhaps not as pleasing as it would be were Anchor Bay to re-do it today. AB's genre DVD producer Bill Lustig said of these early remixes (courtesy of MHVF): "I would �enhance� the tracks by adding new sound effects and foley. This was, in my opinion, a well-intended but misguided procedure. ZOMBIE, QUATERMASS AND THE PIT, TENEBRE, PHENOMENA, DEMONS, DEMONS 2 and NOSFERATU represent what I call the pioneers of this folly". Because of this, the original 2-track mono soundtracks may be preferable to some viewers. Having said that, I tried listening to portions of the film on each track and couldn't notice too much difference in the way of 'added' effects. The lovely, haunting score sounds excellent and lots of spooky noises liven things up nicely. I wouldn't personally be too critical of these tracks, though some people may feel differently. 

Extras - 4
The extras that were included on the US DVD are reproduced here. We get three trailers, one for the dubbed US release, one for the subtitled US release and one for the Spanish release ('Nosferatu: Vampiro de la Noche'). The US trailers run around 2.5 minutes each, whilst the Spanish one runs around 2 minutes. Next we get a 13 minute featurette about the making of the film. This consists of footage shot during the shooting of the film with Herzog talking about the film (in English) over the footage "his films come "from pain, not from pleasure"). It also shows Kinski having his make-up applied and the setting up of some shots. Finally, and this is the real gem here, we get a fascinating commentary track by Herzog, being 'interviewed' by a guy called Norman Hill. This is one of the best, most informative and entertaining commentaries I've heard in a long time and makes the DVD well worth purchasing. Herzog speaks excellent English (he lived in the US for a time in his youth) and sounds like a very calm, normal bloke - not at all what you'd expect given his fearsome reputation. Herzog has recorded commentary tracks for most of Anchor Bay's DVD releases of his films and they're all similarly entertaining and recommended. The extras features are all included on the German version DVD.

Overall Rating - 4
One of Herzog's best films is given an above average UK DVD release. It's perhaps somewhat redundant given that it's more-or-less identical to the long-available US DVD, though it does feature the added bonus of anamorphic enhancement. I'm not at all sure why Anchor Bay have decided to release the two versions of the film on two separate DVD's as opposed to one double-sided DVD as per the US release, but one can't really criticise since they're not charging more than the price of a regular DVD for it. I personally could have done without the English version, but it is worth having as it is subtly different to the German version and does feature extra footage compared to previous home video releases of it. If you've never seen a Herzog film before then this is as good a place to start as any, though AGUIRRE is perhaps a better film. If you're a fan of Herzog and don't already own the US DVD then you need to own this. Herzog is one of the greatest and most important 'serious' European directors of the last 30 years and really should be better known. If this release sells well then Anchor Bay may decide to release some of his other films in the UK - the only problem is that the core market for Herzog's work is already likely to own AB's US DVD releases. To sum up this DVD in one word: Recommended.

AKA
Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
Nosferatu
Nosferatu the Vampyre
Nosferatu - Fant�me de la Nuit

Alternative versions
Various releases over the years. A laserdisc was released in the US by the Roan Group (1999). This featured a commentary by Herzog and the trailer, and was the German language print, with English subtitles. Simultaneously, Anchor Bay released a DVD in the US. This featured the audio commentary and trailer, plus a featurette on the film's making. The US DVD consisted of a single double-sided disc and gave the viewer the option of either watching the film in DD5.1 German with optional English subtitles or in DD Mono English. Anchor Bay also released the German and English versions separately on VHS. 

Movie Facts
The scene where Nosferatu arrives in the city required thousands of grey rats. Real grey rats were unavailable and therefore white ones were painted grey and used instead.

Awards
Berlin International Film Festival: 
Won the 'Silver Berlin Bear' Award 1979 - Henning von Gierke (Production Design)
Nominated for the 'Silver Berlin Bear' Award 1979 - Werner Herzog (Direction)

German Film Awards:
Won the 'Film Award in Gold' 1979 - Outstanding Individual Achievement: Actor (Kalus Kinski)