May 29, 2002

The class began today with the instructor stating that we will be viewing the film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors.  The film is director by F. W. Murnau.  Murnau had at first tried to gain the cooperation of the Stoker Family of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but he was unsuccessful to obtain the rights to the movie.  Therefore, changes were made in the plot, characters, character names, and locations.  While watching the film we should pay attention to camera angles, lighting and editing between scenes.

Questions for the film were given to the class on the computer screen to be copied down by the class in order to ponder the questions during the movie.  After the movie was viewed, the class was broken up into groups of five to discuss the questions.  Later, the whole class discussed what their groups came up with.  Since there was a class discussion on the questions, we will not have to type up the questions and answers for homework.  Credit will be given for participating in the discussion.  When the class ended, the instructor reminded us that we will turn in our first free writes on the pre 1950’s film tomorrow, may 30.  Also, opportunity to borrow a film for this assignment from the instructor was offered.

SUMMARY OF NOSFERATU: A SYMPHONY OF HORRORS

The film begins with a brief explanation of the meaning behind the name Nosferatu.  It is said to be a name synonymous with horror and an epidemic. 

The characters are introduced Nina, a pure hearted woman and wife of Jonathan Harker.  Harker, an employee of a sinister man, Reinhold.  Reinhold goes to Harker with a business proposition to make a lot of money.  It involved getting a client, Count Orlock, to buy property in their town of Bremen.  Harker leaves for the trip and makes arrangements for his wife to stay with friends until he returns.  Along his journey, he stops at a lodge where he is forewarned about traveling to Count Orlock's castle because it is in the land of the phantoms and Nosferatu the vampire.  They leave him a Book of Vampires at his bedside and he leaves in the morning to finish his journey.  His coach driver drops him off just outside the perimeter of the castle refusing to go further into the land of the phantoms.  IT is close to midnight and Harker is picked up by a mysterious coach and dropped off in front of Oarlock’s place.  He is met by Orlock and is immediately startled by his appearance.  He finally gets papers signed for the house when the count sees a picture of Nina in Harker's belongings and comments on he neck.  While Harker eats dinner, he accidentally cuts himself with the bread knife and the count becomes excited at the site of blood and goes after it.  Harker frightened, wakes up to find Orlock sleeping in a coffin and leaves to go home immediately, but, the count is not far behind for he is ready to move to his new place of residence across from Harker and Nina’s home.  Harker returns home to find that Nina has been suffering from sleepwalking and trances brought on from he worry and fear of Harkers safety and her fear of Nosferatu whom she had visions of in her trances.  Nosferatu arrives in town and so mush death happens around him that the town fears that an epidemic, the plague, has come to town.  The mass death leads the town into panic.  Nina sensing something wrong reads the Book of Vampires that Harker brought home and reads that a woman pure of heart can stop the wrath of Nosferatu if she sacrifices herself.  She does so calling him one night and Nosferatu ends up staying too long and sunrise comes and he goes up in flames.  The town is saved because of Nina’s sacrifice. 

QUESTIONS FOR NOSFERATU:A SYMPHONY OF HORRORS

1)      Describe the way Murnau uses the following elements to enhance the evil power of the vampire.

Using camera movement, the camera always seems to be looking up at Nosferatu in order to make him appear larger, scarier, stronger, and more powerful.  Using the lighting to create shadows gives Nosferatu an especially eerie quality and instills fear in the audience.  The use of darkness behind Nosferatu makes him appear more sinister and evil.  Camera tricks in which he appears transparent give him another evil quality.  Editing plays a big part in paralleling scenes together to show a connection between characters.  In the scene where Nosferatu and Nina are in two different places yet seem to be looking towards one another are results of editing.  Erie music is also a factor in making him seem more evil throughout the movie.

2)      Identify individual scenes that would remind contemporary viewers of 1920 of the war that had just ended and the misery they find themselves in.

Scenes of groups of dead people such as the dead crew members, the carrying of multiple coffins scene, and the terror and frenzy in the streets all show some sort of allusion to the effects of WWI.  Also, the scenes of the town in terror because of the plague, the sick not permitted to go to the hospital, mass death, and the rats scurrying in a frenzy are references to the misery brought on from the war.  The scene of Jonathan leaving his wife at home to travel to Translyvania parallels with a soldier leaving his wife at home to go to war.

3)      What evidence is there to support an anti-Semitic subtext buried within the film?

The vampire Nosferatu has the stereotypical features of a Jewish person, as many at the time might have perceived these features to be.  Disease, poverty, death, and social upheaval follow the path of the vampire and the same elements are seen as being brought by the Jewish people who came to Germany after the war. 

4) How does Murnau prepare us for Nina’s sacrifice?

From the beginning of the story, Nina is seen as the innocent woman connected with death of innocent flowers her husband has brought to her.  Later, the vampire looks at her picture and notices her exposed neck.  She has a series of visions and sleepwalking episodes connecting her with Nosferatu.  Also, She reads the Book of the Vampires coming across part involving the sacrifice of a woman pure at heart stopping the wrath of the vampire.

5) How does this film differ from other film versions of the vampire legend?

Films have evolved as well as human nature.  Now there is desire for scarier looking vampires shedding much more blood and killing much more people.  New vampire movies are much more graphic in nature.  In this version, much is left to the viewer’s imagination.  Also, in Nosferatu, the sharp teeth were in the front of the mouth and in films today, the vampires sharp teeth are more towards the left and right sides of the front teeth.  Nosferatu is seen carrying his own coffin, which I have not seen in other vampire movies