Nosferatu, a Symphony of Terror

Can fake be better than real?

Our previous entry was a long time debt I had with one of the most, if not, the most iconic horror movie character of all times: The great count Dracula, Lugosi's Dracula to be precise. However, as connoisseurs we know there was an even darker take on Bram Stoker's best seller. One with illegal issues and a way more satanic look: Nosferatu! the original silent movie from 1922, cursed to oblivion due to copyright (hey, if Nosferatu was released today, no one would notice it! Today every film seems to be an opportunist counterfeit version of greater films from the past) 

Nosferatu must be one of the most elusive films you can watch, elusive because since it was banned for being illegal, most of the original copies were burned down (like a fucking witch) and whatever version you could find, it was obviously not the complete film. Hell! there are editions with completely scene arrangements and even different soundtracks! Luckily, the Kino studio, perhaps one of the leading leaders in film restoration worldwide, did a wonderful research to recover as many film pieces they could find, thus delivering the most complete edition to date of this magnificent piece, that I gotta tell you, it can really scare the shit out of you, just by looking at Count Orlok's evil look.

The many faces of count Orlok.

"I am...Orlok"

'Nosferatu' opens with a man looking at his reflection in a mirror. Besides its symbolic significance, this is a perfect distillation of his character, that of a vain, narcissistic, absurdly self-confident to the point of machismo, married man largely indifferent to a wife he abruptly leaves to make the fortune worthy of a man of his merits. He ain't afraid of no ghosts, nor robbers. So, the image he sees in that mirror is one of wholeness, perfection - I am Hutter, I command all I see, my unity of identity is linked to my power in body.

To the viewer, however, the effect is the precise opposite. The framing of the scene is fragmented, with the outer frame, the window and the mirror; Hutter himself is doubled - the 'real' Hutter and his reflection, or shadow. All the assumptions smilingly embodied in Hutter will thus be destroyed in conventional horror terms.

His whole identity will be destroyed - the Count will suck his blood and in effect become him, if we believe the man who claims 'blood is life'. Hutter's body will first become passive, feminised as he is violated by the Count; after, he will no longer be a body, but a shadow, bloodless - literally, he shadows the Count as the latter comes to England; and symbolically, in that two men now claim possession of Hutter's wife, and both have equal claim, both being Hutter. 

Heard something in the kitchen, better catch up.

Bram Stoker is that you in the kitchen?

Murnau is careful to give his horror story a genuine patina as an 'objective' story: no horror film has come as close to capturing the visual essence of all those stories that have circulated in Europe for centuries, the twisting medieval towns, the arcane religious symbolism, the plagues and mass hysteria, the crumbling castles and storm-tossed ships, the creak of wood - the look of the film feels like a crumpling manuscript setting out the story.

But the film is also the portrait of a marriage. The opening sequence chillingly reveals the sterility of a marriage before anyone has even heard of the Count - Hutter wrapped up in himself; Ellen, hypersensitive, morbid, dressed as if in mourning; the union childless; the couple, above all, separate, each completely misunderstanding the other.

The image of the mirror is repeated throughout the film, connecting Hutter to the Count - the scene in Knock's office where Hutter looks at the map of Transylvania just as he did his mirror; the Count's house directly opposite Hutter's, a decaying edifice that looks like a melting, anguished face. 

Land Ho!

Global warming is real!

But Ellen is linked to the Count too, her somnolent rising mirroring his. This isn't a conventional opposition between bourgeois and bestial urges, even though the Count is given the most grotesque animal features, and even though Murnau never lets us forget the Count as emanation of the Hutters' dreams, desires and fears - Hutter reads that he will shadow his dreams; Ellen spends most of the film sleepwalking.

All three elements of this triangle, which symbolizes the one relationship, is linked to death - the Count, the undead, living in coffins of dead earth; Hutter, narcissistic, onanistic, his lifeblood siphoned from him; Ellen, the Venus fly-trap, self-abnegating destroyer of the destroying force. Hutter ends the film as he began, alone, his lust for money and status destroying the union that crowned it. The contrivance of society and respectability is swept away by the malaise of nature, those gendered forests, tides and moons, as if the Count and Ellen are part of the one female nature Hutter cannot accommodate.

Evil picnic.

Such Freudiana is undermined in the film in two ways - in the disarming comedy of the piece, the Count often seeming to have strayed from a silent comedy, running around London with his coffin; and by a self-reflexive examination of film, that sees the warning about vampires in the book Hutter reads linked to bestiality and the eye that is so important in the film; the turning of the film stock into negative as Hutter enters the Count's realm; the trickery, such as time lapse and fast motion, that shows the Count's mastery of time and space, but, more importantly, Murnau's mastery over the storytelling, already indicated by an unseen, but constantly intruding narrator; even Ellen's couch seems patterned as strips of film. In a movie where human sexuality is impossible, the characters seem content to be voyeurs, like the film audience, staving off the death, the loss of identity, or at least its fragmentation, that contact with another person entails. 

here's the movie trailer:

And here's one of the many Nosferatu versions you can find (it's public domain, so do not worry)

 

Metropolis

1927's Movie Poster.

Today's entry will be the first about the old school silent movies that have been the very origin of movie making. As soon as video recording was a reality for human beings, hundreds of silent movies were made; some for scientific research, some as docummentaries, some as the first news tv show and some for the ultimate purpose of creating an original story to make people fall in love with movies forever. It is pretty obvious that hundreds of silent films faded into obscurity and dissapeared from the face of the earth, but it is also true that there were several hundreds of films that became the very first classic movies. Among the many classics from those days there was one flick that was the breakthrough for Sci-Fi, and believe it or not the special effects, the storyline and the acting are not dated at all.

The amazing city landscape.

Back in the 20's there was a big european scene, in fact that scene was the leading producer of many films today considered as true classics. European movie makers were becoming the next big thing and their movies were being sold abroad, causing many foreigners to casually become the bridge that would allow non European countries to grant access to the new real thing: silent movies.

Today's entry is Metropolis, Fritz Lang's tour de force. Released in 1927 the movie had great expectations among the producers, considering the huge budget used to make special effects, hiring hundreds of actors and essentially making the pieces fit. Unfortunately the movie wasn't understood by the 20's audiences, so the high hopes went straight to the garbage can and the film being a major failure was blasted into oblivion for good. However, some copies of the film did survive the "burn that piece of shit reels" massacre and allowed the future audiences (yes, us, you dummy) to have the chance of revisiting this misunderstood classic that for today's audiences understanding it is a movie that makes a lot of sense, and I mean that.

Make sure I keep on owning the city fucker.

Metropolis, became a legendary film not only for its content, but also for the many severed portions of the film that made it become a treasure for tomb raiders looking to find the many missing pieces of the film that, ultimately were completed with the finding of the some 20 something missing minutes in  an Argentinean museum, allowing Kino (the restoration dudes) to release "The Complete Metropolis" in shiny blu-ray in 2010.

But, what's the story about Mr. Spam Boretelnartive? Well,  calm down a bit!  I'm on way to that! First of all, they say Fritz Lang was a motherfucking Nazi, and they were probably right, but you know, fuck that! this movie is not about Nazi world domination of any sort, it is indeed a contradiction for what history would define as the Nazi culture, AKA Superior race. So, if  you're Jewish or against the Nazi shit, don't worry my friend, this movie has nothing to do with that, and yeah, I teach my students Hitler was probably one of the greatest pieces of shit we ever had, so we're on the same side of the road Captain America.

Maria, the voice of freedom.

The Working class.

Metropolis is divided into three main elements. Element number one being the working class, that is completely enslaved working 24/7 to keep the city's power core among other machinery safe enough as to ensure rich people way of life. Element number 2 is of course, the rich family that owns everything, and element number 3 is Maria, a young blondie that is preaching working class how things would change if they had a bridge to link the rich & the working class with a more human like treatment.

So, on the one hand we have Joh Fredersen the rich mean guy who owns everything and doesn't give a fucking shit about the working class, he only minds his own business which is getting richer by doing the least he can, and oh yeah! also satisfying his little son's desires, a guy named Freder. The Fredersen family is feared, and through fear they have many number one guys doing dirty jobs for them, but, Freder is a little different, he's more about feelings than accounting.

Maria leads the children to the rich men playground.

The Fake Maria.

Maria & Freder, meant to be.

Then, on the other hand we have Maria, which is some sort of preacher that constantly tells the working class that there will be one day in which they all will live in peace and equality, she's peace in the shape of a woman.

And so begins the madness! Joh Fredersen hires a crazy scientist to clone Maria to drive away the working class from revolutionary thoughts, and to confuse young Freder to make him lose interest in having a relationship with the original Maria...

I don't wanna spoil it to you guys, but this is a great film you should all fucking watch right away.

Freder living the working class life.

The Making of a monster.

Behold Mr. Fredersen!

Go, kill, my daughter, kill.

To finish today's entry I give this movie line "The hands and the brain, should be mediated through the heart" amazing movie, amazing music, amazing special effects and believe me this movie inspired thousands of asses around the world! Robocop's design, Superman's City and The Matrix just to name a few!

Here's the movie trailer for The Complete Metropolis Blu-Ray: