Friday, May 4, 2012

The Silent Oscars: 1922 (Unofficial)

With all due respect to Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Buffy, and the Twilight series, Nosferatu is the best vampire movie ever made and belongs on any list of the best horror films of all time.

Looking back from the vantage point of the 21st century, you might be inclined to lump the look and style of Nosferatu in with every other silent film, but the fact is, at least in terms of its camera work, Nosferatu was a distinct throwback to the previous decade. Viewing it in context, one gets the impression director F.W. Murnau was saying to his audience "Here is a tale told long ago; the footage has only recently been rediscovered." The modern equivalent might be The Blair Witch Project—if you're old enough to remember all the way back to the dark ages of 1999 and how that film's low-budget, shot-on-video technique added an air of authenticity to the proceedings.

Picture: Nosferatu (prod. Enrico Dieckmann and Albin Grau)

Actor: Erich von Stroheim (Foolish Wives)

Actress: Anna May Wong (The Toll Of The Sea)

Director: F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu)

Supporting Actor: Ramon Novarro (The Prisoner of Zenda)

Supporting Actress: Mae Busch (Foolish Wives)

Screenplay: Henrik Galeen, adapted without credit from the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (Nosferatu)

2 comments:

mister muleboy said...

Oh, Mae !

Who Am Us Anyway? said...

"Here is a tale told long ago; the footage has only recently been rediscovered."

In the old days, the teller had to survive to tell the tale, but Blair Witch found an ingenious way around that ...