1922's Nosferatu

[Mikey]

I'm ashamed to admit it but i've never seen 1922's Nosferatu until last night.

Some TV channel, it might have been TCM played it, so I thought i'd give it a shot.

I'm not big on silent pictures, so I was expecting to not be able to finish it.

Surprisingly, I made it all the way through and quite enjoyed it very much.

I have one question .......
The movie I seen last night had different colour tinted scenes throughout the movie.
It wasn't that it was colourized ... Just entire scenes were alternately tinted -- blue, red, yellow, amber etc.
Is this true to the original movie ?
If not, why would they do that during restoration ?

Hard to imagine this movie is 87 years old !!!

[ramsey37]

It's not commonly remembered nowadays that many silent films used tinted film to create a mood in a given scene. Blue sequences are generally night scenes, amber or sepia tones usually are daytime scenes, and other colors were used to evoke horror, battle, etc. I seem to remember reading years ago that studios would have film stock dyed or hand-tinted for specific sequences. What we would recognize as true color film was already appearing around the time "Nosferatu" was filmed, but the film was alot more expensive to make and use. When studios did use color film, it was usually sparingly and for very specific scenes. There's a couple of color sequences in "The Phantom of the Opera", for instance. The color looks rather crude by modern standards, but it's really cool to see the Phantom in his Red Death costume.
George :feiertag-smiley-003

[toys2cool]

I've seen it,I liked it as well :grin:

[Gorn Captain]

It's still impressive, and Shreck's appearance is very effective.
Be sure to watch Shadow of the Vampire, "documenting" the making of the film.
Some of the scenes in that recent movie are outstanding (and hilarious at times).
It seems as if Shreck was convinced he was a true vampire....

[Mikey]

The main lead's girlfriend/wife ...

Man, she was pretty nasty looking in some scenes.

I dunno if it was the makeup or what, but I would have swore she was a guy.

In some scenes she looked like Freddie Mercury -- I kid you not :)

[jwyblejr]

I started to watch it last night but then turned it off to come here.

[Werewolf]

Great movie. Still holds up. There are a lot of bad public domain copies on DVD out there and most are missing scenes and the tinting. The movie makes a lot more sense with the coloring tinting. Otherwise it looks like Orlok is walking around during the day.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Man, I wish I knew it was on. I've always wanted to see it. The make up on Schreck is truly frightening. I still remember the first time I saw him in Bowie/Queen's "Under Pressure" video. Scared the beejeezus out of me!

Chris

[cjefferys]

Great film, and Schreck's portrayal was one of the creepiest looking movie vampires ever (Klaus Kinski in Werner Herzog's 1979 remake was pretty damn creepy too though, as was Reggie Nalder in "Salems Lot", who's look seemed to be inspired by Nosferatu)

[kryptosmaster]

I have never seen the whole film either. I think I have only seen clips of it. That vampire scared the crap out of me when I was a kid and I used to have nightmares about him. Didn't help when the Salem's Lot vampire looked just like him and I did see that (and did have nightmares, LOL). I think that creepiness has just persevered over the years so much that I really don't want to see it but I'd imagine it's probably not as nightmare-inducing now as it would've been had I seen the whole thing as a kid. Being silent seemed to make him even scarier.
I've never seen the original Chaney Phantom either but only because I've never had the chance.

Rich

[Mikey]

The use of fast-motion on some scenes (like the coach) is really creepy and weird.

It almost makes you look twice and think --- did I just see what I thought i'd seen ?

It's subtle stuff like that that really puts it over the edge.

[Joe90]

If you liked Nosferatu check out the following:

Metropolis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7NekMhLOIQ&feature=relatedd) This was restored with a 1980's soundtrack.

Napoleon (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZXTz_x40o4&feature=related) A masterpiece by Abel Gance.

The Battleship Potemkin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLEE2UL_N7Q) This scene was paid homage by De Palma in The Untouchables (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIvg-pnjjmM&feature=related).

And if you're looking for some American cinema there's always D W Griffith's Birth of A Nation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbba8fzLPf4). Be Aware: some are offended by its glorification of Klannish Sensibilities.

[Meule]

Great movie, I believe I have it on tape somewhere, time to watch it again

[thunderbolt]

All I can find are the crap PD copies. I need to look for a better version.

[ramsey37]

Kino is usually a safe bet for silent films:
http://www.amazon.com/Nosferatu-Ultimate-Two-Disc-Max-Schreck/dp/B000VUQ4HW/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=ITLK410OEN0X8&colid=307XMKBYP7MOA
George

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

I'm kinda mixed on this one. I found it played out sort of awkwardly, but the look is amazing! Big rat faced vampire guy, creepy settings, neat effects.

Don C.

[megojim]

I watch it every Halloween, kinda like watching It's a wonderful life at Christmas.
Great movie! I also saw Shadow of the Vampire and liked it. The original Salem's lot is one of my favs too.
-jim

[IRON37]

love the original sonferatu. Just a classic. Theres one or two remakes as already mentioned. And yeah salems lot vampire seems to be a tribute to the original. Creepy as hell even now..

[shellhead]

I love this flik, the version I have is plain black and white, but has a real creepy music score through out the film.

[Nostalgiabuff]

I haven't seen it since like 1th grade but seem to recall it was pretty cool for what it is.....the vampire in Salems Lot scared the **** out of me and I could not sleep for days...you watch that one now and it's like, what the hell was I so scared about?