Nowadays, the story of the vampire Dracula can be seen everywhere in various allusions, jokes, TV comedies and cartoons. There are as many as 30 movies based on this theme, and the sense of horror has long been lost. But FW Munau (FW When Murnau's "Nosferatu" was born, vampire movies had not yet become an independent faction, and the legend of Dracula was still creepy. The film "Nosferatu" has an awe-inspiring attitude towards its subject matter, as if the filmmakers really believe that there are vampires in this world. Latecomers such as Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Frank Langella, and Gary Oldman often used dramatic techniques when playing vampires, trying to make the audience feel they The created vampire is a "person" with a terrible curse, not an exaggerated and empty actor. The vampire played by Max Schreck in "Nosferatu" has almost no human shadow, and is more like an animal. The art director of the film is Albin Grau, the old partner of Murnau. He designed Schreck with bat-like ears and claw-like long nails. The fangs are not like Halloween masks. Side, but grows in the middle of the mouth like a rodent. Murnau’s silent film is based on a novel by Bram Stoker. After Stoker’s widow accused Munau of embezzling her husband’s estate, he changed the title and the names of the characters. Ironically, in the long run, it was Murnau who made Stoke's reputation, because "Nosferatu" aroused people's interest in the vampire Dracula. Since then, dozens of books have emerged. Gula is the subject of the film, but not as artistic and unforgettable as Murnau's work. Only the version of Werner Herzog in 1979 with Klaus Kinsky is slightly closer. Compared with "Dracula", the title "Nosferatu" is better, because you will involuntarily smile when you post the word "Dracula", and you will feel swallowed if you post "Nosferatu" A lemon. The story begins in Bremen, Germany: The small real estate agent Knock (Alexander Granach [Alexander Granach]), who looks like an ape, receives a letter from Count Olok stating that he wants to buy one in the town. "Abandoned house", so Nok sent employee Huter (Gustav von Gustav von Wangenheim] played) went to the earl’s remote castle to discuss the business. From Knock’s perspective, we can see that this letter was written with mysterious symbols. Since Knock can understand this symbol, it means that he has some connection with Orokk. Later, he really said Olok is the "master". On Huter's journey to Orok's nest in the Carpathian Mountains, Murnau's images were full of ominous signs. In a small hotel, when Huter mentioned O'Rok's name, all the guests fell silent immediately; the horses outside the hotel fled, and a hyena also ran away after barking a few times. Huter found a book on the bedside of the hotel room, which introduced the legend of the vampire. He read that vampires must sleep in the grave where the black dead patients are buried. After leaving the inn, the coachman hired by Huter refused to take him to the territory of Aurok. The earl sent his private carriage, and the carriage's movements were expressed in quick motions, and the servants who drove them swiftly scurried like a mouse. Huter still took the vampire legend as a joke, but he accidentally cut his hand with a knife during dinner, and the earl immediately showed a pathological interest in his blood: "Blood—your beautiful blood!" At that time, Huter couldn't laugh anymore. The two groups of important shots that appeared subsequently adopted montage techniques, repeatedly switching between simultaneous events. Montage is commonplace today, but Murnau was one of the first to introduce this technique. In the first set of shots, we see O'Lok approaching Huter. At the same time, Huter’s wife Ellen is sleepwalking at her home in Bremen. She suddenly uttered a warning scream, forcing the vampire to turn around and retreat (Ou Locke passes through an arch when he enters and exits, and the shape of the arch fits his bat-like head). In the second set of shots, Huter realized that his situation was extremely dangerous, so he escaped from the castle and drove to Bremen in a carriage. At the same time, Olok was also heading to the city by sea. Mornau used the montage technique again to switch back and forth between Huter's carriage, the boat on which Olok was boarded, and the scene where Ellen was anxiously waiting. Everyone who has watched the film will remember a series of scenes that took place on the ship. The cargo that came with the ship was a batch of coffins, and each bite was filled with mud (it was undoubtedly dug out from the graves of the victims of the plague). After the start of the voyage, the sailors on the ship fell ill and died. The brave first officer went down to the cargo hold and used an axe to split a coffin, and swarms of mice spewed out of the coffin. Afterwards, the Marquis of Olok stood upright from a coffin in a stiff and strange posture. This scene was once famous for its horror, and was equivalent to "The Exorcist" ( The Exorcist, 1973) a shot of a little girl's head rotating. When the ship arrived at the port, all the sailors had died, and the hatch opened automatically. Here, Murnau inserts several symbolic plots that seem to have nothing to do with the story. In one paragraph, a scientist introduced the characteristics of the Venus flytrap and called it "the vampire in the plant kingdom." Then came a close-up shot of Knok in the cell staring at a spider devouring its prey. Can't people become vampires like spiders and Venus flytraps? Knock felt his master coming, so he escaped from the prison and ran around the town with a coffin on his back. Panic about the plague spread quickly. The narration showed that "the whole town is looking for a scapegoat." People threw stones at Knok, who was climbing on the roof, and the streets and lanes were full of coffins of people who had just died. Ellen Huter learned that the only way to stop the vampire from raging was for a pure woman to distract the vampire and save him until the first cock. Her sacrifice not only saved the city, but also made us notice the sexual element hidden in Dracula's legend. Bram Stoker's works follow the extremely old-fashioned values of the Victorian period in the nineteenth century, and have attracted countless readers to analyze them. Some people suspect that Dracula symbolizes the harm caused by illegal sex to society. Victorian people feared STDs as much as we feared AIDS, and the vampire legend is probably a metaphor: bloodthirsty vampires have no partners and catch prey by stalking or lure. These characteristics are very similar to a rapist or a playboy. It is obviously useless to plow a stake in the heart of a vampire. Only a stable family life and bourgeois values can completely eradicate the vampire's shadow. Is Mornau’s Nosferatu terrible by modern standards? At least I don't feel scary. I appreciate this film mainly because of its concept and art, atmosphere and images, not because it can manipulate my emotions like a modern horror film with high skill. Although "Nosferatu" didn't know anything about the tricks of jumping out a monster from the side of the screen, which was commonly used in similar films, it still shocked the audience; it can't scare us, but it can make us Frightened. What the film shows us is not that vampires will jump out of the dark, but that evil will use death as a nourishment to grow and grow in the dark. From a certain perspective, Murnau’s film is about everything we worry about when we wake up at three o’clock in the morning—cancer, war, disease, madness, all these fears are manifested in the visual style of the film. Most of the shots of "Nosferatu" were shot in the dark. In addition, Murnau makes full use of the corners of the screen. The characters in the film often lie in ambush or curl up in the corners of the screen. According to the film composition principle, when the main subject of the lens leaves the center of the screen, tension will arise spontaneously. . Various special effects in the film also strengthened the uneasy atmosphere, such as the fast movements of the servants of Orok, the sudden disappearance of the phantom carriage, the appearance of the earl from thin air, the white trees under the black sky made by photographic negatives, and so on. Murnau (1888-1931) made 22 films in his life, but there are only three of his most famous masterpieces, namely "Nosferatu", "The Humblest" and "Sunrise". "The Humblest" starring Emil Jannings (Emil Jannings) shows the process of a hotel concierge being overwhelmed by unemployment; "Sunrise" tells the story of a husband conspiring to murder his wife, playing the role of the wife Janet Gaynor won an Oscar for this. The great international success of "Nosferatu" and "The Humblest Man" paved the way to Hollywood for Murnau. In 1926, he moved to the United States and signed a contract with Fox. Murnau's last film was "Tabu" (Tabu, 1931). On the eve of the film’s release, the 43-year-old Murnau was killed in a car accident on the Pacific Coast Highway, and his promising film career came to an abrupt end. Had it not been for his untimely death, Mornau would have devoted his second half of his life to filming sound films, and would probably produce some great works. However, his achievements in silent films are still unparalleled. "The Humblest" does not use a subtitle card, and tells the story entirely on the screen; "Nosferatu" is more silent than sound. It is a cliché to say that silent films are more "dreamy" than sound films, but what does this statement mean? As far as "Nosferatu" is concerned, the advantage of silent films is that people in the film cannot use words to drive away fear when they encounter terrible images. Lianzhu will never appear in a nightmare. Human language can dispel the shadows, and the voice of speaking in the room will not look strange. Things that are active at night do not need to speak, because their prey is always sleeping and waiting. (Translated by Yin Yan) Had it not been for his untimely death, Mornau would have devoted his second half of his life to filming sound films, and he would probably produce some great works. However, his achievements in silent films are still unparalleled. "The Humblest" does not use a subtitle card, and tells the story entirely on the screen; "Nosferatu" is more silent than sound. It is a cliché to say that silent films are more "dreamy" than sound films, but what does this statement mean? As far as "Nosferatu" is concerned, the advantage of silent films is that people in the film cannot use words to drive away fear when they encounter terrible images. Lianzhu will never appear in a nightmare. Human language can dispel the shadows, and the voice of speaking in the room will not look strange. Things that are active at night do not need to speak, because their prey is always sleeping and waiting. (Translated by Yin Yan)
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