An analysis of the opening of Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau Essay

Within the horror music genre of horror, vampires be classifyicularly popular. During the reserved horror use ups era there was a nonher popular genre, the horse opera. While the western declined in popularity during the 1970s, the horror film has sustained an sense of hearing for over 20 years. The reason for this is that things that argon super clubate fascinate wad and strangely people are attracted by the emotional resolutions of the horror films ability to shock, annoyance and to repel. most of the much or less popular films that feature vampires, both modern and ancient include Nosferatu (1977) the earliest adaptation of genus genus genus genus Dracula, a fable write by Bram Stoker , in assenting to this another film in the horror sector, is Van Helsing (2005), another film featuring the infamous counting Dracula. Vampires are so popular because of their characteristics and their supernatural powers.Count Dracula was effectd as a novel by a writer c aloneed Bram Stoker in 1897. At the time of its creation it didnt spring up a atomic pile of attention, when the moving picture came out more people were interested in it. Dracula has remained popular since, and patchy films fetch had him as a main opponent or in round cases as a protagonist or employ his secernate in the title to add amplificational effect to the movie. A passel of Nosferatus parts and bits were copied by modern titles. It is the imprimatur most(prenominal) used character in the film industry after principal investigator Holmes. Although vampires have been known and popular since medieval times, introducing Count Dracula into the genre brought real popularity to it and increased the interest in vampires. When it became popular in 1910s some people became really interested in the structure Bram Stoker wrote it and washstandvass it at university therefore changing the novel into an academic novel.The full key out of the film is Nosferatu , Eine symphony des Grauns (in English Nosferatu a Symphony of Horror). It was make in 1922 and was directed by F.W. Murnau, who was born in 1888 and starring soap Schreck. Before the film was made, Bram Stokers widow, Florence Stoker refused to turn her husbands novel into a film. That brought some trouble into the devising of the movie as Murnau already first geared producing the film. He got past this problem by cunningly changing the name of the film to Nosferatu and changing Dracula to Count Orlock.The characters Jonathan Harker became Hutter and Van Helsing became Bulner. The setting was besides changed from Victorian London to Bremen. Nosferatu was different to other films of the time. Most of the film was fling location in Eastern Europe therefore there was a sense of realism and expressionism in the film. When the film was released, Florence Stoker noticed the similarities and sued the movie. In July 1925, the German Court ordered all the prints of the film to be destroyed. and somehow t he film survived the destruction and rear end be bought in todays shops.Nosferatu is a silent movie. During the time it was filmed they didnt have the engine room to film a talking movie. Talking movies were simply introduced in the late 1920s. There is a possibility that they wanted to cargo hold it a silent film because people were used to them, in addition to this they might have kept it a silent movie to create a special atmosphere, kind of shi real and eery. A silent film is a film with no synchronised recorded sound, especially verbalise dialogue. The idea of combining motion pictures is n earlyish as old as the film itself.The film Nosferatu is accompanied by classical music all the way through it. At the boodle of the film there is eerie music which is classical, it consists of string instruments that create an effect contrasting to the bright and skilful scene. During the film the music continues and hasnt got many another(prenominal) changes to it entirely when Hutter leaves the Inn and is on his way to Count Orlock castle and crosses the bridge the music changes from a high gear pitch of a steady violin into a heavier slower violoncello to change the atmosphere from a lighter and brighter into a darker and mysterious one. When the perambulator speeds up at the end of their journey the music becomes more phrenetic and a harp joins in to show the action the action speeds up and becomes more intense. This withal supports the supernatural effect by increasing the natural speed of music which the hearing have never met and therefore making the auditory sense more anxious.The playacting in Nosferatu is completely different to acting in modern films as in modern films the actors do not need to exaggerate their actions as much. They are accompanied by both music and effects therefore their actions are easier to understand and are self-explanatory rendering the need to exaggerate useless unless it is a comedy in which the exaggeration is far more big. During the film there is a lot of exaggeration moments when the characters need to show what they mean, how they feel, without speaking.For guinea pig at the very start when Hutter mentions Count Orlock, everybody in the in stops what they are doing which shows that something has happened as the second before the inn was very busy and lively, now it has and died fling off. This shows the fear and scary atmosphere. Without the exaggeration of the characters we wouldnt be able to turn over and understand what was happening. In addition to this the facial expressions of the characters really are exaggerated e.g. when Hutter wakes up you squirt fit his face trans var.ing from sleepy to very happy or when you butt against the reaction of the people when Hutter mentions the Count.It was a strong face, with peculiar arched nostrils and high domed forehead. His eyebrows were massive. The mouth was fixed and rather cruel looking with scheming white teeth, which hung ove r his lip. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the top extremely pointed, the elevate was broad and strong, the cheeks firm though thin.. This is a extract from Dracula by Bram Stoker. There isnt much difference between the Dracula by Stoker and Count Orlock pictured by Murnau except that Count Orlock had a hunchback which gave him an aura of a freak, a deformed daemon which further straind his horrific appearance. In addition to this Count Orlock was bodacious which made him a bit more scary then Dracula described by Stoker.The lighting in Nosferatu plays a very grand part in setting the atmosphere of the film. It makes the setting in most of the scenes and has a climate to it. For practice at the start of the film we are presented with a bright scene containing an old German Nordic building, which is well(p) lit and bright on the left side, but a guide on the right cast a shadow on the inn and the carriage which symbolises a mysterious shadow on the events to come. Ano ther example of the usage of the lightning is excessively an example of German expressionism, this is when Hutter looks out the window and you can see the vale feeler down, in the background you can see the a very dark forest which casts a shadow on the bright scene and creates an eerie and mysterious atmosphere. The use of darkness is also very important in the creation of the atmosphere. For example when it start to bug out dark after Hutter looks out the window we can see that the animals start to flee, which suggests to the reader that they are scared of something which is yet to come in the darkness. conscionable as camera shots are framed to interpret a films narrative, so camera cash in ones chipsment can direct an audiences attention to details or a particular viewpoint within a film. In the early days of films, scenes were shot with only one or two cameras on fixed tripods, so reality appeared in a rather two dimensional way. Now, directors commonly use multiple camera s so audiences can see the action from a range of prospective giving a more realistic, 3 dimensional experience.The camera effects in Nosferatu suit the technology that was available to filmmakers at the time Nosferatu was filmed. The film is filmed at a frame rate of 16 to 23 frames per second. The camera plays an important part in Nosferatu as most effects are created by the camera, for example when Hutter looks out the window he can see the valley coming down. This has an effect of something leaning over the events yet to come, also when the tree is move to the fore ground and the weed is in the background tat also has the same effect as the valley coming down. In addition to this there is a long shot and there is a mountain in the background. The long shot gives the feeling of layers in the scene.Mise-en-scene is the most important part of Nosferatu. This is because the usage of the settings, props, costumes and makeup was very important for the silent movies as they had a mess age to lodge across (e.g. fear) without using dialogue, sound and very little music or none at all. For example at the very start of the movie the viewer is introduced with the title, its in bold letters, in a gothic style. The way its presented with the letter that look like wrinkle is flowing down the screen, suggest that it is a horror film and gives a mysterious atmosphere. It also bring a suggestion that the film has German Expressionism in it. In addition when Hutter drops the book advising on vampires it bring him disobedient luck. The use of the prop there gives the viewer a sort of a feeling Hutter was stupid doing that and that the bad luck will catch up with him.The sense of weirdness in Nosferatu is also created when Hutter looks out the window and sees the valley coming down, the animals running away we can see a man running down the hill in a darknessgown. This gives the audience a feeling of confusion and puts a weird atmosphere in and leaves the audience asking t hemselves what is going on? Also when he throws the book down it gives the audience a sense of ignorance and irony about Hutter. When Hutter crosses the bridge to get to Orlocks cast, the bridge is used as metaphor that if he crosses he sky come back and another bridge is put in to emphasize the metaphor. In my opinion mise en scene played a very important part in Nosferatu.Film directors and editors splice scenes together to form the most effective narrative for their films. Unused film footage of scenes and takes sometimes ends up as out takes. The cuts should help the continuity of a films storyline. The types of cuts directors insert can act as cues for audiences, helping them to pick up the storyline quicker. Some of these editing techniques include Jump cut used to make the audience and montage to give a great deal of information in a brief period. The film Nosferatu is edited in a straddle of ways. One of them is the usage of intertitles. Intertitles are special frames that show what the characters is saying and in result move the plot along and speed the action up a bit, which makes the reader more interested. Another technique that Nosferatu uses is moving from night to morning very quickly which also speeds up the action and keeps the audience interested. Many scenes with nature so its montage.In my opinion the film Nosferatu was a very good and interesting for the times it was made in but in the long run it cannot compete with new horror films that magical spell to the new audiences. Also it doesnt have the interesting parts of modern films and the case of it now having any sound puts some audiences off. By perusing I have learnt quite a lot about the movie industry and its beginnings. For example when the 1st horror movie was made and how many problems it had. In addition to this I learnt about a lot the techniques used by directors in the films.