I didn’t have the best experience with Nosferatu, but after someone in our discussion on Monday explained how this was meant to be scary for that time period, not this one, then I had a greater appreciation for it. Like Jaws, this movie must be judged based on the time period it is in and with that film technology it was actually pretty genius. Dracula was relatively scary and definitely creepy. I grew up with the Blade Trilogy, which was the epitome of scary vampires.
Although graphics weren’t amazing in the film, they filled the required effects needed to explain the story and the skipping through the film helped show the passing of time. The scenes were set well and although you couldn’t tell the time of day, the mood of the moment was shown easily, and that was more important than the actual time. Even though it was still light you could tell it was midnight from Dracula entering the room and Jonathan reading in his room. The music in the background helped also set the tone because of how spot on the sound went with the mood of the characters expressions.
The characters were extremely obnoxious when it came to their acting, but again it was because of the time in which there was silent film and you couldn’t actually speak your expressions. I did like the over exaggerating expressions because of how affective they were. The characters were more of the expression than the character. Dracula epitomized evil as he slowly walked around with his narrow frame and dark moving eyes; Emma, the wife, epitomized helplessness as she wept for her husband and threw herself at him to stop him from going and finally giving in, almost wanting, to Dracula; Jonathan epitomized the energetic and anxious young businessman as he was constantly bouncing around and his eyes stayed wide open with wonder.
Overall I just don’t think I’m able to really enjoy a movie like this because of my age and the time that I have grown up in. We want instant gratification, excitement, and life-like animation/fiction. None of that was in this film as it appealed to the slower, patient, undiscovered time that it was made in. But, the main point of a movie is to get the attention of the viewer and although it held mine due to my mockery of it, it did its job. I am interested in seeing how the performance on Thursday will appeal to me.
I understand your difficulty enjoying the movie. I really had to convince myself and put myself in a certain frame of mind (one of the 1920’s)to allow myself to be affected by it. I agree about what you said about the obnoxiousness of the character’s acing. It took me a little while to get passed it. I actually came to appreciate it towards the middle of the movie because I realized without it I would not be so engaged and I’d probably feel lost.
yooo jake!
I love the last picture at the end, because it captures so well my feeling about the movie and tomorrows play – hmmmmm. It perfectly captures my feeling of curiosity about whether or not we will spend tomorrow night laughing.
I had a really similar experience when I watched Nosferatu. I felt like some of the actors had trouble figuring out how to express a feeling without relying on extremes. I really only think that Nosferatu himself did a good job of relaying emotions without a full smile or bending over weeping. His body language was so great that I almost think the addition of actual dialogue would have taken away from his character. Anyway, I felt the same way about the movie. It’s so hard to connect to something that is so different from what we are used to. Nosferatu was more like an hour and a half long historical art piece than it was an actual movie.
I wrote a pretty scathing entry on Nosferatu, but the truth is that I was cranky at the time, so it’s a little harsher than I intended, I think. Anyway, I pretty much agree with you. The effects and the acting were kind of…cheap (but that’s to be expected, seeing as it was 1922) and comical. There were so many moments that I couldn’t take the movie seriously because it looked so funny to me. This is especially because I read the book, which was so much darker and spookier. Then again, I suppose you have to do what you can to convey emotions when you can’t speak.
I agree with you in that most of us probably weren’t able to enjoy the movie because of our current time period. We are unable to appreciate Nosferatu for the excitement that it brought to its audience in 1922 because our standards have raised since then. And I think having such high expectations for a black and white movie is unfair, but hard to change. Like you said, we expect instant gratification, which is easily obtained through our unlimited access to the internet. And what could be less of that than a black and white film where we, as the audience of 2013, have to actually read note cards.