Nosferatu Mood Diary

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Upon watching Nosferatu, it was clear to me that vampires did not always glisten in the sunlight and girls didn’t exactly swoon over their looks. I decided immediately that no vampire movies, whether it is Twilight or Nosferatu are something that I could take seriously. Although Nosferatu was a very different story than Twilight, it still had one similarity: the elements of love and sacrifice. Nina’s sacrifice to Count Orlok to save Jonathan is exactly the theme in Twilight with the ongoing sacrifices Edward and Bella make for each other. I feel it is important to draw this comparison between these two vampire movies because how are we to judge one as more serious than another? Nobody seems to take either on seriously, but they both seem to touch on elements of love and also fear in an extremely over the top way.

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This 1922 film has an interesting way of evoking fear from the watcher. The movie reminded me of Jaws because it used a technique of suspense similar to that which the director of Jaws used to evoke fear. I waited for something to jump out from behind a doorway or for Dracula to pop out from a coffin the whole film, but I was just left on the edge of my seat. Finally, the big moment of action occurred when Nina sacrificed herself for her husband Jonathan who initially did not believe that vampires were real. Each action was exaggerated because there was no dialogue therefore to convey feeling, the actors in Nosferatu had to excessively perform their action. This created a humorous quality for someone who watches the film now, however I can imagine the fear of past audiences when Nina fearfully awaited Count Orlok who was to suck her blood.

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After watching this film, I mostly gained insight regarding the quality of film over time, and the development of the audience. Nosferatu was created early in the history of film in society. With no dialogue and a fuzzy black and white quality, the movie gave off a different feeling. It was eerie and creepy and hard to take seriously. However, it also set a premise of how directors could make scary movies in the future. As I said before, Nosferatu worked with an element of suspense just like Jaws does which is a film made in 1975. However, in present day movies, not only is the quality better, but the tactics of evoking fear as well. I cannot help but wonder: where along the lines did our minds become more tolerant of fear? Just like technology, fashion, and transportation, film has clearly improved and changed over time and it was interesting to see where scary movies seriously started after watching Nosferatu.

Mood Diary on “Nosferatu”

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When I was told that Nosferatu is a horror movie, I was ecstatic! Horror is one of my favorite genres of movies. Although I think the vampire and werewolf concept is overrated, I was more willing to watch Nosferatu because this is where the hype started rather than for the assignment. Nonetheless, I was bothered by the fact that Nosferatu was in black and white. Personally, I have problem sitting through a black and white film, not to mention that it was a silent film as well. I had to watch the film in increments, and although the film was only 90 minutes, it felt much longer than that.

Before watching Nosferatu, the title reminded me of The Nose. After watching the movie, it reminded me even more of The Nose. In both of these productions, the movements are exaggerated to get the emotion and purpose across to the audience. The grandiose movements in Nosferatu reinforced the maxim that “actions speak louder than words”. For me, the music that was played through the duration of the film added the emotions that couldn’t be expressed through the actors’ movements, and set the mood for that segment of the film.

I found the movie to not be scary at all. For parts of the film, I felt no emotion. For the other parts of the film, I found it to be almost comical. The actors would be running around like lost ducks, and their movements reminded me of how children act when they are upset.

Overall, the film was not what I expected. As a result, I was slightly disappointed.

Mood Diary #3: Nosferatu

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I wasn’t particularly scared by Nosferatu. The video’s description said something about horror film fanatics calling it the scariest horror film ever, but I didn’t get frightened, and I’m usually the one who opts to stay under the covers during scary movie night. Maybe it was something about the age of the film, but I think maybe it was the overdramatic aspects that took away from the solemnity.

That being said, it kind of reminded me of the theme to Jaws. Everyone pretty much makes a mockery of the theme these days, and it’s become less frightening than it was originally perceived, but it’s still a classic.

 

Funny enough, there was this clip floating around the Internet from Spongebob Squarepants, of all things, basically making a mockery of Nosferatu.

 

So basically, I was chuckling a lot of the time while watching this movie. I’d actually seen that clip before seeing the movie, and it probably tarnished my viewing experience in some way. Admittedly, I did cover my eyes at a few parts—namely, the part where we first see the Count. He actually startled me.

I found the writing on the letter from the Count very interesting, however; the writing looked like a bunch of glyphs, and I was reminded of the glyphs that indicate commercial breaks on Fringe. They form a secret language with strange symbols—and by that, I mean objects that look normal at first glance, but on closer inspection, have something significantly wrong with them.

The end of the movie wasn’t surprising. Of course someone would have to sacrifice their life for the sake of everyone else. The classic martyr move, but done in a film that was supposed to be terrifying. Before this, I didn’t know why Ellen or whoever was offering herself to the Count (in other versions, she’s different) was doing so, but now that I’ve seen the movie, I realize that it had more to do with purity of the heart, which was admittedly cool.

I’m looking forward to seeing how the players recreate the movie at BAM in a few nights!

Mood Diary for Nosferatu

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I like this film!!

Perhaps because I  have barely watched any pantomime before,  I am really involved in the show and try to find out what will happen. As the characters in  Nosteratu use there dramatic gestures and facial expressions to demonstrate their actions and their feelings, I think of one famous British comic actor: Charles Chaplin. He is worldwide icon best known for his figure as “the Tramp.” His films are characterized by slapstick combined with with pathos, and often feature the tramp struggling against adversity. While Nosferatu tells a vampire story, Chaplin focuses on both the plot and his persona as the tramp. People have remembered this phenomenal character.

The second thing I want to talk about the movie is the music. Since there is no verbal content in the film, the music becomes the “language” which helps shape the mood in its collaboration with dramatic gesture. I remember how I was a huge fan for the movie Pirates of Caribbean partially because of the background music. The elements of comedy, suspense, adventure in the film are “well-depicted” through the music. I will say that music is a universal language that cross our language barrier. Through music, we are able to feel the mood and sometimes even if we don’t understand a language. Music is so subtle that when we watch a film and listen to conversations between characters, we usually neglect the music part. Now that there is no word in Nosferatu, I deeply feel the power of music.

 

Well, the last thing I really enjoy is the antiqued film itself.  The screen is yellow and somehow fuzzy compared to modern HD movies, but it is the blurriness that makes the film such a vintage that intrigues me as a fan for history. It is so interesting to know the lives of people in the past and  to try to empathize their feelings as if we put ourselves in the screen. From the movie, I gasp some ideas about fear from the way the sailor reacts to the vampire and the way people concern when I see Hutter is eager to see his wife. I learn some ideologies from the past. In addition, the creepy vampire story and the black-and-white screen accidentally perfectly matches each other.

I like Nosferatu better than the other two stories we have read. While the story itself does not really attract me compared to its gesture and music, Nosferatu stands out in its expressionism as I learn about  the ways of demonstrating all kinds of feelings in the film.

Failed Expectations

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Before immersing myself in the humorous, outdated film rendition of Dracula, I conjured up any and every vampire character I have been exposed to in my life. Images of ghostly pale handsome men with sleek black hair and exaggerated fangs filled my mind while the opening credits played on the dormitory television. As I waited for Count Orlok to fill the screen, expecting his countenance to fit the mold of one of the vampires I had remembered, I tried to place myself in a secure state of mind for I am a complete scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies. I still have nightmares of Samara from The Ring; I watched the movie ten years ago.  Nevertheless, I had to face my fears for the sake of IDC and Macaulay…or so I thought.  However, the moment Count Orlok, in all his awkward glory, entered the premises I literally laughed out loud and became assured this 1922 film would not serve as a threat to my dreams.  Instead of igniting fear, Noseferatu sparked emotions of confusion, suppression, humor, and frustration.

Confusion: Because of the poor transitions between scenes – or lack of – as well as the odd background choices I was left wondering where the characters were at certain points of the film and at others wondering what was going on in general.  For example, why was Ellen sitting on a bench on a beach filled with crosses? Was she on a religious beach, or a cemetery on a beach? However, I understood leaving the viewers questioning some aspects of the film was the desired effect. In the instance where the scene cuts abruptly when Count Orlok is zeroing in on Hutter who is sitting on a chair, the director wanted to create a sense of ambiguity and leave the audience guessing what happened.

Suppression: The entirety of the film contained elements of covered truths and suppressed secrets. The most obvious example is the true identity of Count Orlok – an identity he keeps poorly hidden because he cannot stop feeding on people. Seriously Orlok, did you have to suck on Hutter’s finger…more on that later.  But other suppressions included Hutter having the knowledge of “The Bird of Death” but choosing to only make the connection after Count Orlok reveals himself to him and Ellen hiding her plan to sacrifice herself to Count Orlok for the sake of the people.

Humor: Although I know this was probably not a desired reaction, I found the makeup, exaggerated acting, and cheerful music all quite humorous. I understand the technology of the 1920s cannot exactly satisfy my modern day expectations. However, I believe the production team could have done a better job in creating a more ominous feel by eliminating the joyful music that literally destroyed the elements of fear in the film, making the wife appear more feminine and Hutter more masculine, and instructing the actors to just act better.

Frustration: I was frustrated for almost the entire duration of the film because everyone was ignorant and I had no clue who Knock was/where he was. While Hutter and the public chose to ignore every blatant warning sign thrown their way, Knock was in a mental hospital or prison or neither looking weird and creepy for undisclosed reasons. Why?!

Overall, Noseferatu failed to meet any of my expectations: it was not scary, Count Orlok did not look like an “actual” vampire, the unfitting music disrupted the silence, and Ellen was not a feminine damsel.

NYTimes: “Run Don’t Run” – BAM Theater

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Have you ever been to a theater where you were seated across from the other audience members with the stage in between the two groups of spectators? Have you ever seen tight strings hanging from one end of the stage to the other, as a prop for dancers? I surely haven’t, but a show that has been playing recently at the BAM Theater, choreographed by the Brian Brooks Moving Company, performed using these unique props. In the article, Taut Wires as a Foil for Curves, Brian Seibert reviews his time at this dance show, entitled “Run Don’t Run.” This particularly caught my eye in the Arts section of the paper because we are going to the BAM Theater this week, and it’s interesting to see several distinctive shows playing at this venue. For instance, I have a hard time imagining how Nosferatu can be staged at a theater seeing as to its strange vampire plot. Meanwhile, Siebert went to watch a unique performance at BAM as well, for I have never seen a dance performance where the dancers were falling back on strings.

Siebert begins his review well, by stating how the dancers utilized the strings. They would thread between the lines, lie on them or clamp the strands. He says the strings would “slice and dice” the images of bodies at different angles. To me, this sounds very interesting, yet for some reason, after a few small paragraphs of description, Siebert gets bored. He found the overall structure of the piece predictable and sloppy. He felt like each dance had the same pattern, a person methodically takes up a task, then someone joins in, then someone else, and that was all. As a final pun and sarcastic punch in his last sentence he states that he found the dancers and strings “admirably taut, but the piece” kept “going slack.”

Personally, I found the idea of dancing with this interesting prop of tight strings quite fascinating. I was also interested in learning about the experience of watching a performance while observing the other half of the audience, since there were audience members sitting on both sides of the stage. I wish Siebert would have done this composition more justice, going into more detail about the performance. I feel like there was so much more he could have discussed. I would love to learn about what the dancers wore, what kinds of pieces they performed, what kinds of moves they utilized, and so much more.

First off, it would have been nice of Siebert to address his experience in the audience facing the stage, which was in the middle of the theater. Did he find this setting distracting? Did he find himself looking over to notice other spectators’ reactions? I’m curious about what this type of setting in a theater is like. Other than that, the show itself sounds quite interesting, and I wish Siebert would have devoted more time to speaking about the performance. Did he find the performers captivating? What kinds of dances did they do? Did he find the strings completely unnecessary or could he imagine them as a useful prop in other dance pieces? What were his thoughts on this “slicing” of bodies and dancers” that he saw while watching this performance? Overall, Siebert descriptions needed to go beyond simply stating that he saw symmetry, and eventually got bored of it all. I want to learn about the feelings that these pieces evoked in him, except for boredom, which is so vague and varied. Performing on a stage which resembles a harp laid on its side sounds like a great springboard for things to discuss, yet Siebert seems to reach a dead-end.  Why was this setting so off-putting for him and so predictable in comparison to other performances he has seen?

Overall, the avoidance and brevity of this piece is quite frustrating for I feel like the topic, “Run Don’t Run,” fosters so much conversation. What do you guys think? Would you be interested in seeing a show where you are facing the other half of the audience? Do you think it’s interesting to utilize taut strings as a prop? Take a look at Siebert’s article, and judge for yourself whether he did this piece justice, tell me below!

 

Siebert, Brian. “Taut Wires as Foil for Curves.” The New York Times. N.p., 25 Oct. 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/26/arts/dance/brian-brooks-moving-company-presents-run-dont-run-at-bam.html?ref=arts&_r=0>.

Mood Diary: Nosferatu

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Watching Nosferatu was quite interesting because I don’t usually watch black and while films. Meanwhile, I love the whole antique aspect, and at times it’s very fun to watch silent films because it almost adds a comical aspect to the film. Although the movie is a bit creepy due to the story-line involving a treacherous vampire, it’s still a bit funny to see the characters interacting in a silent manner because all of their actions are so exaggerated.

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Another aspect of I enjoy of watching films like these, besides the dramatized actions, is that it brings me back to times of simpler, older sitcoms. I am a huge fan of old sitcoms such as I Love Lucy, Blossom, Full House, and Saved by the Bell. Therefore, watching things with an old flare makes me happy. Obviously, Nosferatu is much simpler than many of the things we watch nowadays, but I still greatly appreciate this movie and all the older sitcoms for their work. If we consider the times they were created in, each of these pieces definitely took a lot of effort and was a masterpiece.

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While watching this piece, I was finally able to connect Nosferatu to Spongebob which may seem a little strange. Meanwhile, I was a huge Spongebob fan a few years ago, so I enjoy finally being able to tell who the man was that was playing with the lights in the horror scene. In addition, the entire episode of Spongebob when he was terrified at his job was kind of horrific. It was also quite suspenseful, reminding me of this movie full of strange occurrences. I think it’s really cool to be able to watch a movie and then connect it to one of my favorite cartoons. It’s a fun aspect to be able to stop watching Spongebob, but still find myself making connections to episodes I had previously watched.

Finally, I’d like to add that one thing I particularly hate in any piece is losing a character. Thus, watching Emma sacrifice herself was really upsetting. I understand that this needed to happen in order to stop Nosferatu, but I can never justify the loss of a character in a production, so this made me feel sad. In turn, this makes me question the purpose of penning such a story and what the author was trying to get across.

QS

Nos(e)feratu Mood diary

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The film was excellent. It was an hour and a half long, but it really felt like short T.V. episodes, especially since a lot of the time is allotted to showing captions and comments. The one distinguishing mark of the movie was how real it was. Apart from the doors miraculously opening like a vine video, everything else was shot in real time. For example the spiders crawling were actually spiders crawling, the raft on the river is actually a raft on a river, and the lighting and darkness was mostly natural lighting. I think this is awfully cool because in our era a lot of those things are mitigated and altered in with CGI effects and green screens, which is why I kept envisioning Nosferatu

File:Schreck.jpg

standing behind a green screen.

What I found nostalgic from the movie was the constant music playing in the background. For some reason it reminded me of my old Pokemon gameboy games where I could leave the game untouched for hours, but the music would still be playing, and it always drowned out and came back every time you listened to it because it was mostly repetition until those few notes that are particularly interesting.

Here is the Pokemon music I am referring to.

There was something soothing about the movie, unlike other’s I had seen before. Instead of trying to splash you with all these extravagant scenes and prompts, Nosferatu was simple and to the point. Nothing extra was ever involved in the movie, and everything was used efficiently. While it gives us an adventure and a real close look at many things at once, new movies are too overwhelming sometimes and you get put off just by the sheer bourgeois addition of items.  

To add to the scenes, I think it’s important we look at the que cards that explained the dialogue of the characters. Since they can’t waste all their time putting on que cards instead of showing the film, many of those moments are short, concise, to the point, and only used when necessary. I think this adds a little bit more flair and a stronger story to the movie because they are showing what’s going on in the story, and then the speech is used as a second form of explaining the situation which makes the film as a whole seem a lot better; whereas, in today’s films they seem to focus on the speaking instead of the acting so all you hear is a dialogue with no emotion and that makes the movie look amateurish and bad. 

I can see why this film is seen as a masterpiece. It was made in the 1920’s where it can be inferred that advancements in the field of filming had just begun; thus, everything was fresh and new. I think that in itself is a masterpiece because the whole movie is able to go from scene to scene fairly smoothly and there are no interruptions that make the film hard to watch. Once again, in some of our current movies this often happens where we change scene to scene yet there’s no relation; furthermore, the whole movie shows off just enough expression and emotion to show what the characters are like in the film without needing to go the extra mile and over exaggerate the entire film.File:35mm reels and boxes.jpg

Finally, I’d like to note that I found the movie pretty funny because there was such little gore and Hutter’s expressions and feelings toward his wife just seem awfully elementary and unrealistic; nonetheless, I found myself happy when Hutter returned to his home, but sad when Ellen died, and he was left alone.

 

Nosferatu Mood Diary

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What struck me the most were each actor’s exaggerated movements. It’s unnatural to make such wide gestures, and I felt more so this way when we made those gestures ourselves in class today. Yet, with silent films, such gestures are one of the main ways to communicate to the audience. The actors were able to get their points across effectively. I find it amusing that we can laugh at these gestures when watchers from the 1900s screamed in fright.

We’ve been exposed to such high graphics and special effects that we aren’t as easily scared as people were in the 1900s. We just sit in front of the movie and blink through till the end, shrugging at the lack of scariness when the 1900s audience would scream at a train driving towards the screen. I guess these are examples of when overdose can suck the reactions out of something that should have quaking in our boots.

However, if we think about it, imagine how we’d act if we couldn’t speak. I used to play the “Quiet Game” in school where the winner was the person who could stay quiet the longest. It was hard to communicate to each other. In the middle of the game, if we took a picture, we’d see a bunch of kids waving their arms wildly, jabbing the air with facial expressions saying, “God,  how oblivious can you get?” or “How in the world am I friends with such an idiot?” It’s because there’s no other way to communicate except for writing and kindergarteners were not quite adept at such a skill yet.

In those situations, we mirror the wild gestures of the actors in Nosferatu. That’s why I find that even if I laugh at the ridiculousness of the gestures in the silent film, I still act that way when I’m unable to express myself in words.

Mood Diary of Nosferatu

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After watching Murnau’s “Nosferatu,” I got a sense of what the original Dracula film felt like back in 1922 in the silent, black and white film era. Personally, I found Nosferatu to be more funny than scary but that is probably due to the vast amount of vampire movies we see today. When we see something enough, it becomes less and less frightening because the fear of the unknown no longer exist. I was basically able to anticipate most of the events in the film because this type of movie had become stereotypical today. I’m sure all of us had watched a Dracula movie at some point in our lives, yet very few of us realize where Dracula actually originated.

My favorite character in the movie was definitely Count Orlok. I found it interesting how instead of coming across as a confident and cunning character, he was very secretive and careful about his actions. Also, his appearance was different from what I imagined which was the present-day version of Dracula. I found his appearance to actually be scarier since he had extremely long nails and long bat ears. Also, his fangs are in the middle of his mouth rather than on the side like Dracula’s, which to me, seems scarier and more unnatural, probably because I have been used to picturing vampires with fangs on the sides.

DraculaOrlok

Another interesting character is the psychotic Knock. I believe Knock was much more evil than Orlok himself because Knock administered the whole plan to trick Hutter into visiting Count Orlok’s castle and selling the house across the street to him. He looks just about as scary as Orlok does as well with his extremely thick eyebrows and crazy hair.

Knock

I was surprised by Hutter’s ignorance throughout the movie despite all the warnings he received from the people around him. He seemed to have no clue that Orlok was Nosferatu until he actually saw him with his eyes getting ready to suck his blood. Even after Orlok attempted to suck the blood off a cut in his hand, he still did not suspect anything and attributed the marks on his neck to bugs. I found this part of the film to be humorous.

The only scene that was able to frighten me a bit was the scene in the ship when Orlok stiffly rises from his coffin. Right after that scene, I was shocked by the captain’s decision to submit himself to Orlok rather than jumping off the ship like his first mate did. Honestly, if I were in his situation, I would rather die by drowning into the ocean than get the blood sucked out of me by a vampire. Also, at the end of the movie, I was very surprised by Nina’s decision to sacrifice herself to Orlok in order to save everyone in Bremen. I am confused about the ending though because I am not sure if Nina actually died or not.

An aspect of the movie I really liked was Murnau’s building of suspense. Throughout the entire movie, Murnau used simple sounds, music, images, and expressions to trigger a sense of doom. When I realized this film had text instead of voices, I was perplexed at how this movie can possibly be scary and Murnau did a really good job at showing us how a movie with text could be just as good as a movie with voice. Obviously, Murnau had to make emotions much more extreme than they would be in real life in order to get the feeling of fear across. Murnau also used animals and nature as symbols to convey doom by showing horses running away and the sky darkening.

vampire book

 

Murnau’s use of the vampire book for Hutter and Nina to discover the secrets of Nosferatu was also a really good way to cope with the lack of voice. Since the characters couldn’t speak, they couldn’t tell each other information through word of mouth so the only way he could show the communication of knowledge was through fine print inscribed in a book.

 

I was also surprised by Marnau’s montages since I was unaware that the montage technique was used in filmmaking during the 1920s. I think it was very effective because it conveys how Hutter’s escape by land, Orlok’s journey by sea, and Nina’s restless worrying were simultaneous. Also, Marnau did incorporate special effects such as the speed up in the movement of Orlok’s servant and the vanishment of Orlok at the end of the film.

Overall, I think Nosferatu was extremely creative for its time and presented many new ideas that would later be replicated by a plethora of Dracula films. Although it was nowhere near as scary as even a poorly made horror film today, we have to give it credit for being the pioneer of vampire films and we have to take into account the limitations of technology back in the 1920s.

Dracula Collage

A Collage containing most of the present-day films inspired by “Nosferatu”

PS: I just wanted to point out that the text stayed on the screen of the film extremely long. In some cases, I was able to read the text 6-8 times before it disappeared and I will admit that I got a bit frustrated with the long lapse of time the text was on the screen. I’m not really sure if Murnau had any intentions in doing this or if people’s reading speed was slower in the 1920s.

Picture Citations:

Create a Monster Collage to Decorate Your Home. Digital image. Squidoo. Squidoo, LLC, 2013. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

Francavilla, Francesco. The Vampire Book. Digital image. The Art of Francesco Francavilla. Francesco Francavilla, 13 Oct. 2009. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

White, Derek. The Language of Nosferatu. Digital image. Clusterflock. N.p., 29 Mar. 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

Greene, R, H,. Dracula. Digital image. INCARNADINE: The True Memoirs of Count Dracula. Dracula Memoirs, n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.