Director: Werner Herzog
Writer: Werner Herzog
Notable cast members: Klaus Kinski.
The name Nosforatu is probably familiar to you. The now famous shot of the vampire's eerie shadow creeping up the stairs is easily recognizable. But, have you ever seen the original silent film? It's nearly three hours long (!), and in the restored version the blackness is gone because they restored the film, making it look cleaner and in a way less creepy.
Anyways, this is not that movie. This is a remake. Now, usually I would be hard-set against this, but this time it's different. Werner Herzog is arguably one of the best German directors, if not only in this era. What I love most about his work is his distinct authorship, making him more of an artist than most north American directors. However, this can make him a bit pretentious, which is ironic seeing as Herzog never went to film school, or even took a film course, he just made films.
In the original film, Henrik Galeen wrote an adaption of the classic Dracula. But when they started the legal work, they couldn't get the rights to the novel, so they changed things slightly to avoid any copyright infringement. So dracula became Graph Orlock, it didn't take place in Transilvania etc. By the time that Herzog made his version, Dracula entered the public domain and he was able to use the original names. The story in case you don't know is briefly this: A real estate agent is called to Count dracula's castle in order to buy a large house in London (or berlin ....whatever). When he goes there, Count dracula bites him, is in love with his wife, and traps the young man in his castle. The vampire travels to London, bringing with him a plague and pursues the women. In order to save her husband and the thousands of inhabitants of London who are suffering from the plague, the wife sacrifices her self to the vampire, tricking him into being killed by the sun.
This is however, a brief sketch. The story itself isn't exactly Shakespearean, but it's a classic. In the silent original, the film plays out exactly like that, with all characters playing their obvious parts. The wife is innocent pure, and a victim. The man is worried, striving against an impossible evil to save the purity of his wife. And the vampire is evil, through and though. It becomes quite obvious rather quickly why Herzog made this movie. It wasn't so much for the story, but the characters. Specifically, Dracula himself is explored in greater depth than the original. While still evil, his evilness is seem almost as an illness, a curse. The vampire is then a split person, the mortal in him wants death, love and humanity, while his vampiric impulses drive him to kill and spread evil. This inner tension is played out quite well by Klaus Kinski, as the vampire moves back and forth, unsure, sickly even yet strong and reluctantly powerful. Dracula speaks of his eternal life as a curse, a life lived in abject pain characterized by the impossibility of love. He becomes then, a tragic figure. One who craves what he can never have. We are repulsed by him, and yet we see him as a pathetic figure, a sad figure. And, like a tragic figure, his cravings lead to his demise. When he finally bites the wife, he does so not because he only wants blood, but he wants her love. In fact, he demands that directly, asking her for just half of the love that she gives her Husband, the real estate agent (Jonathan). She gives him this, and in doing so destroys him.
Lucy (the wife) is another interesting character. Although her sexuality is still sacrificed to save a male, she is seem has doing this more out of desperation than in the original. She is more in control in this version, as Johnathan is not saving her, but the reverse. Johnathan is in fact, pretty useless in this film. Not in a filmatic sense, but more in a general way. He doesn't actually do anything to stop Dracula, and is used almost exclusively as a plot device. He seems oblivious to Dracula's obvious ill intentions, and despite several attempts on Lucy's part, he ignores all ill omens and still proceeds to the castle. Lucy then, is in reality the main character of this film.
What unique and beautiful about Herzog's style is his minimalism and his naturalism. He doesn't interfere too much with the actual camera, barely ever uses any effects. What he is good at is finding naturally fitting spots that fit both in the narrative and also the theme or essence of his films. The castle is in ruins, abandoned and more important empty, like Dracula himself. It has the appearance of being human, but in reality is not. This is probably due to a strong influence of german expressionism in Herzog's work, albeit of a more subtle variety. He uses strong animal imagery in almost all his films, and this one is no exception. The plague is brought by thousands and thousands of rats that roam the city, and act as the vampire's army. These are real rats, and he really did release thousands of them in a Bavarian city for the shot. That's why he's an artistic, everything he does is authentic, natural on the spot. This gives his films more breath, more life and in a sense they are more real. A very impressive slow motion shot of a bat is used repetitively (though, Herzog's crew did not film this. It was borrowed from a scientific doc). Shadows, night and empty desolate landscapes sprinkle this movie creating an near perfect ambiance. The desolate plague shots will remain one of the most memorable ones for me.
The dialogue in this film is again quite to a minimal. If you don't think that the dialogue seems entirely natural you are right. Although not completely allegorical, the film does walk a fine line between the symbolic and the literal. This is why Herzog's craft is so impressive, because he is able to walk this line with relative ease, making it look natural. Characters speak from a thematic view point, dracula talks about death, love, evil and pain, while lucy talks about her husband, sacrifice and the limits of rational science. If you have been fed a steady diet of North american films, this may seem odd and you might try to blame it on the translations. But, lo and behold, watch it in English (they shot every scene twice, once in english another time in German to avoid voice overs) and you'll see that it's the same. It may take some time getting used to. The music too, is uniquely Herzog. Instead of Grandiose orchestras, he uses soft, mysterious ambient music, making the mood feel ancient, cold and eerie.
Herzog is one of the most haunting directors I've ever seen. Even when I think that the images are not that impressive at the time, specific scenes, images and lines will haunt me for days and days. Even if you don't like his movies, I promise you that his visions will be present in your mind for a long period of time after seeing them. Give it a chance.
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