Nosferatu Research - First poster for my project

 The trailer of the movie

The movie called “Nosferatu” from 1922, by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (directeur) and Henrik Galeen (screenwriter),  was the first movie about vampires. This movie is part of German expressionism and it was one the best movies at the time. (a gibelwho production, n.d.)

For more context about the life of this artist, we need to also have some context about what his movie was related to, and that was german expressionism. For this, we need to go back to 1920 to talk about the mood and mental health of the German artists that worked on cinema. Germany was the country that had lost WWI, and for that, they had to pay for what they had done as a punishment. The majority of the products were banished from importing and exporting from Germany, including the movies. All German citizens saw their economies rapidly lose value and they had to do something, including the ones that worked on cinema. They knew that a company called Hollywood was starting to form in the USA, so they quickly moved to the place to continue their job. (Gibelwho production, n.d.) 

At this period, there were a lot of styles of movies around Hollywood, but German Expressionism was the most impressive in the history of cinema. This was because it had many differences in relation to the other films, as is the example of the paintings and sets in the film "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920). In this film, the way the scenes are shot, the costumes, the use of lighting, the drama of the characters, are aspects that make this film unique.

Gibelwho production (n.d., para. 3) cites Thompson and David Bordwell saying that the goal of filmmakers was, to use «extreme distortion to express an inner emotional reality rather than surface appearances.»

The movie "Nosferatu" tells the story of a real estate agent, Hutter, who travels to the Carpathian Mountains to try to sell a property to Count Orlok (who lives in a secluded and mysterious castle) in Wisborg, a property opposite Hutter. When he arrives at the site, Hutter realizes that the residents are afraid of the Count, for being a vampire with a taste for blood. In the plot, the Count is fascinated with Hutter's wife and she will sacrifice herself to destroy the Count. (Schmidt, n.d.)

Images from Gibelwho (n.d.)

In this movie, we can see that the shadows were something that made this movie what it is, it makes the film contrast more between the white and the dark of the characters and backgrounds. This allowed making the characters in the movie even scarier using shadow techniques to make, for example, the exaggerated view of the vampire lording over the sleeping Hutter, producing a haunting visual effect. It can also be noticed that the Count was very well placed in the distorted vision and the visual symmetry of his architectural surroundings. (Gibelwho production, n.d.)

The movie “Nosferatu” has very good examples of this expressionism represented in it. This movie can be compared to The German film “Metropolis” (1927). I already did research on this film, of which I made a post. This was also considered one of the best films of expressionism.

There's much we can compare these two german movies and how they succeeded.

Nosferatu from 1922

This is a scene that makes this movie stand out. In this scene the vampire is giving the audience a scary impression, for this, they used his shadow to distorted his figure so it seems that one of his hands is with big claws. At the time this was one of the scariest things you could see, the reason was it gave the public a very bizarre and unnatural look to the character represented. As stated by Nathan Allan (2019, para.3): "The styles of performances of the characters in both of these films are similar to each other and are very expressionistic. They are unnatural, as they are exaggerated performances, often used to express exaggerated emotions or actions in expressionist films. "

Metropolis (Lang, 1927)

From this image, we can see some of the similarities. This one has the same gothic imagery as "Nosferatu". For example, this very exaggerated performance is seen in the film Nosferatu, when "Ellen" has a vision of Count Orlok attacking Hutter for his blood while he was sleeping, and screams his name. It is also seen in "Metropolis" when even the image of the robot influences the working styles of the workers in their dehumanized mechanical actions as slaves without a soul. When expressionist films started using the first visual effects (VFX) to be able to create their own worlds in films, this was made possible by the movement being quite experimental. In the film Nosferatu, Murnau was quite smart as he used these special effects at the time to tell his story. High-contrast lighting is often used in expressionist films, creating a contrast between black and white. It is often used for the effect of shadows and is considered one of the key elements that form the expressionist style and contributions to the climate (Allan, 2019).

I share the "Nosferatu" trailer to understand the visual effect of the film: Nosferatu (1922) - Trailer - YouTube

In my work, I will do my animation in black and white, meaning that I will take big inspiration from these movies. What I want to capture oh my animation is the same weird and gothic sense from the films I’ve already researched before. Inspired by these movies, I will try to do my first poster for my animation so I can see if it looks decent or not.

References:

Allan, N. (2019) Metropolis, Nosferatu, and German Expressionism. Geeks. [online] Available from: https://vocal.media/geeks/metropolis-nosferatu-and-german-expressionism [accessed on: 09/02/2021]

Gibelwho production (n.d.) Nosferatu: A Study of German Expressionism. [online] Available from: https://www.gibelwho.com/home/nosferatu-a-study-of-german-expressionism [accessed on: 09/02/2021]

Reis, V. (2010.) Nosferatu (1922) - Trailer [Youtube video] Available from: https://youtu.be/ZxlJxDr26mM [accessed on: 09/02/2021]

Schmidt, S. (n.d.) Nosferatu, Almost-lost history. Goethe institut. [online] Available from: Nosferatu - German films - Goethe-Institut USA [accessed on: 09/02/2021]