Thursday, March 20, 2014

#243 Nosferatu (1922)

This is the first non-English film. I think I have had American, English, and Australian. There could be others gallivanting about but I can't be so sure. Anyways, I didn't even know this was a German film till I looked it up. I guess that is the beauty of silent films, easy to adapt for other languages, and the audience is none the wiser.
I think this is my first non-Charlie Chaplin silent film. So this is my first chance to determine if I hate all silent films, or just ones that masquerade with Hitler mustaches. I must say, I didn't mind this. The movie was a horror film, and considering this must've been one of the first, it was suspenseful. The music, at times, was riveting. It was creepy. Still, it was very slow. It is hard to keep my attention with a long silent film. But the production value was very high, and I can see why this is so famous.
From a historical context, it is fun to see what the Germans were doing in between starting world wars. They were pretty poor when this came out, but just on the cusp of historically poor. So I don't know how they could afford to go to the movies. Also, I find it funny that the Germans ripped this entirely from the English (the story of Dracula. They only changed the names but in the version I watched, the names weren't even changed) without paying anyone. What makes this funny is that Dracula, at least to some, is supposed to be an anti-Semitic symbol. The German's big criticism of Jews is that they were not creative and could only steal from others. Pot calling the kettle black?
Also, this movie taught me the Carpathian Mountains is a place. And Finn seemed to enjoy the movie.

"Is this your wife? What a lovely throat." -Count Orlok (Dracula)

Have you seen this movie? What movie should I watch next?
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