50 films: 1979 - Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

I love Murnau's Nosferatu. I'm not sure why I hadn't seen Herzog's remake, maybe because I didn't think it would be worthy of sharing a name with the original. Here are a few idle thoughts after finally sitting down to watch it...

It's not as good as Murnau's - but I never for a moment expected it to be. Herzog has said that he made a point of using the language of horror movies, I think when you do that there is a danger of making it all seem rather obvious. The first half sometimes seemed like a humourless Hammer, the second half was much, much better.

It doesn't really try to beat the original, it's a very different film, with a different story and apart from some obvious references, most notably the film's title and Kinski's make-up, it probably shouldn't be considered along side Murnau's film.

Kinski often looks comic rather than creepy. I liked how sad and lonely the count occasionally comes across, but sometimes he just looks silly.

I like that Lucy is the hero, rather than just the character who suffers. Isabelle Adjani is rather good once she has a part to get her teeth into and Bruno Ganz is also rather good as Jonathan Harker.

I couldn't figure out why, having had the luxury of Bram Stoker's novel being out of copyright (which Murnau didn't), Herzog then rather muddles up the characters.

Popul Vuh's soundtrack is rather great.

(play on YouTube)

50 films and 50 albums