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Released by: BFI
Released on: May 19th, 2014.
Director: Werner Herzog
Cast: Klaus Kinski, Isabelle Adjani, Bruno Ganz
Year: 1979
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The Movie:
Werner Herzog's remake of F.W. Murnau's classic vampire film begins with a haunting opening credits sequence that strolls through an underground catacomb filled with mummified corpses. From here, with the macabre atmosphere instantly established, we travel into the home of Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) and his lovely wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) where that opening scene is instantly contrasted by the image of two kittens playing as a locket containing Lucy's picture and a lock of her hair dangles nearby. Jonathan tells her that he must go on a long journey to Transylvania to take care of some real estate business with a Count Dracula. Though the dream she had earlier tells her no good will come of this, he insists on following through as the money will be good.
Jonathan travels as far as he's able by horse and takes rest in an inn he comes across on the way. When he mentions his business at Dracula's castle, he's warned by the bartender and the gypsies in the establishment to stay away. He doesn't listen and before you know it he's once again off on his journey. As he gets closer to the castle, a strange carriage picks him up and upon his arrival, he comes face to face with Count Dracula (Klaus Kinski) for the first time. Though it's late, the Count insists that Harker dine and when he nicks his finger with a knife, the Count can't help but suck the blood, telling him he's only doing it to prevent infection. Before long, Harker realizes that something strange is going on and that there's a whole lot more to fear about the Count than simply his rodent like features and sickly pale skin.
As Harker sets about his work, the Count becomes obsessed with the picture of Lucy in the locket, telling Jonathan how lovely her neck is, and when he sets about buying and then moving to property near the Harker home, he brings with him a plague of rats and leaving Jonathan locked in the castle. Harker injures himself in his escape and tries to beat Dracula back to town, but the ominous arrival of a ship full of rats with a dead man tied to the helm. When Dracula's arrival brings death to the townsfolk, Lucy rightfully fears for her life as he approaches her with his request for love. With no one else to turn to, she enlists the aid of Van Helsing (Walter Ladengast), a man who knows only too well just how evil Dracula is…
A masterpiece of macabre atmosphere and morbid imagery, Herzog's take on the Dracula mythos manages to main a strong tone of horror without ever pushing things past its PG rating. There's very little blood here, no nudity and no real gore and yet Dracula is far more frightening here than in any of the sex and blood filled versions made over the years. Much of the credit for this has to go to Kinski, who looks absolutely sickening in his pallid makeup with his rat-like fangs and spidery finger movements. His long nails cast an ominous shadow and a scene in which only his shadow is visible as he approaches Lucy who cannot see his reflection in the mirror still resonates with the power to send chills down your spine. So strong is Kinksi's work here that you almost forget it's him under the makeup, no small feat for someone with such strong screen presence and instantly identifiable features and mannerisms as he. Bruno Ganz is good as Jonathan Harker, but it's Kinski and the gorgeous Isabelle Adjani who really stand out. She's got a fragility to her that makes the fear she experiences seem all the more real and it's easy to see why the Count would be instantly smitten with her.
Being a Herzog picture, the film unfolds at a deliberate pace. While some might find it a bit slow, in reality the picture uses long takes of scenic European mountain settings to contrast in strange ways with scenes of crawling rats and, of course, its central antagonist. The film also affords Dracula an obvious pathos. While he's a predatory creature his requests for love are hard not to sympathize with. The common theme of man against his environment that shows up in much of the director's work is here too, not only in Johnathan's attempts to travel across ragged, barren terrain but in the Count's attempts to travel to the city without being burned by the sun. Herzog's languid style combined with the lush visuals and fantastic performances make this an atypical horror movie to be sure, but also an extremely effective one.
Note: This Blu-ray release from Shout! Factory includes both the English and German language versions of the film. These are two fairly different cuts, as when Herzog was making the movie for Fox the studio wanted an English friendly option for North American territories. As such, Herzog shot the dialogue scenes twice, once with the actors speaking German and again with them performing in English. Because of this, the English version has a completely different vibe than the German one and it's nice to see both versions, which were included on the previous DVD release from Anchor Bay, included on this Blu-ray release. The English version actually runs a few seconds longer than the German version as well.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The BFI presents both versions of Nosferatu on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition on a single 50GB disc framed in the film's original 1.85.1 widescreen aspect ratio. Both transfers share similar qualities, which is a good thing. Fine detail is pretty strong here, with no evidence of noise reduction or edge enhancement. Compression artifacts are never really a problem and close up shots show nice skin texture. There's no evidence of noise reduction or heavy crush while color reproduction looks nice and strong. Black levels are pretty deep but not at the expense of shadow detail. There seems to be plenty of natural film grain here but no really serious print damage to note. Both transfers look very good and have better fine detail than the domestic Shout! Factory Blu-ray release reviewed here.
The German version of the movie gets an LPCM Mono mix and a DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio remix while the English version gets an LPCM Mono mix and that's that. Subtitles are provided in English only and only for the German cut of the movie. The audio quality here is quite good and while the 5.1 mix on the German cut really only opens things up in regards to the score, all three mixes are clean, clear and demonstrate good depth and range. There are no issues with any hiss or distortion to complain about and the levels are properly balanced throughout.
The extras start off with a feature-length audio commentary with Werner Herzog speaking in English with moderator Norman Hill. This is the same track that was included on the Anchor Bay DVD release from years back. If you haven't heard it before, it's a good commentary that covers everything from Herzog's leaving the U.S. after his visa expired to ride in rodeo's in Mexico to body preservation techniques to how this film 'connected' the director to a certain flow of German culture. Hill keeps Werner talking as they discuss the landscapes that are used in the film, the involvement of Twentieth Century Fox and some of the issues that they had with the picture and some of the symbolism that is used in the movie, such as Harker's 'crossing over' into Dracula's land when he crosses the river. Of course, he also talks about what it was like working with Kinski, as well as the rest of the cast, and how Kinski was 'very, very good with his eyes' and the body movement that the actor used to convey the character of Dracula so effectively.
Also included on the disc (carried over from the previous Anchor Bay DVD release) is a thirteen minute vintage featurette entitled The Making Of Nosferatu. This piece is quite interesting as most of it was shot on set during the production and it gives us a chance to see both Herzog and Kinski, usually in full makeup, at work. Herzog speaks openly about the influence of German expressionist cinema, working with the infamous Kinski and about his directorial style. At one point we see the director walking around in a cloak helping out with the scene in which the coffins are carried into the town square. It's quite interesting. Additionally we get a trailer for the feature, a still gallery, menus and chapter selection. The Shout! Factory Blu-ray includes a second commentary in which Herzog speaks in German with Laurens Straub about the film, but that's not been included on this BFI release.
The disc also comes with a full color booklet containing a new essay by Laurie Johnson, a review of the film by Tom Milne from a 1979 issue of Film Bulletin, credits for the film and credits for the disc. Some nice archival photographs are reprinted in here and both the essay and the review are quite worth reading.
The Final Word:
The BFI release of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu is excellent, offering up both cuts of the movie in impressively authentic film-like transfers and with strong lossless audio options as well. The extras are pretty familiar by this point, but they hold up well and as to the feature itself? It remains a highpoint not only in Herzog and Kinski's collective filmography but in horror cinema in general, a veritable masterpiece of atmosphere and mood.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
The German Version:
The English Version:
Of course, for the most part the German and English versions are almost identical in terms of the content of what's said in the dialogue, so whether or not the subtitles are based on the dialogue of the English version (rather than being a translation of the German dialogue) barely matters - but I thought this scene had some interesting discrepancies.