Nosferatu Film Analysis

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German expressionism was a defining film movement in the 1920s. It brought new and different ways of filming and seeing films. German expressionism comes from a mixture of romanticism and expressionist art to make these very abstract and surrealist films. One widely known example of German expressionist films is F. W. Muranu’s horror classic Nosferatu. Nosferatu is one of the most influential horror films, in that it is one of the first vampire movies to have been made. Nosferatu is full of German expressionism characteristics that help further the plot and the overall style of the film. The film uses harsh shadows, makeup, costumes, and setting to make up this very stylized and irrational mise-en-scene. Not only does Muranu use a stylized mise-en-scene, but he also focuses on a theme of insanity and an …show more content…

This style of of art was very popular in European countries, but it was most popular in Germany. With the rise of this style in art and theater it only makes since that it would have an effect on film, which lead to the German expressionism film movement. The German expressionist film movement began in the 1920s with films like Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and F. W. Muranu’s Nosferatu. German expressionist is “defined as the rejection of Western conventions, and the depiction of reality that is widely distorted for emotional effect” (Darsa). During this film movement filmmakers were known for using harsh shadows, extreme makeup, and vary abstract mise-en-scenes to tell these strange, and sometimes unsettling, stories. A lot of German expressionist films were centralized around darker themes like insanity and moral ugliness. It’s no wonder that some of the first horror films were produced during the German expressionist movement, and even had a “tremendous influence” on “Hollywood films of the thirties and forties”

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