Film Analysis Of Werner Herzog's Nosferatu The Vampire

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“Nosferatu the Vampire” depicts the tragic interaction between Jonathan and Lucy Harper with the vampire Dracula. In this film, we follow Jonathan Harper to the castle of Dracula, witness the two’s interactions, follow the pair’s return to Wismar, observe Dracula’s havoc rot on the town, and finally, witness Dracula’s eventual fall, death, and rebirth. In this artful reimagining of the classic vampire story, Werner Herzog employs various cinematic techniques to build up to a dramatic shift in the plot and supporting characters. In this paper, I will explain how Herzog employed music, camera motion, and light, to establish character types and build up to this dramatic shift in the supporting characters. I will then perform a mise-en-sence analysis …show more content…

The shift is finally made in the scene where Lucy is visited by Dracula. In this scene, Herzog intentional shoots the primary action in the mirror. This is done as to emphasize the myth that vampire cannot be seen in the mirror. In the mirror, we see Lucy dressed in a particularly wide necked nightgown to emphasize her neck. This is because we learned before that her neck and the prospect of drinking her blood attracted Dracula to her in the first place. In her fear from the shadow of Dracula, Hertzog directs Lucy to deliberately cover her neck. This allows the audience to forget her crucifix and the protection she already had so that we believe that she is in true danger. In their dialogue, Dracula admits that death is easier than life, foreshadowing his eventual death when Jonathan’s takes his place. Finally, as Lucy speaks of salvation, she reveals the cross, a clear symbol of where she believes her salvation rests. In doing so, Lucy relinquishes Dracula by her words and the cross she bares and assumes her role as the new primary supporting …show more content…

The first way that Herzog’s film could be considered good art is that it balances the mean between form and function. Without a doubt, the composition and mise-en-sence of this film has elegant form and beauty. Yet, unlike some artistic films I have seen, this the film’s mise-en-sence and filming techniques not only have beautiful form, but function to enhance the overall function of storytelling as well. The mise-en-sence is well ordered and follows the proportions as represented by the rule of thirds. Herzog elegantly balances beauty and form with a functional and interesting plot that keeps the audience engaged in the film. Furthermore, Hertzog’s film never forgets its purpose or aim that it is being directed to. The primary purpose of this film is to build empathy for the characters that we might ask ourselves, “what would we do in such a situation?” The subordinate arts of this film (lighting, scene composition, make-up, costuming etc.) do not detract from its definite purpose, but rather they elevate the chief theme and purpose of this film. Finally, this film is extremely symmetrical. Not only in the individual shots, but in symmetry can be found in the plot structure as discussed in my interpretive analysis

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