Nosferatu Film Analysis

1728 Words4 Pages

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”

Show More
Related

  • Talledega Nights Film Analysis

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Talladega 500, Cal Naughton Jr., Ricky Bobby's former best friend, pulled ahead of Ricky, allowing him to slingshot around his car and pass Jean Girard. Though Cal and Girard were teammates at Dennit Racing, Cal disregarded this and jeopardized his team's success to aid Ricky in the movie Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. This moment was crucial to Ricky, he having fallen from grace, going from NASCAR's top driver to being let go by Dennit Racing. The love Cal exhibited was a selfless form of love that was centered entirely around Ricky's happiness, not his own. Because of this selflessness, Cal compromised his own agenda, winning for Dennit, and disregarded personal consequence in hopes that Ricky would win the race. If you truly love someone as Cal loved Ricky, you must sometimes compromise your own interests for their benefit.

    Read More

  • What Are Gender Roles In The Blue Angel

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film illustrates the common social and sexual anxieties that the Germans were undergoing at that period of time. It also employs cinematic aesthetics alongside with new technology to create what would be considered as one of Germany’s first sound-supported films. Furthermore, it was the film that popularized its star Marlene Dietrich. The film is also known for combining elements of earlier expressionist works into its setting without becoming an expressionist film itself. It is important also to point out that the visual element has helped to balance the film easily against the backdrop the nightclub lifestyle that Lola leads the professor to fall into.

    Read More

  • The Other in Nosferatu and Dr. Mabuse the Gambler

    1822 Words  | 4 Pages

    Elsaesser, Thomas “No end to Nosferatu” in Weimar Cinema, ed. Noah Isenberg, New York: Columbia University Press, 2009

    Read More

  • Confronting Reality: How Nosferatu Exemplifies Film Horror Tactics

    2551 Words  | 6 Pages

    Many films, and sometimes film genres, are dismissed as being part of the cinema of escapism. This assumes that in times of particular social or economic hardship (often on a national or international level), people go to movies for the sole purpose of “getting away from it all.” While some films may follow this overall trend, it is important to note that it cannot be a generalization made for all films. During the Weimar era in Germany, the nation was in the midst of a national struggle on many fronts. As a people, Germans attempted to deal with their past (the problems during World War I as well as the consequences of their loss) and move toward the future (finding a solution for their economic struggles and defining themselves culturally and socially). This period saw a resurgence of the horror genre, this time adapted to the new medium of film. However, the way horror was portrayed via film is the interesting part: it drew specifically on the struggles of the nation to instill horror. This is an exact reversal of the idea of cinematic escapism, since many Weimar era horror films used relatable struggles in order to both entertain and terrify (in this case, existing concurrently as well as dependently on each other). One of the clearest examples of this is through the film Nosferatu, a cinematic retelling of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula directed by F.W. Murnau. The budding horror genre of the Weimar era, as exemplified by Nosferatu, succeeded because it drew parallels to the German people’s collective post-World War I mindset, including references to the terrible nature of the war itself and the fearful prospect of how to move forward.

    Read More

  • Film Analysis: Two Spirits

    586 Words  | 2 Pages

    On October 14th, 2016 in class we watched “Two Spirits” by Lydia Nibley. Basically the film explored the cultural context behind a tragic and senseless murder of the main character. Fred was part of an honored “Navajo” youth who was killed at the age of sixteen by a man who bragged to his friends that he was nothing but a “fag”. While walking home from a carnival he was chased by one of his friends. Once his friend caught up to Fred, he pulled him down from a mountain and smashed his head with a heavy rock. Fred laid there for five days straight where two young boys found his body lying there. He was labeled as a “two-spirit” who was possessed of balancing masculine and feminine traits. In the film, there are two parts that are put together effortlessly like the people it discusses. Most of the documentary focuses on Fred’s murder, but the real issues in the film were those of the lesbian, gay, and transgender community and how its members were viewed in a

    Read More

  • Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    into strange trances. Jonathon escapes from the castle but is not free of Draculas power,

    Read More

  • How The Great Depression Reflects The Evolution Of Horror

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    The horror genre of film captives the frightfulness of individual fear, horror is the only genre that is meant captive the terror of the audience. The horror- the genre has been around well over one hundred- years there has been an extension of different types of horror and how the audience perceives horror. Many would even argue that horror films often reflect the fear of society in that certain time period. The evolution of horror reflects the evolution of society’s fear.

    Read More

  • Dimensions of Night of the Living Dead

    1596 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...a film that was revolutionary in its production, its subtext as understood in historical reference, and its lasting effects on the horror genre.

    Read More

  • History Of Wes Anderson

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    Since the late 1890’s films have been constantly changing the history of pop culture and the way people view war, politics, and the world as a whole. As the timeline of the history of film progressed, there were many different phases: gothic noir, slapstick comedy, tragedy vs. love, romance, and many more. Towards the more recent times, the central ideas of films started drifting to the greatness of the directors. Directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and many more were noted as outstanding directors of action and cinematography. In this paper I will speak about Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and the ever so infamous Baz Luhrmann. These directors have changed the way filmmaking has been and will be looked at from this point on.

    Read More

  • The Bad And The Beautiful Film Analysis

    509 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Bad and The Beautiful (1952) and State and Main (2000) are films within films that unmask Hollywood Cinema as a dream factory and expose the grotesque, veneer hidden by the luxury of stars. The Bad and the Beautiful, directed by Vincent Minnelli, is a black and white film narrated in flashback form. The films theatrical nature requires more close-ups than wide-screen shots to capture the character’s psychological turmoil. For example, Fred and Jonathan’s car ride is captured in a close-up to signify their friendship; however their relationship deteriorates after Jonathan’s deceit. While the camera zooms out, Fred stands alone motionless. Here, Fred is captured from a distance at eye-level and he becomes ostracized by the film industry and

    Read More

  • The Genre Cycle

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first stage of the genre cycle is called the primitive stage. During this stage of the cycle, the genre of horror is very new. Filmmakers are trying to decide what makes a horror film a horror film, while audience are figuring out what they should expect every time they see this kind of film. For example, Todd Browning’s Dracula is the basic, stripped down blueprint for many monster-horror films today. It features the “bad guy” accompanied by the “good guy”. After several horrifying events, Van Helsing kills the vampire, Dracula, and good prevails, again. Thus, establishing that in horror films no matter how grue...

    Read More

  • Film Noir Cinematography Analysis

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is true because most of the film noir greatly influenced by the German expressionism style, where most of the scenes are shot in night time, uses of extreme artificial lighting in film, chiaroscuro lighting creates the high contrast lighting to produce the focus points, deep shadows and obscured scene such as rain to highlight the confused emotions of the character in films. According to Jerold J. Abrams (2007), he mentioned that the evolution of film noir, Neo noir have been formed after classic noir, while neo noir is certainly new but some things never change. In this statement, although neo noir are formed after classic noir, but the techniques of film noir in classic noir are still retained and continue to be used in Neo noir

    Read More

  • The Use of Expressionism in Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari and Shutter Island

    1657 Words  | 4 Pages

    The link between expressionism and horror quickly became a dominant feature in many films and continues to be prominent in contemporary films mainly due to the German expressionist masterpiece Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari. Wiene’s 1920 Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari utilized a distinctive creepiness and the uncanny throughout the film that became one the most distinctive features of externalising inner mental and emotional states of protagonists through various expressionist methods. Its revolutionary and innovative new art was heavily influenced by the German state and its populace in conjunction with their experience of war; Caligari took a clear cue from what was happening in Germany at the time. It was this film that set cinematic conventions that still apply today, heavily influencing the later Hollywood film noir genre as well as the psychological thrillers that has led several film audiences to engage with a film, its character, its plot and anticipate its outcome, only to question whether the entire movie was a dream, a story of a crazy man, or an elaborate role play. This concept of the familiar and the strange, the reality, the illusion and the dream developed in Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari, is once again present in Scorsese’s 2010 film Shutter Island.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of Horror Films

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the late 1800’s there were two extremely short silent films that began the addiction of gothic horror. The earlier of the two was an eighteen second long film entitled The Execution of Mary Stuart which was produced by Thomas Edison in 1895. There much debate over the matter of this film actually classifying as the first horror movie because of its short duration. (Trick Films) The second horro...

    Read More

  • Horror Film Analysis

    983 Words  | 2 Pages

    Almost everyone has a favorite genre of film, but how everyone defines their favorite genre can differ greatly. Horror is one of the genres where its definition can be perceived differently by many people. Like all other genres, horror does have rules and traditions that must be included in order for a film to be considered a horror film. These rules and traditions include a protagonist, an antagonist, an escape or escape attempt of some sort, and very influential audio and visual effects.

    Read More

More about Nosferatu Film Analysis

Open Document