NOSFERATU EINE SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS

(Nosferatu A Symphony of Terror)

1922

F.W. Murnau, director

Editing

Films are almost never shot in the sequence in which the appear on the screen. The films are assembled in a process generally called “editing”. In the editing process the film makers will decide which take to use for each shot (when several takes are available), and how to join shots together.

The editing process is one which occurs in virtually no other art form. It allows the film makers to establish a rhythm to the film, to juxtapose certain events with others in specific ways and through this, sometimes bring new meanings into the film. Some scenes may be deleted and it may be decided to shoot new footage.

The most complex of these editing techniques is called “montage”. It was thought there were five different kinds of montage of which the last, the intellectual montage was the most significant.

Eisenstein's Five Types of montage

In the intellectual montage two pieces of film are set against one another to give the audience some “new” meaning which is in neither of the pieces alone. The scenes of the butchers killing the cow in the middle of the riots in the street in Strike, or the ink running down the streets on the map while the blood flows in the actual streets are classic examples of the intellectual montage.

Cross cutting often involves the shifting between two scenes which have relevance to each other but generally are not seen as adding a new level of meaning.

Additional Terms

Dealing with lenses

This is the original filming of the Dracula story although it is very removed from the story as we know it today. Bram Stoker’s estate sued Murnau over the film and one a copyright infringement suit and most copies of the film were destroyed. It is hard to imagine how a story this different might have been taken as the Stoker classic but Munau does use names taken directly from the book.

Text and Subtext

Text: what the story line is about

Subtext: a kind of underlying meaning to the story

The story deals with the appearance of Nosferatu into Bremen and the plague which follows. The subtext deals with the nature of foreigners coming into a culture.

There are consistant things done by th fim maker to produce the idea of the supernatural. At certain moments the film is undercranked (fast motion) to give an eerie ambience to the scene. The arrival of the carriage and the piling of the coffins on the wagon are clear examples.

What other visual techniques are used? (consider Nosferatu's approach to Harker in the castle, his emergence from his coffin on board the ship)

How is Nosferatu depicted in the final scenes when he approaches the house? Why do you think the film makers chose this manner of representation?

Note the use of gels to tint the scenes. This is a kind of use of color which can lend atmosphere to specific scenes. How are they used in this film?