NOSFERATU: EINE SYMPHONIE DES GRAUENS (Murnau, 1922)

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(Directed by F.W. Murnau from an adaptation of Bram Stoker's DRACULA by Henrik Galeen; starring Max Schrek, Gustav Van Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, and Alexander Granach. Released 04 March 1922); (re)watched 2023w06 via Blu-Ray)

a still from Murnau's Nosferatu: Orlok ascends the stairs in shadow

First time (re)watching Murnau’s masterpiece (among several) in years – first time, certainly with German intertitles – and it feels like I watched a different, even better, film than I remember: I’m sure I’ve seen countless iterations of it over the years – this site has a staggering and rich history of the film and its various theatrical and home video re-releases (though according to Reid’s work, the “different, even better film than I remember,” that I (re)watched was the awful version (the only available version in the US) but at least the jittery thing – which I knew wasn't in any of the other versions I've seen – makes sense):

As if that wasn’t enough, to make the resulting mess still fit into 24fps, (Kino) then eliminated every eighth frame. This results in the complete loss of over 11% of Nosferatu’s images. The outcome is that visible motion jitter, a juddery, stutter-like effect, is introduced throughout and a goodly chunk of the actual film is gone. The restorer’s job wholly undone. To look at it another way, the Kino is cut, throughout its length, and the Eureka is uncut. If we rejigged the Kino transfer to match the Eureka’s pulldown, it would run shorter by about 10 minutes. No thanks.

Well, fuck.

Still, great to revisit it, even if it was something of a jittery mess (now I’m pissed but at least researching it brought me to DRAKULA HALÁLA so my lost film love has been sated). I'm going to go buy a region-free Blu-Ray player and binge on Euro-Blu and probably rewrite this thing once I see the BFI version.

DRAKULA HALÁLA (1921)

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While working on a PostScript for my umpteenth rewatch (though first on Blu) of Murnau's NOSFERATU (coming later today), I came across this little bit of lost film gold: NOSFERATU wasn't the first on-screen appearance of Dracula (or litigious analogue) but the second. The first was a Hungarian film, now lost, DRAKULA HALÁLA, (DRACULA'S DEATH), directed by Károly Lajthay.

poster for DRAKULA HALÁLA (1921), a lost Hungarian film featuring the first onscreen appearance of Dracula

The plot - which doesn't follow the plot of the novel but sounds fascinating nonetheless:

A woman experiences frightening visions after being admitted to an insane asylum, where one of the inmates claims to be Drakula. She has trouble determining whether the inmate's visions are real or merely nightmares.

Apparently only a few images, featuring stars Paul Askonas (Dracula) and Margaret Lix (Mary) from the film survive:

An announcement of its release:

As fascinating as all of this is – and it is, utterly, profoundly, for this Dracula nut who grew up making lists of vampire films with his grandfather – it’s who was, along with Lajthay, credited as a writer that floored me:

The film was written by Lajthay and Mihály Kertész who had was also a prominent film director in Budapest and became better known as using the name Michael Curtiz, the director of American productions such as DOCTOR X (1932), MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM (1933) and CASABLANCA (1942).

Now I really, REALLY want to see this – nevermind CASABLANCA: MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM is one of my favorites. And thus, my passion for lost films – tragic and without resolution though it may be – continues...

THE KEEP (Egan, 2006)

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Can't decide if it was a smart – or fair – move to read another book set primarily around a labyrinthine castle so soon after TITUS GROAN but that Egan managed to pull me in – first because I couldn't figure out what she was doing (I never read jacket blurbs or synopses) and then because it moved me, wholly – in spite of the similar environment is, I suppose, a testament to how good THE KEEP is. Reminds me far more of MANHATTAN BEACH than GOON SQUAD or THE CANDY HOUSE (though it does feature some of that techno-recalcitrance and device addiction – in a decidely mid-naughties fashion – of the latter): not at all a bad thing. My complete reading list, from 2013 to the present, lives here.

or, how i tried to accept the chaos

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Too much of my time has been wasted in a fruitless and deleterious effort to impose (too much) control over the chaos of my process: need to accept it, let it come, let it do its thing... trust it (within certain bounds – bounds, not shackles and a plastic bag over its head). Feel like I started my journey there this morning: once I resigned myself to its embrace (instead of attempting suffocation), MainFictionThing finally – thanks to an assist from Oblique Strategies: "What wouldn't you do?" – inched forward. Recording this here as much as a record of the morning's events as a reminder to myself. Will start a new "Note to Self" tag for these kind of posts. (Turns out I already did.)

Speaking of Oblique Strategies: someone needs to make an Obsidian community plugin for these. I use an app and then copy and paste into my working Canvas, but it'd be great to be able to create an OS card for the boards...