Willem Dafoe, “crazy vampire hunter”

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Dafoe channeling a bit of Lon Chaney in LONDON AFTER MIDNIGHT here? All I want for Christmas is next Christmas so I can finally see this film (Eggers’s NOSFERATU, though I would totally camp out for the midnight premiere of WILLEM DAFOE, CRAZY VAMPIRE HUNTER):

Eggers’s NOSFERATU - first image

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Definitely nails the feel of Murnau’s original. Love that, according to Eggers, “It’s even more Ellen’s story than previous versions.” Can’t wait for this.

Rather than a mere sprinkling of horror inflections, Eggers is confident in what his Nosferatu sets out to do. “Yeah, it’s a scary film. It’s a horror movie. It’s a Gothic horror movie,” he tells Empire in the 2024 Preview issue, featuring the world-first look at the film. “And I do think that there hasn’t been an old-school Gothic movie that’s actually scary in a while. And I think that the majority of audiences will find this one to be the case.” It won’t just be viewers experiencing pure terror – as seen above, Lily-Rose Depp’s Ellen Hutter, the wife of Nicholas Hoult’s estate agent Thomas, will be petrified by the power of the bloodthirsty Count Orlok. “It’s even more Ellen’s story than previous versions,” teases Eggers. “And Lily-Rose is absolutely phenomenal.”

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...