Friedrich Wilhelm 'F.W.' Murnau
(1888-1931), the famous German film-maker, directed twenty-one films
in his short but remarkable career. Eight of those have been lost,
leaving thirteen to survive in their entirety, luckily for us. (Still, all twenty-one would have
been even better...!)
One of those surviving films is, of
course, NOSFERATU, his out-of-this-world 1922 version of Bram Stoker's DRACULA.
This film is so iconic that
there's probably not a film fan or movie student alive who wouldn't
recognise some of the more famous images from it. It may not have
been the first horror
or even vampire film ever made, but to this day it remains one of the
most important.
There's
another brilliant film called SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE (2000)
that tells the story of the making of NOSFERATU, with
John Malkovich playing a blinder as Murnau, the man himself. The
premise of the film is that Murnau so wanted NOSFERATU to
be a success that he hired a real vampire
to play the part of Count Orlok. For a long time after seeing this
film, I absolutely point-blank refused to believe that it wasn't
based on a true story. I really, really wanted it to be true...
Anyway,
the good news for all Murnau fans out there is that, on Sept. 26th
2016, EUREKA ENTERTAINMENT will
be releasing a fantastic three-disc Blu-Ray box-set containing five of
Murnau's early films. Talk about Christmas coming early for the
dedicated Murnau fan...!
The
special features are top-notch and the whole package comes complete
with a 100-page book featuring archival imagery and writing by
Charles Jameux, Lotte H. Eisner, Janet Bergstrom and Tony Rayns. As a
humble reviewer, I only get the films, not the book. I believe I've
bitched to you guys about this before, haha. I want the books too,
all
you promoter-type persons. Kindly remember this for the future, wink
wink.
Ever
seen that iconic TV ad for those posh choccies Ferrero
Rocher which
people normally buy by the truckload at Crimbo?
Remember
all those rich toffs invited to a fancy do at the ambassador's gaff?
Remember the legendary tagline? 'Ah,
Monsieur Ambassador, with zis Ferrero Rocher you are really spoiling us...!'
Well,
in this instance, for 'Monsieur
Ambassador' please
read 'Eureka Entertainment' and
for 'Ferrero
Rocher,' read
'Five Fabulous Old
Murnau Movies.' Let's
go back into the mists of time now and take a peep at this quintet of
marvellous films.
SCHLOSS VOGELŐD
(1921),
or THE HAUNTED CASTLE
for all you non-Germanophiles out there, myself included, is a
deliciously juicy murder mystery played out against the background of
'a rained-off
October hunt' at
a rich man's magnificent old castle in the mountains.
The
rather sinister Count Oetsch has invited himself to this gathering of
wealthy, upper-class men in the Castle and he insists to his
mortified hosts that he will stay, despite the fact that he's
patently not wanted there. The Count, you see, is suspected of
fratricide or murdering his brother, and the brother's widow is
expected at the Castle with her new hubby at any moment. Awk-ward...!
The
film has a sting in the tail that I guarantee you you won't have been
expecting. Someone in the cast, it appears, is not whom they say they
are and a shock 'reveal'
leads
to an utterly spectacular dénouement.
As
with all the films, the scenes are gorgeously tinted in different
hues, some sepia-toned, some bright and some as delicate as butterly
wings. This film is literally to
die for...
My
two favourite scenes in it both involve dreams. The chubby little
kitchen boy dreams that he gets to eat all the pudding and
slap
his boss, the bullying chef, around the chops as well (fair
enough, say I!) while
a male guest dreams that he is being stolen away by a claw-fingered
monster not unlike our old pal Nosferatu, that sinister 'Phantom
Der Nacht.'
I
really loved PHANTOM (1922),
which
has a storyline that we can still relate to today. It's the story of
an obsession which, when you think about it, can sometimes amount to
little more than chasing shadows or 'phantoms,'
especially
when the object of one's obsession is another person.
You're
more likely to come a cropper then than if, say, you were just
fixated on your work or car.
Mind
you, it's never good to be too
hung-up
on one thing, is it really, whether it's the attainment of the
perfect body or the cleanest house...? (I
don't really care about either so I'm grand, haha...!)
Lorenz
Lubata is a lowly town clerk and would-be poet living with his
hardworking, respectable old Mum, his good-time girl of a sister and
his art student brother. He allows a one-time glimpse of a beautiful
woman to drive him to the brink of madness and despair. Well sure, isn't
that the way it always happens? Sigh.
Anyway,
a convoluted but inevitable series of events sees Lorenz, hitherto the
most honest man you could ever hope to meet, commit a crime. It's not
a monstrous crime, as such, but it's a crime nonetheless and poor old
Lorenz will have many amends to make before he can write down the
story of his life (and
crimes!) while
seated at that beautiful little writing table overlooking that most
beautiful of gardens...
DIE
FINANZEN DES GROSSHERZOGS (1924),
or THE FINANCES OF THE ARCHDUKE, sees
a rakish but stoney-broke Duke setting out to rebuild his fortune via
comic misadventures on the high seas.
DER LETZE MANN
(1924) does not mean THE
LAST MAN as
I assumed but in fact THE LAST LAUGH, and
it's the story of a hotel porter who dreams of a higher station in
life. Don't we all, gentle readers, don't we all...?
HERR TARTÜFF
(1925)
or, quite simply, MISTER
TARTUFFE,
is possibly my favourite of the five films. It's a terrific blend of
sex, religion, love and loyalty and, for this reason, it was
apparently pretty
damned
controversial when it was released back in the day.
Based
on the writings of the French scribe, Molière,
it's the story of a young man, an actor, who needs to make his
elderly grandfather see that he is putting his trust in entirely the
wrong person. He employs a simply marvellous ruse- a travelling
cinema, of all things, I
want
one of those to visit me!- to show the misguided old man the error of
his ways.
A
story-within-a-story is told to us then, by means of the 'travelling
cinema.' We
meet a beautiful and elegant hausfrau
who
eagerly greets her husband on his return from a journey only to find
that he's not the man he used to be. He's become obsessed with a
saintly, pious fellow by the name of Tartuffe, who supposedly
'frowns' upon
things like ornaments and rich food and drink and sexual congress, even
between marrieds. The po-faced old buzzkill!
You'll
notice that I italicised the word 'frowns'
and
put a 'supposedly'
ahead
of it. Yes, dear viewers, Herr Tartuffe, expertly played by Emil
Jannings, is the biggest, grossest, fattest, most lecherous old
hypocrite ever to carry a prayerbook in his greasy coat pocket.
He's
a physically repulsive scrounge, layabout and thief and he won't be
happy until he's deprived the man of the house of all his money and
worldly goods in the name of 'giving
to the poor,' which
of course is slang for lining Tartuffe's own pockets. He's
also not averse to driving a wedge between husband and wife while
he's about it, the dastardly devil.
It's up to the lady of the house, the brave and comely Elmire, to
come up with a scheme to show up the troll-like Tartuffe for what he
is in front of her husband, who has blinkers on where the
hypocritical old religious fanatic is concerned. In so doing, she
proves her undying loyalty to her husband but just how much of
herself must she sacrifice to the odious Tartuffe before she proves
her point...?
This film is great. It's all legs and heaving bosoms and sexuality
tempered with a big dollop of religion, or should that be the other
way around? Either way, I can imagine why it was so controversial
when it was released. The idea that a holy man like Tartuffe could be
tempted by the sight of a pair of barely-covered boobs or sexy
stockinged pins probably didn't go down all that well with churchgoing
types...!
To
finish my little treatise on these five superb examples of Murnau's
early work, may I just observe that, according to the last film, HERR
TARTÜFF,
gift
seems
to be the German word for
poison?
I
could be wrong about that but it really seems like it is. I have just
one minor observation.
Did no-one ever stop to think that that might
be a tad misleading
to
some speakers of both languages...? Ah well. Why should I care? I'm
not the flippin' safety inspector around here, haha. Just
buy this excellent box-set. It'll be the purchase of a lifetime.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based novelist, film blogger and movie reviewer. She has studied Creative Writing and Film-Making. She has published a number of e-books on the following topics: horror film reviews, multi-genre film reviews, womens' fiction, erotic fiction, erotic horror fiction and erotic poetry. Several new books are currently in the pipeline. You can browse or buy any of Sandra's books by following the link below straight to her Amazon Author Page:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B015GDE5RO
You can contact Sandra at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
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