Shadow of the Vampire «««½
R, 93m. 2000
Cast & Credits: John Malkovich (F.W. Murnau), Willem Dafoe (Max Schreck), Eddie Izzard (Gustav Von Wangerheim), Udo Kier (Albin Grau), Cary Elwes (Fritz Wagner), Catherine McCormack (Greta). Screenplay by Steven Katz. Directed by E. Elias Merhige.
The scariest movie a friend of mine ever saw as a kid was the 1931 horror classic, Dracula, with Bela Lugosi, said Greg Hehn.
Hehn told me what scared him the most was how menacing Lugosi looked in that black suit and cape and pale white makeup that obviously suggested the Prince of Darkness had never been out in the sun in ages.
As he walked home one Halloween night, which when ironically the film was being shown, Hehn wondered if something out of the darkness was going to swoop down on him.
I wonder what he would think of the silent horror film, Nosferatu, the very first vampire movie German director F.W. Murnau made in 1922 after Bram Stoker’s estate refused him the rights to make a film based on the author’s work.
Like Disney’s Fantasia (1940), Nosferatu is one of the few movies I still have yet to see in its entirety. What I do remember most about it though is the way the eerie, sometimes romantic, perhaps even sad musical soundtrack sent chills up my spine and that was before Murnau’s ghastly creation made his first appearance.
Looking at the macabre cover box of the film that shows a picture of Graf Orlok played by Max Schreck, I was convinced Nosferatu is not just a vampire movie. It’s THE vampire movie. His alien like image is the stuff nightmares really are made of.
Schreck’s appearance as both an actor and creature of the night is just as unsettling in Shadow of the Vampire, about the making of Nosferatu, even if the story is all make believe and assumption. Schreck is played underneath all the makeup and prosthetics by Willem Dafoe (Platoon - 1986) but I don’t think anyone would know this without reading the credits. Even his voice sounds different.
Watching Shadow of the Vampire I was convinced this isn’t an actor playing Max Schreck. This IS Max Schreck. The scenes Schreck shoots for director F. W Murnau (John Malkovich) are just as convincing if not more frightening than when he is seen in person interacting (if you call it that) with the cast and crew.
Schreck is someone I would definitely not want to meet in a dark alley. The quick snapping sound he makes with his incredibly long fingernails is like listening to a couple of deadly desert scorpions battle one another with their sharp claws in fierce combat.
His facial appearance which boasts the same pale white complexion as Lugosi’s reminded me of Marlon Brando’s menacing bald head in Apocalypse Now (1979) and the evil old, decrepit Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi (1983) while his pointy ears bring to mind Mr. Spock from the television series Star Trek (1966-1969).
"He really didn’t study with Stanislavski did he," says Murnau’s producer (Udo Kier) upon seeing Shreck for the first time on camera.
The actor’s skin color is so perfect that as Murnau prepares to shoot the star’s second scene, he refuses to let him have makeup.
I wonder what people’s reactions were back in 1922 when they first saw the movie. I wonder if any of them asked themselves how Murnau made the vampire look practically like something that wasn’t from this world. Was it really makeup and special effects?
The answer, perhaps the most logical if not unbelievably clever, that director E. Elias Merhige and screenwriter Steven Katz come up with in Shadow of the Vampire is Max Schreck, the actor who played Graf Orlok in Nosferatu, was actually a vampire himself.
Even if the movie isn’t true (and I doubt it is just as I doubt vampires exist), this is still like a director’s dream come true. What better way is there in making a convincing horror movie than to find someone who might well be the real thing?
There is a price to be paid though when one makes a deal with the devil. In return for starring in his movie, Murnau will allow the vampire to sink his teeth literally into his leading lady (Catherine McCormack).
It’s hard to control a vampire’s appetites though. After scolding the star for biting his cinematographer, Murnau asks him if he’d like to bite the script girl.
"I’ll eat her later," Schreck says.
Murnau is like Billy Dee Williams’ Lando Calrissian from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) making a deal with Darth Vader that only gets worse as time wears on.
The movie is as much about Murnau’s obsession as it is about Schreck who doesn’t take long to act like a real Hollywood star making unreasonable demands (just like a vampire, he refuses to come out during the day and will shoot his scenes only at night).
The film is similar to Gods and Monsters (1998); a speculative piece about director James Whale as played by British actor Ian McKellen. Whale, best known as the man who made Frankenstein (1931), was shunned by Hollywood because of his homosexuality and died under mysterious circumstances in 1957.
By comparison, we get a glimpse into Murnau’s dark side in Shadow of the Vampire as he engages in drug use and frequents whorehouses. The film at one point suggests he might be bisexual.
Malkovich plays Murnau like an egomaniac (then again aren’t most Hollywood directors?) refusing to heed warnings from townspeople upset their crucifixes are being moved. When his cinematographer falls ill suddenly for no apparent reason, he flies back to Berlin to replace him with another (Cary Elwes).
Early on in the film one of the characters says that Schreck is a method actor who likes to get into his roles weeks in advance. I have often heard such actors as Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino do the same when preparing for their roles.
If Max Schreck was a real vampire, however, he could well be the first person in cinema history who didn’t have to act the part.
©2/7/01
R, 93m. 2000
Cast & Credits: John Malkovich (F.W. Murnau), Willem Dafoe (Max Schreck), Eddie Izzard (Gustav Von Wangerheim), Udo Kier (Albin Grau), Cary Elwes (Fritz Wagner), Catherine McCormack (Greta). Screenplay by Steven Katz. Directed by E. Elias Merhige.
Hehn told me what scared him the most was how menacing Lugosi looked in that black suit and cape and pale white makeup that obviously suggested the Prince of Darkness had never been out in the sun in ages.
As he walked home one Halloween night, which when ironically the film was being shown, Hehn wondered if something out of the darkness was going to swoop down on him.
I wonder what he would think of the silent horror film, Nosferatu, the very first vampire movie German director F.W. Murnau made in 1922 after Bram Stoker’s estate refused him the rights to make a film based on the author’s work.
Like Disney’s Fantasia (1940), Nosferatu is one of the few movies I still have yet to see in its entirety. What I do remember most about it though is the way the eerie, sometimes romantic, perhaps even sad musical soundtrack sent chills up my spine and that was before Murnau’s ghastly creation made his first appearance.
Looking at the macabre cover box of the film that shows a picture of Graf Orlok played by Max Schreck, I was convinced Nosferatu is not just a vampire movie. It’s THE vampire movie. His alien like image is the stuff nightmares really are made of.
Schreck’s appearance as both an actor and creature of the night is just as unsettling in Shadow of the Vampire, about the making of Nosferatu, even if the story is all make believe and assumption. Schreck is played underneath all the makeup and prosthetics by Willem Dafoe (Platoon - 1986) but I don’t think anyone would know this without reading the credits. Even his voice sounds different.
Watching Shadow of the Vampire I was convinced this isn’t an actor playing Max Schreck. This IS Max Schreck. The scenes Schreck shoots for director F. W Murnau (John Malkovich) are just as convincing if not more frightening than when he is seen in person interacting (if you call it that) with the cast and crew.
Schreck is someone I would definitely not want to meet in a dark alley. The quick snapping sound he makes with his incredibly long fingernails is like listening to a couple of deadly desert scorpions battle one another with their sharp claws in fierce combat.
His facial appearance which boasts the same pale white complexion as Lugosi’s reminded me of Marlon Brando’s menacing bald head in Apocalypse Now (1979) and the evil old, decrepit Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi (1983) while his pointy ears bring to mind Mr. Spock from the television series Star Trek (1966-1969).
"He really didn’t study with Stanislavski did he," says Murnau’s producer (Udo Kier) upon seeing Shreck for the first time on camera.
The actor’s skin color is so perfect that as Murnau prepares to shoot the star’s second scene, he refuses to let him have makeup.
I wonder what people’s reactions were back in 1922 when they first saw the movie. I wonder if any of them asked themselves how Murnau made the vampire look practically like something that wasn’t from this world. Was it really makeup and special effects?
The answer, perhaps the most logical if not unbelievably clever, that director E. Elias Merhige and screenwriter Steven Katz come up with in Shadow of the Vampire is Max Schreck, the actor who played Graf Orlok in Nosferatu, was actually a vampire himself.
Even if the movie isn’t true (and I doubt it is just as I doubt vampires exist), this is still like a director’s dream come true. What better way is there in making a convincing horror movie than to find someone who might well be the real thing?
There is a price to be paid though when one makes a deal with the devil. In return for starring in his movie, Murnau will allow the vampire to sink his teeth literally into his leading lady (Catherine McCormack).
It’s hard to control a vampire’s appetites though. After scolding the star for biting his cinematographer, Murnau asks him if he’d like to bite the script girl.
"I’ll eat her later," Schreck says.
Murnau is like Billy Dee Williams’ Lando Calrissian from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) making a deal with Darth Vader that only gets worse as time wears on.
The movie is as much about Murnau’s obsession as it is about Schreck who doesn’t take long to act like a real Hollywood star making unreasonable demands (just like a vampire, he refuses to come out during the day and will shoot his scenes only at night).
The film is similar to Gods and Monsters (1998); a speculative piece about director James Whale as played by British actor Ian McKellen. Whale, best known as the man who made Frankenstein (1931), was shunned by Hollywood because of his homosexuality and died under mysterious circumstances in 1957.
By comparison, we get a glimpse into Murnau’s dark side in Shadow of the Vampire as he engages in drug use and frequents whorehouses. The film at one point suggests he might be bisexual.
Malkovich plays Murnau like an egomaniac (then again aren’t most Hollywood directors?) refusing to heed warnings from townspeople upset their crucifixes are being moved. When his cinematographer falls ill suddenly for no apparent reason, he flies back to Berlin to replace him with another (Cary Elwes).
Early on in the film one of the characters says that Schreck is a method actor who likes to get into his roles weeks in advance. I have often heard such actors as Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Al Pacino do the same when preparing for their roles.
If Max Schreck was a real vampire, however, he could well be the first person in cinema history who didn’t have to act the part.
©2/7/01
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