The document discusses the style and form of the 1922 film Nosferatu, including its use of arches, stairs, costumes, cinematography, lighting, editing, and themes. It analyzes how the film creates an unsettling atmosphere through surreal elements and expressionist techniques, and examines various interpretations of its imagery, characters, and sociological influence.

1. Style and Form

2. Sets and location
“The uncanny atmosphere of the
film derives from the way that
the naturalistic is subverted by the
surreal.”
An excessive visual style and a focus on the
morbid side of human life

3. Arches
 The repeated use of arches and
curves of the arches adds visual
intensity to scenes by framing
them and guiding our eyes
towards the characters.
 The bridges and doorways
symbolically emphasise that a
character is passing from one
psychological state to another
– passing in and out of the
subconscious

4. Stairs
 Stairs involve transitions in
space and visually highlight
important narrative moments;
they dramatise psychological
‘ascents’ and ‘descents’
 Consider how many ‘ascents’
and ‘descents’ we see in the
film...

5. Costume, make-up and performance
 Expressionist use of make up on
Knock and Nosferatu to
suggest the uncanny.
 Their movements seem to obey
secret forces.
 All performances of all
characters are exaggerated to
relate to the subjective
emotions of the characters.

6. Cinematography
 Camera does not move – rather Murnau
relied on different camera set ups, varying
shot size and angles, lighting and the careful
staging of the action in space.
 Scenes are constructed from relatively short
shots – edited together so actions flow
smoothly
 How do these techniques compare to those
displayed in ‘Cabinet’?

7. Expressive camera angles
 Many extreme low angle shots are used to
give characters (Nosferatu/Orlok) and
settings (castle) intimidating providence. The
angle highlights the ship’s rigging, echoing
the spider web in which we have seen Knock’s
cell shortly before.

8. Expressive camera angles...
 High angle shots are
also to expressive
effect
 When Ellen looks from
her window the angle
accentuates the
narrowness of the
streets and the
inhabitants are victims
of the plague

9. Composition
 Space seems to breath (open
and close) as there is an
oscillation between shallow
scenes and scenes of depth.
 Sometimes shots have
obstacles, frames, recesses,
windows etc. To make the
composition multi-layered =
film is a labyrinth.

10. Lighting
 Film begins in sunlight and enters in a sinister
shadow world as the coachman takes Hutter
to Orlok.
 Murnau’s semiotic use of light and shadow is
demonstrated throughout the film.
 The shadow is expressive of Nosferatu’s
power over the characters and his
embodiment of Jung’s shadow archetype –
the darker/evil side of the human personality.

11. Editing and montage
 Straight cuts and fade to black to show a
transition to another place or time
 Widely used technique of iris-in iris-out
 Parallel editing is used to great effect – to
show a psychic connection between
characters
 Can you describe several instances in which this
technique was used?
 Are there examples of intellectual montage –
where A+B=C and not AB

12. Effects
 Accelerated motion
 Superimposition
 Stop motion
 Use of negative
 What was the purpose of
these techniques?

13. Inter-titles / sound
 75 inter-titles in total
 Important to our understanding of the
narrative
 The absence of diegetic sound contributes to
the film’s other-worldly atmosphere
 Interesting to note that the film does evoke
sounds – the chiming of the clock, the
breaking of the waves

14. Influence
 Regarded as a horror classic
 Salem’s Lot (Tobe Hooper)
 In Scream 2, Casey watches Nosferatu on a
late-night TV.
 Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula developed
in the way in which the Count’s shadow takes
on independent life
 The odd angles and unusual compositions
became known as the German style and were
widely imitated

15. Sociological readings
 Did the films pave the way for
Nazism?
 Kracauer saw German films of the
Weimar era as dark anticipations of
the horrors to come – the ‘zietgeist’ in
1920s Germany.
 An exercise in zenophobia – as anti-
semitic
 Ellen represents the German soul at the
mercy of the property acquiring Jew
vampire

16. Kracauer
 Kracauer never allowed for the possibility that a
film might have an alternative reading or that
audiences might read films in different ways.
 It is too simplistic to relate the films to the anti-
semitism that brought Hitler to power as there
were so many other factors.
 In addition – expressionist films were targeted at
an intellectual elite rather than the German
public who enjoyed romantic comedies, crime
thrillers etc.

17. Themes
 The film does, however, portray a threat from
outside, a threat from the East.
 Death, disease, social instability and
disrupted relationships were rife.
 The streets and hospitals of Berlin must have
contained figures as hocking as Orlok with
ruined faces and near death looks.

18. Themes
 Marx used the figure of the vampire to
dramatise exploitation.
 Nosferatu can be seen as a critical metaphor
for how humanity had been bled dry by war
and an aristocratic military elite

19. Psychological readings
 Horror conventions – concerned with repressed
sexual desires and obsession with death
 Descent myth – characters who journey from
innocence to a terrible underlying reality which
either destroys them or leaves them wiser.
 Nosferatu as ‘Id’ – the unconscious side. The
arches as trying to invoke the forces of
repression but fail to contain the ‘under-nature’
of mankind.

20. Psychoanalytical
 Nosferatu = phallic
 Arches = vagina
 Shadow travels up Ellen’s body and she
clutches her breast – orgasm = ‘little death’ in
French
 The film is considered darkly erotic – but we
must not let such interpretations spiral out of
control