I'm not a big horror fan, but I am a bit of a goth. Watching Nosferatu as a teenager was mesmerising.
The uncanny jittering and flickering of hand-cranked silent film; the Knightmare-Eyeshield establishing shots; the knowledge that everyone I was looking at was definitely dead while the already-decrepit castle probably still looked exactly the same. The magic wore off a little when I saw more silent films, but there's still something otherworldly about that one.
How about his others? Here are my The Top 12 Murnau Movies That Still Exist.
Key to the crypt:
German films
Hollywood films
12. Die Finanzen des Großherzogs (The Finances of the Grand Duke, 1924)
There's some nice coastal scenery. That's the best I can do.
Max Schreck has a small role, so I guess he wasn't really a draclia after all.
I may have failed to perceive the hidden depths in this boring story of affairs and ophthalmology. It's even more of a letdown if you were looking forward to the team-up of the creepy actor from Caligari and the director of Nosferatu.
10. Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1933)
Marvel at the acrobatics of authentic island people in Murnau's seemingly improvised folk tale. There'd be some exotic appeal if this scenery wasn't more familiar to me than all of his other films.
Don't get excited, horror fans, it's only a metaphorical phantom. Lorenz tells us the story of his misdemeanours that it turns out wasn't worth telling. Minimal special effects and pleasant cinematography don't make these two hours fly past. Sticking YouTube on 2x speed barely helps.
The foreboding atmosphere conjured by talk of the Devil's Field gradually whimpers out as it becomes clear this isn't going to be a horror film after all, but a story of greed, petty jealousy and not getting ideas above your station.
Karl Freund's dynamic and detailed cinematography makes this pleasant to watch, and it's an interesting insight into Weimar Germany, but I wasn't fond of the sentimental story – particularly the falsely feel-good ending that's even preceded by an apology admitting it's a cop-out.
Murnau's second American film has similar preoccupations to his first with its city and country comparisons. Decidedly less impressive on the technical level, but the story's more realistic with a stronger female lead. I was more bored, but less annoyed.
Murnau's pictures are getting prettier as time moves on. This adaptation of a supposedly well-known story is mostly notable for playing a silent film within the silent film, giving us an idea of what that looked like. I don't know whether we're supposed to think that the flamboyant actor went to the effort of filming this entire production just to teach his grandad a lesson, but I certainly liked to think so.
Not a ghost story, rather a sombre whodunnit several years down the line from the murder in question, this feels more like Hitchcock than most of Hitchcock's silent films did. The tormented widow is the star, even if the twist ending tries to steal her thunder.
3. Faust (1926)
Surely the best special effects of the decade outside of Metropolis, but these are mainly confined to the spellbinding first third. I've never been as taken with the German Faust that lacks the tomfoolery of the English Faustus, and the sagging middle is a bore before it eventually deals out a bloody dark ending.
This simplistic song of an overly forgiving farmer's wife and her adulterous, abusive cock of a husband having an eventful day out in the city wasn't so melodious to me. But nice sets and that.
1. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror, 1922)
I can't have watched this too many times, but the power of those visuals and the economised/archaic/translated intertitles ("The deathship had a new captain!") means much of it's permanently seared onto my brain like an overwatched childhood favourite. The definitive Dracula for me, even more than the novel, my favourite horror film and an all-time top 10 for sure. The Kino version is the best I've seen, but I have nostalgic fondness for the anachronistic Art Zoyd soundtrack version.
