and so my somewhat unexpected interest in going to the cinema last year (2024) continues into this one, look you see. with me ending up being based, for a week, near a cinema within walking distance, off i went to go and see (at this moment in time) a fairly recent release. true, i wasn't all that bothered about seeing Nosferatu, but the reviews were rather good. should you be in a rush, i am glad that i did, for it is a fine if not radically life changing film.
if you are wanting plot details, essentially (as in actually) it's a slightly altered version of Dracula. for some reason the current "myth" being floated is that Nosferatu was a German story which "just so happened" to come along around the time of Dracula. not so, except the German bit. it was a deliberate and flagrant rip off, which a court confirmed when the makers got sued for copyright. you could do worse than read up on it all as it's quite interesting.
the ever so slight spin to the usual plot here (and by the way, spoilers from here on out) is that in the first instance it is the central female character, Ellen, who "summons" the vampire into existence, kind of out of boredom. oddly, actually, the spin works. beyond that, much the same.
yes, then, once again it was off to the Ealing Project to see the film, where i went several (i think actually seven) times last year. it is still so that Tuesday is an agreeable "half price", which meant in coins £7.50 for the ticket. regular (or medium) popcorn and a large (actually massive) coke came in at £9. also they had a sign up which indicated that the air conditioning was busted. not a problem, and i figured that i would just take my jumper off if it got too hot. alas, as it turned out the aircon was busted in the other direction, and it felt like we were all sat in a fridge watching the film. kind of apt, since i am reluctant to say "cool", way to watch a gothic film.
when the film started i had a bit of a "meh" sense. the leads, Lilly-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult, at first felt they were a little wooden, and nightmares of Keanu Reeves "doing" an English accent came to mind. as it all progressed, however, fears went away. the performances were accurate to the characters, and not (thankfully) a sort of odd tribute to the somewhat weak parts of the otherwise superb Dracula of 1993 (or thereabouts).
on that note, the vampire, here named Orlok, was given the "less is more", hidden in the shadows approach. very wise, really, as to play a full tilt, charismatic, out in the open variation of the character is to invite comparisons to Gary Oldman and, of course, Christopher Lee. few mortals can do well in such a comparison. Bill Skarsgård does fine in the role as it was done. standout for me was Simon McBurney who was outstanding as Knock, the enslaved servant to the vampire. in respect of the main cast draw, Willem Dafoe does his thing. i liked the approach they took with the "vampire hunter", not making him a noisy loud eccentric, rather a highly educated man who had seen enough to know that so much more lurks in the places we cannot, or dare not, see.
my main thoughts on what makes this film so good is its pacing. that may sound strange, but bear with. the only real flaw with what was probably my "best" film of last year, The Substance, was that the wrong bits were either dragged out or rushed. over the course of north of two hours Nosferatu manages to successfully hold audience attention, no matter how familiar one is with the story, by delivering a superb example of how to structure and pace a motion picture. that's what overall elevates this to being a really good film. student learning their craft would, from my audience perspective, do well to study how this was put together.
further there was, unexpectedly, quite a bit of nudies (female) on the go. this was a very welcome surprise, except for the one bit of nudies what featured (and you sort of had a spoiler warning) rats. also there were one or two scenes featuring special effects which suggested that those what made this had seen both The Evil Dead and The Exorcist and liked what they saw.
no idea what film next, or when i shall next be close enough to the cinema. from what i can remember of the trailers Sinners looks excellent, Mickey 17 looks really funny and Wolf Man might be all right, if unlikely to rival any of my favourite werewolf films.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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