Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht

How odd — it looks like this has been dubbed into German? There’s no English soundtrack in this .mkv, but the lips definitely don’t match up to what they’re saying…

Oh!

There are two different versions of the film, one in which the actors speak English, and one in which they speak German.

Hm… Oh! There’s another file here — where they speak English, but otherwise identical? The lips match up a lot better here.

It still seems like it was filmed without audio and the voices were looped in, but it’s less strange in the English version.

Yeah, that’s a Herzog shot.

Anyway, this is the most “traditional” Herzog movie I can remember watching? That is, this could have been basically any Italian/German/Soviet copro-duction from around this time?

But I mean, only good.

Klaus! Finally!

It’s so cosy.

Oh, wow, now it’s not a run-of-the-mill movie any more.

Once Klaus is here, it’s all suddenly fascinating. I love how he plays Dracula as both terrifying and pathetic at the same time.

I love this! I haven’t seen the Murnau since like the 90s, so I don’t remember it in detail. But is this a scene-by-scene remake or something? So many of the shots look familiar, but I haven’t seen this movie before.

Wikipedia says I’m not insane:

Several shots in the movie are faithful recreations of iconic images from Murnau’s original film, some almost perfectly identical to their counterparts, intended as homages to Murnau.[

Man, that’s a lot of rats. If there’s “No Rats Were Hurt During The Making Of This Movie”, I don’t believe it.

Nosferatu. Werner Herzog. 1979. ⚄

Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle

Oh, hi! Yes, I started watching the Werner Herzog box set.

I’ve only seen a handful of Herzog movies before — and they all seem to have scenes like this in them?

Oh! I couldn’t help myself — I wikipedied Kaspar Hauser.:

Kaspar Hauser (30 April 1812 – 17 December 1833)

So he was only *counts on fingers* 21 when he died! That makes a whole lot more sense! I found it so bizarre that all these people would take care of this middle aged dude… I mean, people are more sceptical towards teh oldes than teenagers.

I mean, I love his performance here, but it was confusing.

(The er bird ate a frog.) I don’t think I’ve seen a single Herzog movie where some animal hasn’t been killed on screen? I mean, I’m not horrified or anything, but it’s definitely a Herzog schtick?

Did that guy just tell that riddle wrong? He said “there’s one guy from the village of truth, and one guy from the village of lies, and you have only one question to determine which is which”. Which is, of course, absolutely trivial, and Kaspar nails it (upsetting that berk up there). Is that… a commentary from Herzog about how stupid people were in those days or … what?

I forgot what the real riddle was, so I had to google.

I really like this movie. Herzog makes some really strange choices (especially in the pacing), but it works? It somehow feels a bit abrupt, even if not a lot happens? It’s odd, and I respect that.

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. Werner Herzog. 1974. ⚄