While ostensibly a remake, Werner Herzog's 'Nosferatu The Vampyre' is actually an art form masquerading as a horror. True, there is a sense of true dread permeating in every frame, but it's not so much dread of a superficial movie sense, instead, it's a dread that strikes close to home for every viewer. We are not afraid of death itself, but of the anticipation of it, what the circumstances will be and how we will go out. Herzog explores this fundamental human fear by personifying it in the form of his greatest muse and dearest enemy, Klaus Kinski. When the film opens, we see upfront we are in for one Hell of a depressing yet morbidly beautiful ride, in this case, we are treated to a lingering shot of the Mummies of Guanajuato to the soundtrack of Popol Vuh, a musical motif that will come back to haunt you as the film goes on. It's a simplistic scene, but it never fails to send a slight shiver down your spine because you are looking at real dead people of all ages, frozen in time, looking eerily like porcelain dolls.
Although I for the most part find arthouse films utterly pretentious, there are also a few out there that defy convention and actually have a story to tell, 'Nosferatu' being one of them. I know how bias that sounds, but one only needs to watch this film in it's entirety, on their own, without anybody gabbing in their ear to get an appreciation for it. While it is mainly a piece of art visually, the actors aren't left in the dust, rather, they are part of the picture. It also helps that while Kinski's Count Dracula is an abomination to behold, Isabelle Adjani has the presence of a woman in a Waterhouse painting- visually flawless, untouchable but vulnerable. It is these two characters that act as the primary contrast between the beautiful yet ultimately fragile mortal life (Adjani) and bitter immortality (Kinski). The motifs of life and death are heavy in this movie, but I personally found it was these two actors who brought this notion truly close to the heart. When Dracula sees how indisputably devoted to Jonathan Lucy is, Dracula wishes to take part in such love, but she refuses him, saying nothing on this Earth could make her leave Jonathan's side for him, not even death itself. Just as Murnau's original did, Herzog chooses to deviate from the story, using the same plot points, characters are much the same in terms of their relationships, I find that Herzog's version is thematically and dramatically stronger, all the while not pissing on Murnau's work. Rather than trying to top what Murnau did, or insult the film maker's work for that matter, Herzog is paying respect to it. Neither version is better than the other per se, just different, and it is this difference that makes Herzog's version shine.
Despite this film having a general grounding in human reality, Herzog wisely incorporates the deathly mysticism of death, through not only Dracula himself, but also his effect on the living. You see, Dracula is Death who can't die by his own hand, and thus, the only thing he can do is keep himself existing by feeding on the weak. In order to do this, he travels with armies of plague rats, wherever he goes, they go and disease and death result. Although Dracula is a powerful and encompassing being, he is also pathetic to the very core, and he knows it. He doesn't embrace what he is with feverent passion, he is all to aware that he is not meant to be on this Earth as there really is no place for him. While he may not be truly inevitable as death itself, he is indiscriminate like an illness that will only stop when he is exterminated. One could say that the rats are his preferred company because they too are seen commonly as vermin and undesirable by the living. In a spectacularly disturbing yet simultaneously beautiful sequence, Adjani's Lucy stumbles through her town square watching the townsfolk celebrate their inevitable death by reveling like they truly are going to die tomorrow. She sees formally set dinner tables laden with food with rats crawling over them, people are joining hands and chanting festive songs, one man even tries to mount a goat, all because they know this is the end. Herzog affirms that when people can no longer panic about the inevitability death, all they can do is embrace it.
Ahhh, but we do need a bit of levity. Perhaps one of the most fantastic and astounding portrayals of Renfield can be found here in the form of Roland Topor. I honestly haven't seen anything else by this guy, but damn is he ever the gleefully endearing maniac. You hate Topor's stupid giggle and idiotically optimistic face for about five minutes before you end up loving him. So devoted he is to Dracula, so much like a dog, unconditionally loving yet afraid, he even rubs himself against his master while whining like a puppy. He literally lives to serve this freak of nature It's unlike anything you have ever seen, seriously. Well, perhaps in high school.
To my mind, there have been many reviews before me who have written up this film who have done it more justice than I have, but if you still need some convincing, all I can say is that this film is a beautiful nightmare in motion that will likely draw you in like a fly in a web slowly succumbing to the spider's venom and there is nothing you can do to escape it, and in the end, you will welcome it.
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