Inspired by the exploration of interwar abstraction in New Harmony: Abstraction between the Wars, 1919–1939, this June the Sackler Center for Arts Education screens two of the most well known and influential German Expressionist films.
An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nosferatu is the quintessential silent vampire film, crafted by legendary German director F. W. Murnau (Sunrise, Faust, The Last Laugh).
Rather than depicting Dracula as a shape-shifting monster or debonair gentleman, Murnau's Graf Orlok is a nightmarish, spidery creature of bulbous head and taloned claws—perhaps the most genuinely disturbing incarnation of vampirism yet envisioned.
Nosferatu was an atypical expressionist film in that much of it was shot on location. While directors such as Lang and Lubitsch built vast forests and entire towns within the studio, Nosferatu's landscapes, villages, and castle were actual locations in the Carpathian mountains. Murnau was thus able to infuse the story with the subtle tones of nature, both pure and fresh as well as twisted and sinister.
Release Year: 1922
Running Time: 84
Color Type: Tinted B&W
Language: English intertitles
|Jun 21||2 pm|
|Jun 28||2 pm|