Nosferatu the Vampyre (5 Stars)

"Nosferatu the Vampyre", made in 1979, is an adaptation of the novel "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, but it follows the 1922 film "Nosferatu" so closely that it could almost be considered a remake.

The German director Werner Herzog had the greatest respect for "Nosferatu". He said it was the best film ever made in Germany. I don't know why he nevertheless decided to make a new version of it, but I can hazard a few guesses. He wanted to make a clean version as an alternative to the old fuzzy tapes. He wanted to restore the original names from the novel, because the original film had changed the names and places to avoid copyright complaints.

Herzog changed Count Orlok's name to Count Dracula. For that we can be thankful. He also changed Hutter's name to Jonathan Harker, but his other changes were confused. In "Nosferatu" Hutter's wife was called Ellen, but he changed her name to Lucy Harker in his new film. Stop! In the novel Jonathan's fiancée/wife is called Mina, and Mina's best friend is Lucy. In Werner Herzog's film Jonathan's wife is called Lucy, and her best friend is Mina. There's no justification for this swapping of names. It's a blunder.

Bram Stoker's novel was set in England, partly in London and partly in Whitby, Yorkshire. "Nosferatu" was set in a fictional town in Germany. Werner Herzog decided to set the story in the beautiful East German town Wismar. Unfortunately, he wasn't given permission to film in Wismar – the East German government was erratic in what it did and didn't allow – so he filmed the Wismar scenes in Delft, a Dutch town near to The Hague. That would have worked well if Herzog had paid more attention to the background while filming. The street signs are written in Dutch!

"Nosferatu the Vampyre" isn't the most accurate adaptation of Bram Stoker's "Dracula", and it might not be the best adaptation, but it's undoubtedly the most beautiful adaptation. The houses, the scenery, the people... everything is stunningly beautiful. When I watch a film I like to take a few screenshots to showcase a film's beauty, but in the case of this film it's hardly possible. There are so many beautiful scenes that I'd need to include a hundred screenshots to give an impression of the film.

Jonathan Harker has to walk across a waterfall to arrive at the castle in Transylvania.

His wife Lucy sits pining in a cemetery overlooking the sea.

Lucy also looks longingly out of her window while a windmill turns in the reflection. Are there windmills in Wismar? I doubt it.

Klaus Kinski puts on an awesome performance as Dracula. I consider him to be the best actor who's ever lived. I see him as a bridge between silent films and the talking film era. He has the powerful facial expressions that were typical for the great actors of silent films, but he can also talk in any way demanded by his roles. Bruno Ganz is also an excellent actor, so it's a pleasure to see the two on screen together.

The film is rounded off by the outstanding music composed and played by Florian Fricke, a frequent collaborator of Werner Herzog.

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