Another great Vampire film & I love, love, love Schreck. He is the closest thing we've seen to Nosferatu since Nosferatu. The exceptionally long fingers & nails really adds to the perfect conception of the creepy Vampire & his constant clicking of those razor claws makes you nervous & anticipatory at the same time. His movements, actions & physical ticks adds to the sensory-workout of the movie.

Do you have any idea about how hard it is to get any information on Max Schreck who played the original Nosferatu????

I bought a complete copy of Nosferatu for use in my film class back in 1977...and from that time forward to right now...have found very little verifiable info on Schreck...The current wikipedia article is the best and it is flawed....in terms of his true identity, whether or not he had multiple identities, and what of the "common knowledge" (I believe it) that he wandered thru the woods and was very solitary and hidden....what does that mean....??? Its very likely Schreck was "quite unusual" as a person.

Also I have never seen any important documents come up about or by Schreck. Thats odd becuase te German Expressionist Cinema was a small group of very social people. Schreck basically disappeared.

The movie with Willem deFoe is great. Obviously they had come to the same conclusion that Schreck was as mysterious in his own way as Nosferatu himself...and then came up with this great story....

Years ago, I talked to one person in New Hope Pa who was a set designer's assistant on the original Caligari set, knew Fritz Murnau, Thea von Harbou, and the whole gang...Asked about Schreck, answer..."He would show up, do the acting, and leave. Once he asked if there was any soap left for the washroom..nothing else..."

Caiyros

Caiyros

I have to agree with Cairos, both great movies. I recently watched the original and through it kept thinking, "what great use of 'special effects' for that time." It shows that there needs to be no words to tell an excellent story and the dialogue which you read on the screen is very very minimalistic. A sentence or two if that.

The new version with Willem deFoe was a marvel as well, in my opinion. The humor was all there as well as the mysteriousness of it all. I will be watching that again this weekend.

~DelAr'.

This was actually one of the first vampire flicks I've ever seen, and i agree with DelAr, sometimes the best stories are told with little to no action whatsoever. It's really one worth seeing. I have not seen the newer one with deFoe... planning on it at some point.
BTW, I really like this new board

I am usually rarely a fan of re-makes but I felt in this case it was not a re-make, it was a representation of how the filming of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens was in 1922. I think this was the writers' way of telling the tale of the legend behind the filming. There certainly was a lot of talk, even then, about Max Schreck's behaviors and you can see there is a belief that Schreck was himself a Vampire. Perhaps he was, or partially even. He had a 16 year-long film career that encompassed many horror roles. He was obviously made for it. His presence, movements, gaze, all of it betrayed his quiet sense of self to show someone great. It has been said and recorded that he was married to Fanny Normann... but there is as little information about Fanny as there is about Max personally. You can read about Max's film career and his work as an actor, but little is said about Max as a person, his personal life and his marriage to Fanny.

I actually just saw this film for the first time very recently, and loved it! It is very eerie and cool. I have adored Nosferatu since I was quite young and now have a new favourite in this. It is quite interesting how mysterious Max was, that in itself leaves even more mystique and intrigue with the already awesome Nosferatu film.