October 28th: NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE (Werner Herzog, 1979)

A faithful retelling of Bram Stoker's Dracula story.

German-born Werner Herzog is a self-taught filmmaker who traveled extensively as a teenager, and made a series of shorts before his feature debut Signs Of Life in 1968. Soon after came international art house hit Aguirre, The Wrath Of God, and along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Wim Wenders he became a major figure in the New German Cinema movement.

Herzog used his clout to produce a long-imagined project, a remake of Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau, the highly-influential silent German classic. For all practical purposes an adaptation of Dracula, Murnau was forced to change the title and character names due to copyright issues, and while not facing the same constraints in the late 70s, Herzog kept the alternate name for his remake.

Using a limited budget and small crew, Herzog was unable to shoot in the location of the original film and went on location in the Netherlands instead. Additional scenes were shot in Bavaria, Czechoslovakia, and Mexico.

Starring in the title role is frequent collaborator Klaus Kinski, whose volatile relationship with the director was eventually the subject of the documentary My Best Fiend. Also in the cast are French actors Isabelle Adjani (Possession) and Roland Torpor, as well as prominent German actor Bruno Ganz (Wings Of Desire).

Behind the camera was Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein, who worked on a number of Herzog's other films. Many shots are virtual recreations of ones from Murnau's film. Due to a deal with American distributor 20th Century Fox, all the scenes were shot twice, with both German and English dialogue.

The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival, where it won a special award for its production design. It received positive reviews from critics, and was an international box office success. Roger Ebert wrote enthusiastically about the film in his retrospective "The Great Movies" column.

Running time is 1 hr, 45 min.