Film: Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Last night.. well, appropriately for London Museums A-Z's Dracula activities, the 1979 Nosferatu, with Klaus Kinski as Dracula (he's certainly scary enough), Isabelle Adjani as Lucy (sic.) Harker, and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, written and directed by Werner Herzog, was showing in Cine Lumiere..! And I'd never seen it, would you believe. Part of a season of her films. I flagged it to the Dracula group, and in the end, between that and The Hideout, four of us arranged to go!
I was in the office, of course - discovered I could get a bus from there in time, but I'd be cutting it fine - so I left early: but with no sign of the bus I chose (and no internet reception where I was waiting), I said sod it, and took the Piccadilly Line. Got there in decent time, but there was no sign of my companions - we were in the small screen, so I headed down there, to find a sign asking us to wait for the usher. While I did that, got a message from one of the group, who wasn't feeling up to it. Indeed, neither of my other companions had arrived by the time we went in! I took my seat.. one arrived just as the trailers started, the other during them. All's well that ends well..
I have no idea why Werner Herzog used the original names, but changed their function - he swapped Lucy and Mina (although it seems he wasn't the first to do that, by a long shot), and made Renfield into Jonathan's boss! I suppose that makes some sense, Dracula's faithful follower sending him a lawyer, both to complete his house purchase, and to feed on..
That aside, this is a terrific film to look at. It's fantastically moody.. lots of long, meaningful stares, Dracula himself bald and ill-looking, with red lips and red-rimmed eyes. And gosh - it's a pity the last of my companions couldn't make it, because it was she was telling me how similar the latest version of Nosferatu was to this, in style.. and boy, could I see it. Jonathan's wife, black hair, white skin, usually dressed in white, lying in a bed of flowers at the last.. the bald, scary Dracula with the long nails.. the teeming rats, speaking to the idea of Dracula as a bringer of plague!
It's intense - but for much of it, it's the mood that carries it. The action does ramp up at the end, where it becomes decently scary - and this Dracula is played very well, as a creature that can't help its actions, but is driven by a primal need. Van Helsing, mind you, who's the family doctor in this, seems half senile! The least effective version of him I've ever seen. And I do prefer the later Nosferatu, with a much scarier Dracula. Still, as I say, it's a great film to watch, with powerful imagery. Highly recommended for fans of the Gothic.
Afterwards, we decided to go get food, and ended up in side streets I'd never been in before - we found space at an Italian called Rocca, which had plenty of tables, and where we could have sat outside, but I figured it was actually a bit chilly. We got a lovely, big, round table to the side, and had a lovely meal. That was more for the company than for the food though - mine, at least, was ok, but not remarkable.. the calamari were a bit rubbery, the carbonara wasn't spectacular, but the quantity proved too much for me. The salted caramel ice cream was nice - and one of my companions raved about his extremely lemony sorbet, with real zest! Vin santo was an option for dessert wine, which my other companion had - but I was still on the regular, and didn't join him - was slightly jealous. Service was excellent, quick and friendly.
Delighted I had company for this, a film I always wanted to see - and good company, at that! It was a very good night. Ran too late to blog, though.
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