Have no fear for your light switches - that's just the stark and shadowy world of German Expressionism! Dolly Back switches gears and tackles a canonical behemoth in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), now a centennial (and indeed timeless) tale of pestilence and the power of love. Famously part of scholar Siegfried Kracaeur's overview of Germany's film culture reflecting the anxeties of their political climate, its titular vampire is an outlier in its own genre and representation of Stoker's character. 100 years on the story continues to resonate, particularly with a polysemous icon whose interpretations can vary from the triumphant vanquishing of the tyrant to an exceedingly harmful instance of Other-ing. In the pod's oldest and first silent film exercise, your hosts dive into a filmmaking mode that still offers us a perfect crash course in mood and allegory, while also parsing the responsibilities of framing a movie monster.
J. Hoberman's Article on Tablet Magazine - The Twinned Evils of 'Nosferatu'
Siegfried Kracaeur's Book - From Caligari to Hitler (Chapter 6: Procession of Tyrants, p77-87)
Nosferatu (1922) on YouTube
