Nosferatu (1922) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens ("A Symphony of Horror" in German) is a German Expressionist film shot in 1922 by F.W. Murnau. He had wanted to film a version of Bram Stoker's Dracula, but his studio was unable to obtain the rights to the story. Murnau decided to film his own version and made only slight changes to the story. The resultant movie has many similarities to Stoker's original tale. "Dracula" became "Nosferatu" and the names of the characters changed, with Count Dracula changed to Count Orlok. The original "Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horrors" premiered at the Marble Gardens in the Berlin Zoological Gardens, March 1922. This was the first film of the production company Prana-Film GmbH; it was also the last as they declared bankruptcy after Bram Stokers estate - acting for his widow, Florence Stoker - sued for copyright infringement and won. In July 1925 the court ordered all existing prints of "Nosferatu" destroyed, but a number of copies of the film had already been distributed around the world. "Nosferatu" has justifiably gaining a reputation as one of the greatest movie adaptations of the vampire legend. Directed by: Fw Murnau |
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Did You Know?Contrary to popular opinion, the word "nosferatu" does not mean "vampire", "undead", or anything else like that. The term originally came from the old Slavonic word "nosufur-atu", which itself was derived from the Greek "nosophoros". "Nosophoros", in the original Greek, stands for "plague carrier". This derivation makes sense when one considers that amongst western European nations, vampires were regarded as the carriers of many diseases, such as sexually transmitted diseases, TB, etc. Related FilmsThe Cabinet of Dr Caligari |
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