1979 was a very good year for Count Dracula on the silver screen, at least judging by the number of titles featuring Bram Stoker’s iconic character. Apart from John Badham’s Dracula, arguably the most faithful of all adaptations of the original novel, many films in that year directly and indirectly tried to exploit the legendary icon of the horror genre, and even Communist Romania contributed to the trend with Vlad Ţepeş, an epic dedicated to the real historical figure that had inspired Bram Stoker. For the audience more inclined to films with artistic ambition, the best Dracula film that year was Nosferatu the Vampyre, a Franco-West German co-production directed by Werner Herzog.
The film begins with disturbing images of mummified corpses, which are soon revealed to be a nightmarish vision of Lucy Harker (played by Isabelle Adjani), a young, beautiful woman living in the 19th‑century German city of Wismar. Her husband, real estate agent Jonathan (played by Bruno Ganz), has been tasked with helping the mysterious Count Dracula to buy a house in Wismar. Despite Lucy begging him not to go, he travels to Transylvania to sign the contract with the Count. There he encounters locals unwilling to help him reach the Count’s mountain castle, and Jonathan is forced to go alone. There he finally meets the Count (played by Klaus Kinski), who is revealed as a grotesquely hideous and almost inhuman creature with pale skin, long nails and sharp, rat‑like fangs. When Jonathan accidentally cuts himself during a bizarre supper, the Count reveals his strange fondness for drinking human blood, as well as an obsession with Lucy’s image in Jonathan’s locket. That and many other incidents convince Jonathan that Count Dracula is actually a vampire, but by that time it is too late. With the contract signed, Dracula arranges to be transported in a coffin aboard a ship bound for Wismar. When he arrives, he brings with him thousands of rats and the plague, which would devastate the city. Jonathan arrives too, but he is of little use, being struck by what Doctor Van Helsing (played by Walter Ladengast) calls “brain fever”. Lucy reads her husband’s journal and becomes the only person who knows what Dracula is, why he is obsessed with her and how to destroy him. She decides to set a trap that would kill Dracula but also sacrifice her own life.
Nosferatu the Vampyre works less as an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel and more as a remake of Nosferatu, the 1922 silent film by F.W. Murnau, known as one of the classics of German Expressionist cinema. Herzog, who claims that this legendary version is the best Dracula film ever made, went into this project with the clear intention to pay homage, and it is reflected not only in his old collaborator Klaus Kinski becoming almost unrecognisable by being made up to look almost exactly like Max Shreck in the 1922 version, but also in many static shots that pay homage to Murnau’s film. On the other hand, Herzog tries to combine this approach with his own style, with semi‑documentary scenes that show breathtaking Carpathian locations. That combination of Gothic iconography and realism isn’t always fortunate, and Nosferatu, especially in its opening segments, looks like a cheap television production. Only in later segments does it start looking like a grand film, due to disturbing scenes of thousands of rats invading city streets, as well as endless funeral processions.
This disturbing vision is somewhat compromised by Herzog’s attempts to inject some black humour, especially at the end, when he indulges in a little revisionism. For example, Van Helsing in this film is revealed to be a pathetic, useless old man, and Lucy’s failed attempts to ask her fellow citizens of plague‑stricken Wismar and the city’s descent into anarchy could be interpreted as Herzog’s anti‑establishment views being projected into a Gothic story. This, just like the ironic ending, doesn’t hurt the film too much, but Nosferatu nevertheless looks a little incoherent. Thankfully, the brilliant and iconic performance of Kinski is here to save the day, and Adjani, with her almost supernatural, angelic beauty, is the perfect choice for the role of Lucy. With those two strong performances, and even with Ganz being completely overshadowed by them, Nosferatu will provide a memorable viewing experience and satisfy even the audience that prefers a more conventional approach to the horror genre.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
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