Featured Movies
Partners
Shadow of the VampireA good film with Eddie Izzard in it. Whatever next? This smart horror yarn tells of the production of Nosferatu, that highpoint of German silent cinema. When Bram Stoker's widow refuses to sell the rights to 'Dracula', director FW Murnau (Malkovich) simply concocts his own, highly derivative tale of one Count Orlok. Bemused crew in tow, he does the unheard of - heads off to Czechoslovakia for some location shooting. The local peasants' superstitions seem simply amusing until Murnau introduces the cast and crew to sinister lead man, Max Schreck (Dafoe). Hunched, black-clad and rat-faced, method extremo Schreck ostensibly stays in character the whole time. But when the cinematographer, who has mysteriously fallen ill, is hastily replaced, the rumour grows that Schreck is one of the undead. The notion that Schreck was a vampire is said to have circulated in the 1920s. Screenwriter Katz and director Merhige do a remarkable job of mixing warped history with freshly horrific fiction. Sections of Nosferatu are recreated and intercut with moments from the actual film, 1920s production techniques lovingly portrayed.
The cast thrive on the originality of the ideas. Malkovich is camp and egotistical as Murnau - as much a monster as the reclusive freak he is trying to exploit. Dafoe's Schreck is not only a fabulous evocation of the jerky celluloid vampire, he is a complex character: part arrogant old-European noble, part vermin. Izzard as the panda-eyed lead man, Elwes as the gung-ho replacement cinematographer, Kier as the producer: all are good, hilariously evoking the waxing and waning hysteria of luvvies confronted by the incomprehensible. An imaginatively twisted lesson in film history and a glorious gothic comedy-drama.
|
