Nosferatu and German Expressionism Expressionism itself was an artistic movement that occurred in Europe in the early nineteen hundreds. The movement is said to have started around “1908 as a style of painting and the theatre”. The movement spread across Europe but Germany was considered the epicenter of Expressionism, where it was said to be more intense than any other nation in Europe. The Expressionist style was essentially a rejection of realism. In painting, artists would not use the clever shading techniques, for example, to make the subject look real, like painters at the time had been doing for so long. They might use brighter or darker colors and make people look distorted and often creepy and grotesque. “In late February 1920, a film premiered in Berlin that was instantly recognized as something new in cinema: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”. Although Dr. Caligari, directed by Robert Wiene, was considered the first Expressionist film and would spark a massive movement in the film industry, it did not come as much of a shock to a lot of film critics since the movement was already so prevalent in other art forms. Nonetheless, many more film makers followed suit in making movies that featured the Expressionist style. One such movie was Nosferatu. Made in 1922 and directed by F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu was for all intents and purposes a horror film. The protagonist, Hutter, who works for a real estate company, is sent to the mysterious estate of a potentially huge client, who turns out to be Nosferatu, a hideous and grotesque monster of a person. During his stay at Nosferatu’s castle, many odd things start to happen, and Hutter begins to notice that there is something very strange about his potential client. When he finds Nosferatu asleep in a coffin in the middle of the day, the audience pretty much knows he is a vampire. The reason this film is so important is that it embodies the Expressionist style so well, not to mention it was one of the first films in which the monster is the star. Specifically, the film’s use of mise-en-scene, its characters, and its narrative are extremely Expressionistic. Also, it very much reflects the culture that existed during the era of the Weimar Republic in Germany. In terms of film, mise-en-scene refers to the style of framing that which is being captured by the camera. In other words, it consists of the set, the lighting, the props, the actors, the costumes, and even the positioning of all of these things. Expressionist filmmakers would use mise-en-scenes similar to the work of Expressionist painters, such as distorted figures and stark contrast between dark and light or strangely angled shots. Essentially they would apply the Expressionist style to the way they shot films. In Nosferatu, the mise-en-scene was extremely Expressionistic. There was a lot of use of the frame within a frame technique to emphasize a particular aspect of a character or setting. There are several examples of this in the film. For instance, all of the shots of Nosferatu in a dark tunnel or doorway, often arched doorways to emphasize his hunched back. Indeed one of the main things Murnau was trying to do was show just how horrifying, nasty, disgusting, and creepy Nosferatu is. There is definitely a theme of caves or dark tunnels used in the mise-en-scene to portray that he comes from the dark depths of the earth, or the “underworld” such as the realm of Hades. Specifically, when Nosferatu is on the boat coming into town, there is a shot of him slowly creeping up the stairs from the hull of the ship, which is just pitch black and most certainly resembling a cave. There is also a theme of expressing sharp contrast between good and evil although they coexist in the film. For example, Hutter’s house seems like utopia. He has nice things, a loving wife, and there is lots of light inside; so the house itself represents good. But right across from his house is the massive, dark, old, ugly, and broken down property that Nosferatu is trying to purchase. “The facade of this spooky domicile is all darkened windows and doorways,”. It’s almost a metaphor. When Nosferatu is asleep during the day while there is light, all is well and everyone is happy. But while Nosferatu is awake at night, bad things start to happen. You may notice that all of the bad things tend to happen at night in the film. Murnau also uses a lot of shadows to make scenes even more unreal. Perhaps the most famous scene in the movie is when Nosferatu is walking up the stairs and all the audience sees is his profile on the wall, making him look even more distorted, somehow even more monstrous. It is amazing how Murnau was able to use such Expressionistic mise-en-scene throughout the entire movie. In almost every shot, one could argue that he was making some sort of Expressionist statement. Murnau uses his characters to present Expressionist values as well. Obviously Nosferatu comes to mind. He is essentially the embodiment of evil. He is disgusting and foul in every way imaginable. He has long pointy fingers and ears. He is abnormally tall and hunch-backed. He has extremely long legs and is freakishly skinny. He has dark circles under his eyes and long pointy teeth. He is really like a rat, and I think that is how Murnau was trying to portray Nosferatu’s character. Although the “Dracula” vampire character we think of exhibits qualities of a bat, Nosferatu has rat-like qualities. A specific example of this connection in the film occurs when he is on the boat in his coffin, which is stored with several other coffins, and the crew of the boat looks inside one of the coffins, and they find nothing but dirt and rats, which are what spread the plague and create a scare throughout the town. It is no coincidence that the plague starts to spread just as Nosferatu approaches the town. As stated before, Nosferatu represents evil, so evil follows him wherever he goes. Also, as he gets closer to the town Hutter’s wife, who has been reading the legends about Nosferatu, begins to feel his presence. Hutter’s wife, to me, expresses temptation. Nosferatu has come all this way just for a taste of her neck. In fact she is the one who kills him by tempting him to stay long enough to burn from the sunlight in the morning. Hutter, himself, tries to be positive about everything. He represents what is good in life, but he very much becomes the innocent victim of Nosferatu’s advancements. He is the character that the audience relates to and roots for. Also, Hutter’s boss seems eerie and sort of resembles a rat like Nosferatu. When he gives Hutter the assignment, he definitely knows something is up, and maybe it isn’t just Hutter’s wife who embodies temptation. I believe that Nosferatu himself tempts multiple characters, including Hutter’s boss with the lure of money for the big house. And Hutter’s wife cannot help but read the legends of Nosferatu even though Hutter specifically tells her not to read them, and she can feel him as he nears. So for all of these reasons, Murnau’s characters play a vital role in creating an Expressionist feel throughout the film. The story itself, the narrative, is Expressionist in that it is very dream-like. Dreaminess is used a lot in Expressionist films because it helps present the fantastical and unreal aspects of a film. The movie really seems like a bad dream. One day, you are off to meet an exciting new client who is supposed to buy a huge property, and when you get there, he starts sucking your blood, and you notice he sleeps all day in a coffin, not to mention he looks like a rat person. Maybe the most significant aspect of the entire film is how it reflects what was going on during the era of the Weimar Republic because that is era during which the film was made. The Weimar Republic existed in Germany from 1919-1933. The people living under it suffered greatly. There was a massive economic crisis in which the people experienced rapid inflation, not to mention a catastrophically bad famine that killed about 750,000 people, which is an absurd number. All of this was because of the impact World War I had on Germany. The Treaty of Versailles called for reparations from the Germans, which strangled supplies for the people living in Germany. Times were so bad for these people that they would want to escape; just to go literally anywhere else. They would even want to go enter a nightmare by watching Nosferatu. At least it was different from the nightmare of their lives. In Nosferatu, there are scenes of dead people in coffins being carried down a main street in the town, which I’m sure many people in the audience had seen in real life during the famine. Also Hutter escapes his normal life to go to a nightmarish castle that houses a vampire who sucks his blood. In other words, he escapes reality. In town everything is just as it is for anyone in the audience, but as soon as he leaves town for Nosferatu’s castle, he finds himself in an alternate reality, a nightmare. He has separated himself from everyone and everything he knows. What is important to understand about Nosferatu and indeed all Expressionist films is the way they are supposed to make you feel. The sum of all of the separate Expressionist values is what matters. The contrasting lighting, the use of shadows, frame within a frame, and other mise-en-scene techniques mixed with the types of characters in the film and the narrative itself. All of those things can come together to create a creepy and dreamy feel as you watch a movie that you just don’t get in real life, or in other genres of film at the time for that matter.