D V D s
of restorationist David Shepard has long been to remain as faith­ ful as possible to the original German, and this new DVD re­ flects significant changes in text. In the 1997 DVD, Herr Knock advises Thomas Hutter that his appointment with Orlock may cost him “a bit of pain—or even a little blood,” while the 2001 disc has Knock predicting “...a bit of effort... a bit of sweat... and per­ haps... a bit of blood.” Setting off on foot for Orlock’s castle, Hutter is warned in the previous version that “evil spirits become all powerful after dark,” while he is now informed that “the were­ wolf is roaming the forests!” Folk- loric references to the “cursed earth” upon which vampires must rest now cite “the god­ damned soil from the fields of the Black Death,” and what has long been the film’s most quot­ able (and poetic) intertitle—“And when he had crossed the bridge, the phantoms came to meet him”—is replaced with the more prosaic “As soon as Hutter had crossed the bridge, the eerie faces he had so often told me about, took hold of him.” On the plus side, what was once a tan- talizingly brief headline in Knock’s stolen newspaper (“New Plague Baffles Science” ) is here a full news story, and through- out the intertitles are tinted to complement the scenes in which they appear. (The “Book of the Vampires” is now retitled “Of Vampires, Terrible Ghosts, Magic and the Seven Deadly Sins” and is a thing of beauty.) Changes in intertitle text oc­
casional bedevil the supplemen­ tal audio essay by Lokke Heiss (recorded for the laserdisc), which had used Orlock’s first line to Hutter (“You were late, young man”) as an example of how the film pits ancient against modern;
now that Orlock simply scolds Hutter for his tardiness (“ I have waited for you—I have waited too long” ), Heiss’ comment “The Count makes the point that Tho­ mas is young” seems unsup­ ported. Citing Orlock’s reaction to Ellen’s long distance “cry of warning” (ostensibly to Hutter, according to the common trans­ lation) as an example of how Murnau played text against im­ age to engender viewer unease, Heiss is clotheslined again by an alternate intertitle that claims, merely, “In the morning light, Hutter decided to explore the horror of his nights.” Occasion­ ally, the DVD drops sections of Heiss’ commentary, as when the historian summed up the NOSFERATU narrative on the laserdisc’s flip side (replaced now by a full minute of silence), and Heiss’ reading of homoeroticism in the placement of Hutter’s hands as he is being stalked by Count Orlock has disappeared outright. Encoded with a dozen chap­
ters (although the Image LD was authored with 12 chapters, the 1997 DVD had only 10), the new disc offers much more in the way of extras. “The Nosferatu Tour” marks the return of Dr. Lokke Heiss, who narrates a slide show of then-and-now photographs of Mumau’s original shooting loca­ tions (taken on a 1996 junket to Germany and the former Czecho­ slovakia) showing how little many of the streets and structures have changed in 80 years. Another bonus shows a positive print of NOSFERATU’s famous negative image of Count Orlock piloting Hutter’s stagecoach, which re­ veals actor Max Schreck wrapped in a white cape and cap so that the vampire’s attire would remain black when reverse printed. The photo gallery of illustrations by
production designer Albin Grau that had appeared on the earlier LD and DVD releases appears here as well, alongside such vin­ tage ephemera as the produc­ tion’s casting call... for rats! In addition to the classic or­ gan accompaniment by Timo­ thy Howard (presented in two channel stereo and heard on the earlier Image releases and the Kino on Video cassette), Image offers an eclectic, at times ca­ pricious modern score (recorded in 5.0 stereo) by the two-man Silent Orchestra. Although some passages may sound a bit Wind­ ham Hill for horror purists, the new score is invigorating and worthwhile, selling the visuals without condescension and even approximating ambient sounds and animal noises. (Portions of the score can be sampled at
http://silentorchestra.com/
nosferatu_movie.html.) Although the new Image DVD employs cover art of Albin Grau’s famous NOSFERATU profile, the new disc is distinguishable from the earlier release for its sepia-tone (the 1997 DVD package was in B&W) and a redesigned back cover. Stickers for the new disc promote it as “the film that in­ spired SHADOW OF THE VAM­ PIRE ” ... but this is a disc well worth acquiring for its own mer­ its. —Richard Harland Smith
THE PUPPET FILMS OF JIRI TRNKA / THE EMPEROR’S NIGHTINGALE
1948-1999, Image Entertainment #ID900SASD VD, DD, 88m 46s/ 67m 9s, $29.95, DVD-A
Renowned Czechoslovakian
animator Jiri Trnka (1912-1969) receives DVD tribute in this re­ lease from Rembrandt Films and Image Entertainment—which is
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