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Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Silent, English Intertitles)
Location
Main screening room
Date
July 21st, 2023
Duration
94 min
Cycle
Horror Stories

Cinema is a screen onto which we can project our fears, torments and the monstrosities of the world. The screen protects us from what we see, but cinema has also permanently anchored our nightmares around a few powerful images (empty houses, hostile attics and basements, demonic masks, bloodcurdling grimaces, disturbing postures). Throughout the summer, the Cinémathèque québécoise will be presenting a series of films encompassing more than one hundred and twenty years of horror, reminding us that what scares us most is to make the deepest of our fears tangible and credible.

Piano accompaniment by Guillaume Martineau
16 mm print from our collections

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
Directed by
F. W. Murnau
Language
Silent, English Intertitles
Actors
Max Schreck, Alexander Granach, Greta Schroeder
Origins
Germany
Year
1922
Duration
94 min
Genre
Horror, silent
Format
16 mm
Synopsis

A young notary clerk goes to Transylvania to meet Count Orlok, who wants to buy a property in the city. But the Count turns out to be Nosferatu, the dreaded vampire of the region.

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror

F. W. Murnau

Born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe in 1888 in the German Empire, Murnau studied philology, art history and literature. He then joined Max Reinhardt's theater company. He met many artists and intellectuals of the time, including the painter Franz Marc. During the First World War, Murnau fought on the front and in the Air Force before being taken prisoner. Upon his return to Germany, he founded a film studio with the actor Conrad Veidt and began directing. Starting with Nosferatu in 1922, he became a leading figure of German expressionism and imposed the innovative genius of his mise en scène. In 1926, he moved to Hollywood where he made four films, including his masterpiece The Dawn, before being killed at an early age in a car accident a few days before the premiere of his last film, Taboo.

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