never too many rodents!
Jan. 22nd, 2025 03:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desecretsI watched the Eggers Nosferatu in the theatre with a couple of friends today. I'm... still processing it, but overall it didn't 100% hit for me.
There were some things I really enjoyed about it, which were mainly in the design and visuals. It was really nice to finally see a Dracula adaptation that felt European!
The 1830's German setting felt (at least to me, as a non-German) fairly authentic and was at any rate extremely aesthetic; I loved the introductory shots of narrow streets crowded by pretty wooden buildings and crammed full of people in 1830's attire running errands and driving cows.
The cinematography of Thomas' journey was gorgeous, and the scenes on his arrival in Transylvania were both beautifully shot and effective: the use of local actors speaking un-subtitled Romanian (and Romani, in the scenes with the travellers) was such a breath of fresh air after decades of adaptations where everyone inexplicably speaks Hutter's/Harker's language. The fact that he couldn't understand them and had to rely on their body language established his sense of unease very well, and it was also just cool to hear so much spoken Romanian! I really liked the look of the buildings and little details like road shrines, and the scene with the Orthodox monastery (I don't remember seeing Orthodox nuns/priests in a Dracula adaptation before, but really, they should be!).
The design choices for the Count were also very innovative and honestly kind of needed: for once, he was actually outfitted like a late medieval/early modern voivode or boyar, which was really cool. Probably to cement his 'ancient evil' vibe, the production really pulled out all the stops by writing big chunks of his dialogue in a reconstructed variety of Dacian, a pre-Romanian language of the region, which certainly sounded great, so I can forgive the slight "??" of giving him a language that belongs to the migration period at the latest. Skarsgård also literally trained with an opera singer to lower his vocal register and incorporate throat singing techniques into his line deliveries, because he didn't want his voice to be digitally altered, and the effect was fantastic -- I also gotta give him huge props on his pronunciation, which was lovely. However his extremely slow delivery did begin to grate on my nerves a little once the plot speeded up.
In other details which I really appreciated as a philologist and history buff: it was a brief glimpse, and I haven't been able to find a good gif of it yet, but I think they used Old Church Slavonic and possibly some Glagolitic script on the parts which Orlok himself added to the sale contract he signs with Hutter.
Spoilers below, highlight to read!
The performances were good overall -- but the story didn't really give you time to get to know them as more than archetypes, and I didn't particularly care about any of them. I also thought the possession subplot/angle felt perhaps a little shoehorned in, and Ellen's demon-fits took up a lot of time that could have been used for characterisation (but I'm also not someone who enjoys watching that type of horror, I just find all the bodily grossness icky, so I'm inclined to be critical). When you add in the subplots of the plague and the misfortunes of the Harding family on top of that, it made the last half or third of the movie feel kind of cramped and busy to me, and kind of undercut some of the impact.
I know that the plot was based on the original Nosferatu movie, so I can't blame Eggers for this one, but it also would have been nice if Ellen had been allowed to live. The old Virtuous Woman Sacrifices Herself trope in the original already felt dated, and it became more so by the fact that Eggers decided to go for a twist wherein Ellen is not a Virtuous Woman, and it's made clear that this evil was brought upon them because of her longings and - explicitly - sexual desires. The end result was that it felt (however much the other characters never vilify her for it) a little bit like redemption through death for the slut, even if that probably wasn't what he was going for.
On the whole, if you leave aside the fact that I'm juuuust a bit too much of a horror wuss for this movie, it was a fairly enjoyable time, and it's going to need to percolate a bit more, but I still think the start was stronger than the second half.
There were some things I really enjoyed about it, which were mainly in the design and visuals. It was really nice to finally see a Dracula adaptation that felt European!
The 1830's German setting felt (at least to me, as a non-German) fairly authentic and was at any rate extremely aesthetic; I loved the introductory shots of narrow streets crowded by pretty wooden buildings and crammed full of people in 1830's attire running errands and driving cows.
The cinematography of Thomas' journey was gorgeous, and the scenes on his arrival in Transylvania were both beautifully shot and effective: the use of local actors speaking un-subtitled Romanian (and Romani, in the scenes with the travellers) was such a breath of fresh air after decades of adaptations where everyone inexplicably speaks Hutter's/Harker's language. The fact that he couldn't understand them and had to rely on their body language established his sense of unease very well, and it was also just cool to hear so much spoken Romanian! I really liked the look of the buildings and little details like road shrines, and the scene with the Orthodox monastery (I don't remember seeing Orthodox nuns/priests in a Dracula adaptation before, but really, they should be!).
The design choices for the Count were also very innovative and honestly kind of needed: for once, he was actually outfitted like a late medieval/early modern voivode or boyar, which was really cool. Probably to cement his 'ancient evil' vibe, the production really pulled out all the stops by writing big chunks of his dialogue in a reconstructed variety of Dacian, a pre-Romanian language of the region, which certainly sounded great, so I can forgive the slight "??" of giving him a language that belongs to the migration period at the latest. Skarsgård also literally trained with an opera singer to lower his vocal register and incorporate throat singing techniques into his line deliveries, because he didn't want his voice to be digitally altered, and the effect was fantastic -- I also gotta give him huge props on his pronunciation, which was lovely. However his extremely slow delivery did begin to grate on my nerves a little once the plot speeded up.
In other details which I really appreciated as a philologist and history buff: it was a brief glimpse, and I haven't been able to find a good gif of it yet, but I think they used Old Church Slavonic and possibly some Glagolitic script on the parts which Orlok himself added to the sale contract he signs with Hutter.
Spoilers below, highlight to read!
The performances were good overall -- but the story didn't really give you time to get to know them as more than archetypes, and I didn't particularly care about any of them. I also thought the possession subplot/angle felt perhaps a little shoehorned in, and Ellen's demon-fits took up a lot of time that could have been used for characterisation (but I'm also not someone who enjoys watching that type of horror, I just find all the bodily grossness icky, so I'm inclined to be critical). When you add in the subplots of the plague and the misfortunes of the Harding family on top of that, it made the last half or third of the movie feel kind of cramped and busy to me, and kind of undercut some of the impact.
I know that the plot was based on the original Nosferatu movie, so I can't blame Eggers for this one, but it also would have been nice if Ellen had been allowed to live. The old Virtuous Woman Sacrifices Herself trope in the original already felt dated, and it became more so by the fact that Eggers decided to go for a twist wherein Ellen is not a Virtuous Woman, and it's made clear that this evil was brought upon them because of her longings and - explicitly - sexual desires. The end result was that it felt (however much the other characters never vilify her for it) a little bit like redemption through death for the slut, even if that probably wasn't what he was going for.
On the whole, if you leave aside the fact that I'm juuuust a bit too much of a horror wuss for this movie, it was a fairly enjoyable time, and it's going to need to percolate a bit more, but I still think the start was stronger than the second half.
no subject
Date: 23/01/2025 07:58 pm (UTC)Thank you for pointing out the (historically correct) Romanian details! I wasn't aware how deep Eggers & Co went in there, but obviously they did, heh. I agree with you that it's a great decision to not translate the foreign language Hutter is confronted with!
However his extremely slow delivery did begin to grate on my nerves a little once the plot speeded up. - I see what you mean-- but one could argue that the Count doesn't care for speeded-up plot developments, he's just delivering his speech as languid as before, thank you, haha.
Ellen's demon-fits took up a lot of time that could have been used for characterisation - That's true!
In case you're interested I have shared my unsorted thoughts about the movie here. :D
no subject
Date: 01/02/2025 09:04 pm (UTC)I should say that I don't speak any of the languages involved! But I thought it was really nice to hear Romanian spoken, so I went and read up on the production process on wiki. It's a little wild that they went as far back as pre-Romanian for Orlok, since I assume he was meant to be medieval? But the effort is cool!
Oh, Orlok definitely does not care that the world is going to hell faster and faster around him, lmao -- he's a ghoul and exists out of time, after all! He has his three nights regardless. As a characterisation choice it certainly makes sense, even if I found it... kind of a lot. I liked it better when it was in Romanian, though! His accent in English was very well done, but it felt a little 'I Vant To Drink Your Blud' sometimes. Still, that's a time-honoured tradition! :D
no subject
Date: 30/01/2025 04:07 pm (UTC)Definitely agree that the first half was stronger than the ending. Also, I'm a fan of linguistics and the way different dialects evolve through history, but I haven't studied it much, so I pleased to know it holds up to scrutiny.
"he old Virtuous Woman Sacrifices Herself trope in the original already felt dated, and it became more so by the fact that Eggers decided to go for a twist wherein Ellen is not a Virtuous Woman, and it's made clear that this evil was brought upon them because of her longings and - explicitly - sexual desires. The end result was that it felt (however much the other characters never vilify her for it) a little bit like redemption through death for the slut, even if that probably wasn't what he was going for."
Okay, this right here is exactly what was rubbing me the wrong way. I couldn't find the words, but yeah, I could've done without the morality lesson. However, it's fascinating in that weird way that makes me want to watch it again and unpack it more.
no subject
Date: 01/02/2025 09:31 pm (UTC)I should maybe clarify that I never actually studied Romanian or the other Eastern European languages so I don't know that much myself! But yeah, I thought it was really cool how much effort they put in.
Yeah, it felt a little bit moralising. I think maybe part of what bugged me about it was also that I wasn't sure if it was deliberate or not! And this is a movie where a lot of things feel quite deliberate, so it was odd to have this slightly discordant note at the end where I felt like they'd just followed the original without really... taking the implications of it?
(Honestly, I think I also just wanted them to have a happier ending because they'd both been through the fucking wringer and I felt like they'd earned it, lmao. And while I have seen the original Nosferatu, I always remember the Dracula plot better, where Mina and Jonathan both survive, having become stronger and more badass for their experiences.) But like you say: I don't feel quite done thinking about it, and that in itself is maybe a good sign. :'D
no subject
Date: 02/02/2025 01:58 pm (UTC)Yeah, I can't tell what message, if any, we're meant to take from this. Having the rest of Eggers' films in the back of my mind makes me wonder if there's a pattern I should look for, or if that's even a good idea?
What was weird for me is I went in expecting it to be a tribute to the 1922 Nosferatu, the F. W. Murnau version, and this was more like the Werner Herzog. But yeah, either way, OG Dracula is the better story. I want my Mina/Jonathan power couple! None of the adaptations I've seen have done that. Although I will say Nicholas Hoult is my hands-down favorite Jonathan.
(Love that icon, btw.)
no subject
Date: 03/02/2025 12:31 am (UTC)I've never seen any Eggers films before either, so I really went in blind on this one, which makes me even more "?" about what he was going for. Of course Ellen is ultimately victorious -- she never changes her mind, she never gets seduced, she maintains her rejection of him at all times. When she ultimately agrees to submit to him it's a calculated move aimed at killing him, and she holds that resolve all the way to her own death, making sure he remains distracted by her long enough to get fried. All of which is obviously good! And I'm glad they decided to give her a strong will! But somehow it still feels a little bit like She Fucked Up and now she has to Fix It -- and I don't mind characters fucking up, but I guess I'm a little hypervigilant when the fuckup is sexuality related and the character is a woman.
Same re: Nicholas Hoult! I really enjoyed Thomas, he was the stock Decent Guy character obviously, so not terribly interesting, but he was written with real strength of character and never judged Ellen, which was cool. And I really enjoyed the way Hoult played him. I felt like these two could have really been a Mina/Jonathan power couple, which definitely contributed to me being a bit "Aww :(" about the ending.
(Hehe thank you! Formative fandoms...)
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Date: 03/02/2025 10:34 pm (UTC)Oh, I'm fascinated by it. They get so creative with it. If you haven't seen it, you should check out "Berberian Sound Sytem." It's a horror movie about the man who does the Foley sound effects for a splatter film. I love that stuff. Terrifying with headphones on.
"But somehow it still feels a little bit like She Fucked Up and now she has to Fix It -- and I don't mind characters fucking up, but I guess I'm a little hypervigilant when the fuckup is sexuality related and the character is a woman."
Yeah, that's the thing. I think I know what he was going for, and it's interesting, but also seemed to fall back on old, punishing tropes at the last minute. It was weird.
Unrelated: Can I add you? I don't know if talking about vampire movies is your usual thing, but this is fun!
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Date: 04/02/2025 03:09 am (UTC)By all means, I'll add you back! I don't talk about vampire movies too often I don't think, though I've seen a lot of different ones (right now I'm down the obsession hole about classic Doctor Who lmao), but I'm fairly multifannish and I enjoy fandom and media chats in general! From a glance at your blog it seems like we have at least partially overlapping goth interests haha.
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Date: 04/02/2025 01:29 pm (UTC)!!!!
I am just now in the process of catching up on Classic Who. They're all free on Tubi right now, so I gave myself that project!
Recently, I've been doing a retrospective on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but there's a lot of random stuff on my blog, too. Most of it's locked to my access list.
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Date: 05/02/2025 01:27 am (UTC)That's so convenient! They're not available to watch legally anywhere for me, so I've been resorting to the 🏴☠️ method, which takes a little longer, but it's thankfully v. easy to find all kinds of DW media these days :D I'm not planning to watch every serial for every Doctor, though, I don't think. I've just finished watching everything for Three, because he's my favourite, but with the others I think I'll pick what sounds most fun.
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Date: 05/02/2025 03:17 pm (UTC)I know—there are so many! It's hard to know where to start. Actually, could you give me some recs for your favorite Third Doctor episodes? I've only looked at 1 and 2 so far.
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Date: 07/02/2025 03:27 am (UTC)You should watch the very first one, Spearhead from Space, because it gives you the context on his regeneration and why he's on Earth working with UNIT now etc. Personally, I think Inferno is really cool (and has two bonkers subplots, one of which is mirrorverse, Star Trek style).
Terror of the Autons is the serial that introduced The Master to the show, so I'd recommend watching that, and it's a lot of fun. (To be honest I enjoy pretty much all the serials in Season 8 because every single one of them features The Master, lmao.) If you pick another one from s8, The Daemons is styled like a 1970s folk/satanism horror and is really wild but well constructed, I love it.
In season 9, Curse of Peladon is fun if you enjoy space opera style costumes and space-medieval setting. And I gotta rec The Sea Devils (another Master episode lmao) -- it briefly references The Silurians from s7, but you don't need to have seen that, and I think Sea Devils is better.
In s10, The Three Doctors (all three of them! Plus it introduces Omega, so there's Time Lord lore). The Green Death is noteworthy for being where Jo leaves, and you get the Doctor in drag very briefly.
I think s11 is... not a super impressive season? So I don't have favourites there. But it's probably good to watch The Time Warrior, because it introduces Sarah Jane!
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Date: 09/02/2025 03:51 pm (UTC)This is awesome, thank you! I'd love to see the first episode with The Master.