The director of The witch (2015), The lighthouse (2019) y The man of the north (2022) follows in the footsteps of the Germans Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Werner Herzog with a visually dazzling film and with several scenes that are also convincing in the dramatic field and within the canons of horror cinema.
Nosferatu (United States/2024). Director: Robert Eggers. Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Simon McBurney and Ralph Ineson. Screenplay: Robert Eggers, inspired by the script for Nosferatu and the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker. Photography: Jarin Blaschke. Music: Robin Carolan. Edition: Louise Ford. Production Design: Craig Lathrop. Distributor: UIP (Universal). Duration: 133 minutes. Suitable for people over 16 years old.
At 41 years old and with three previous feature films, the American Robert Eggers takes a risk in his fourth film with one of the great classics of literature and cinema such as the story of Dracula (title of the novel published in 1897 by Bram Stoker) or from Nosferatu (if the reference is to the silent film that Murnau released in 1922).
This Nosferatu Model 2024 is not an entirely convincing film, but even in its unevenness it never ceases to fascinate. Like other authors who play in the Hollywood leagues, such as Christopher Nolan, Eggers is convinced of his talent and brings it out in each of his shots: thus, in this exquisite tribute to German expressionism (he returns to work in 35mm with his usual DP Jarin Blaschke) there is as much virtuosity, creativity, imagination and risk as caprice and delight so that we always feel that we are in front of a great cinema, which at times is also great cinema.
After a prologue of strong erotic tension (the sexual charge will be one of the recurrences in the recycling and rereading that Eggers proposes), with calls from the beyond and oaths of “love for life”, we jump to Germany in 1838. Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård), who lives in the Carpathian Mountains, has decided to buy Grüneward's crumbling mansion in Wisborg and Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult, also the protagonist of Juror #2 and Lex Luthor of the next Superman) is sent from there to Romania to sign the contract. After a tortuous journey, meeting Orlok will change his life forever, as well as that of his brand new wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp). Furthermore, when Orlok arrives in Germany a short time later, a plague of enormous proportions will be unleashed that Eggers exposes with thousands of loose rats and dozens of corpses lying in the streets.
The performances are generally good, but they seem to be divided into different registers: the most unleashed are those of Bill Skarsgård and Willem Dafoe (their teacher Albin Eberhart von Franz has quite a bit of Van Helsing), Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Emma Corrin play the Harding couple and friends of Thomas and Ellen, while Dr. Dr. Wilhelm Sievers (Ralph Ineson) and Knock (Simon McBurney) are two other secondary but key characters in the plot development.
As occurred especially in The witch y The lighthouseEggers – also a screenwriter – appropriates myths, legends and some specific references, but also appeals to pure fiction, spells and nightmares to build his own universes that are functional for him. Objections and questions may be raised, but there are few contemporary filmmakers with the pretensions and, above all, the capacity and inventiveness to generate a spectacle of such dimensions and scope.
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