Nosferatu // By Robert Eggers. With Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgård.
Robert Eggers, a filmmaker with a careful aesthetic and a pronounced taste for dark stories, took up an ambitious challenge by tackling a monument of cinema: Nosferatu. More than a century after FW Murnau's expressionist masterpiece, Eggers offers a rereading which, while paying homage to the original, seeks to put his visual and narrative signature on it. If this contemporary version is full of ideas and moments of pure beauty, it nevertheless suffers from certain imbalances which lessen its overall impact. From the first minutes, Eggers' stylistic imprint is felt. The masterful photography evokes living paintings where every detail is meticulously composed.
Nosferatu is a gothic fable, the story of an obsession between a tormented young woman and the terrifying vampire who fell in love with her, with all the horror that she will spread in her wake.
The omnipresent play of light and shadow immerses the viewer in a gothic atmosphere which amplifies the nightmarish aspect of the story. The almost monochrome nocturnal scenes recall the grainy black and white of Nosferatu from 1922, while adding a touch of modernity that echoes the director's dreamlike universe. The work on chiaroscuro, associated with sequence shots that float between the characters, creates total immersion. Eggers skillfully plays with visual textures to evoke a world on the border of the real and the supernatural. This approach gives birth to a horrific tale where beauty and horror constantly coexist.
However, this visual virtuosity, although striking, tends to take precedence over emotion. The beauty of the images sometimes seems to overshadow the narrative depth, as if the film were more of a demonstration of craftsmanship than a viscerally engaging story. The central character of Nosferatu, Count Orlok, is played here by Bill Skarsgård. Known for his notable roles in horror films, the actor slips into the skin of the famous vampire with a mixture of monstrosity and vulnerability. However, this version of the count divides. Taking up the grotesque appearance of the original vampire, Eggers adds a more barbaric, almost bestial dimension, which contrasts with the disturbing elegance to which the genre had accustomed us.
If this bold approach has the merit of surprising, it can also be confusing. Skarsgård's vampire, with his appearance close to a “fairground monster” or a wrestler, blurs the established codes of myth. This aesthetic choice seems partly motivated by a desire to attract a new generation of spectators, but it risks alienating those who expect a figure more in line with the classic iconography of Dracula. As a result, this Nosferatu sometimes seems too eccentric to fully convince. In the role of Ellen, Lily-Rose Depp delivers a memorable performance. His character, torn between purity and perversion, navigates a difficult register where danger and strangeness constantly mingle.
She embodies this tormented woman with discreet intensity, transcending the moralistic straitjacket of her role to make her a fascinating figure. Her performance evokes the great female interpretations of Gothic cinema, notably that of Isabelle Adjani in the Nosferatu by Werner Herzog. But Lily-Rose Depp brings an additional singularity: an almost ethereal strangeness, which amplifies the supernatural dimension of her scenes. The last shots where she appears, close to the work of art, remain engraved in memory long after the credits. Around the main duo revolves a gallery of characters embodying various facets of the story.
Nicholas Hoult, as Thomas Hutter, brings a seductive painterly romance to his journey from the Carpathians to Germany. Willem Dafoe, a specialist in occultism, injects a dose of earthy energy into a vampire hunt that evokes adventure cinema. These interpretations enrich the world of the film, but they struggle to compensate for a narration that lacks fluidity. The main problem lies in the narrative construction of the film. This sometimes gives the impression of a series of juxtaposed scenes rather than a coherent and fluid story. The abrupt transitions between certain passages harm immersion and reinforce the feeling of a disjointed whole.
-By wanting to integrate multiple influences and themes, Eggers seems to have lost sight of the overall balance of his work. The main advantage of Nosferatu lies in its atmosphere. The film's gothic aesthetic, reinforced by striking music and careful sound design, creates an immersive universe. Eggers favors practical effects and reconstructed settings, limiting the use of digital artifice to reinforce the authenticity of his world. This approach, rare in contemporary cinema, gives the film a particular, almost palpable texture. However, this visual success is not enough to make up for the lack of emotion.
The film, while aesthetically impressive, remains curiously distant. The chemistry between the characters, particularly between Ellen and Count Orlok, is not fully exploited. The mutual attraction and the ambiguity of their relationship, central elements of the vampire myth, are attenuated here, which prevents the viewer from becoming emotionally invested. Eggers, a cinephile filmmaker par excellence, multiplies the references in this remake. Black and white coexists with color, echoes of silent cinema mingle with spectacular sound effects, and scenes resembling gothic paintings alternate with moments of visceral horror. This creative ambition is laudable, but it sometimes results in a compilation of influences that lacks harmony.
The film constantly oscillates between homage and modernity, without managing to find a true identity of its own. This great creative appetite, although impressive, ends up serving the story by making it too busy. The very essence of Nosferatunamely a simple and poetic terror, is diluted in this stylistic abundance. With his NosferatuRobert Eggers delivers a rereading that is both fascinating and frustrating. If the film shines with its visual mastery and the gothic atmosphere it establishes, it struggles to captivate on a narrative and emotional level. Count Orlok, boldly revisited, divides as much as he intrigues, while the central relationship between Ellen and the vampire lacks depth.
Ce Nosferatu is aimed above all at fans of auteur cinema, seduced by the elaborate aesthetics and oppressive atmospheres. But for those hoping for a more visceral and emotional exploration of the myth, it risks leaving a feeling of unfinished business. Eggers, in wanting to integrate everything, sometimes seems to have strayed from the essential: a story where fear and fascination mingle to transcend the screen. In short, Nosferatu is an ambitious work, rich in ideas, but which fails to match the impact of previous versions. A film that can be watched with admiration, but which leaves a taste of potential not fully exploited.
Rating: 6.5/10. In short, a fascinating but imperfect rereading of a cinema myth.
Released on December 25, 2024 in cinemas
