VERY MILD SPOILERS
The idea that Shreck was actually a vampire, thereby instilling Murnau's NOSFERATU with more than a bit of verite... well, not bad, okay. If Murnau had been von Strohiem, even better, but all right.
Now we come to this film's execution. They seem to get the mise en scene down pretty well, but Malkovich is oddly uncaptivating as the quasi poetic, pretentious Murnau. Not that these fellows' films aren't grand, but hearing directors wax on such as Murnau does here (or Cocteau does in his diaries)... I mean, please. Anyway, Malkovich's Murnau is too toothless to create a portrait of the legendary director. And, as most of the film focusses on him, most of the film falls flat.
DeFoe comes along to -- oddly, for a vampire -- breathe life into the thing, and almost pulls it off. His pathos is pitch perfect: the two best scenes are when Murnau tries to strangle him but finds that Shreck not only is unfazed by the throttling but welcomes the upping of the ante and the scene in which other crew members question him around a fire, asking about vampirehood while they all pass around a bottle of schnapps. But it's just not enough.
I was amazed at just how lifeless and unfunny the film was. Perhaps that's a fault of its trailer, which suggests laugh-out-loud comedy, and leads the audience to prepare for something other than this. As I left, a fellow remarked to me, "Weird!" I didn't find it weird so much as rather cliched and predictable. Too bad.
5/10
The idea that Shreck was actually a vampire, thereby instilling Murnau's NOSFERATU with more than a bit of verite... well, not bad, okay. If Murnau had been von Strohiem, even better, but all right.
Now we come to this film's execution. They seem to get the mise en scene down pretty well, but Malkovich is oddly uncaptivating as the quasi poetic, pretentious Murnau. Not that these fellows' films aren't grand, but hearing directors wax on such as Murnau does here (or Cocteau does in his diaries)... I mean, please. Anyway, Malkovich's Murnau is too toothless to create a portrait of the legendary director. And, as most of the film focusses on him, most of the film falls flat.
DeFoe comes along to -- oddly, for a vampire -- breathe life into the thing, and almost pulls it off. His pathos is pitch perfect: the two best scenes are when Murnau tries to strangle him but finds that Shreck not only is unfazed by the throttling but welcomes the upping of the ante and the scene in which other crew members question him around a fire, asking about vampirehood while they all pass around a bottle of schnapps. But it's just not enough.
I was amazed at just how lifeless and unfunny the film was. Perhaps that's a fault of its trailer, which suggests laugh-out-loud comedy, and leads the audience to prepare for something other than this. As I left, a fellow remarked to me, "Weird!" I didn't find it weird so much as rather cliched and predictable. Too bad.
5/10