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IMDbPro

Nosferatu the Vampyre

Original title: Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht
  • 19791979
  • PGPG
  • 1h 47m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
37K
YOUR RATING
Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
Theatrical Trailer from 20th Century Fox
Play trailer2:14
1 Video
93 Photos
DramaHorror
Count Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.Count Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.Count Dracula moves from Transylvania to Wismar, spreading the Black Plague across the land. Only a woman pure of heart can bring an end to his reign of horror.
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
37K
YOUR RATING
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog
    • Bram Stoker(novel "Dracula")
  • Stars
    • Klaus Kinski
    • Isabelle Adjani
    • Bruno Ganz
    • Werner Herzog
    • Werner Herzog
    • Bram Stoker(novel "Dracula")
  • Stars
    • Klaus Kinski
    • Isabelle Adjani
    • Bruno Ganz
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 227User reviews
    • 145Critic reviews
    • 79Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards

    Videos1

    Nosferatu the Vampyre
    Trailer 2:14
    Watch Nosferatu the Vampyre

    Photos93

    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Isabelle Adjani in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)
    Isabelle Adjani and Klaus Kinski in Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Klaus Kinski
    Klaus Kinski
    • Count Dracula
    Isabelle Adjani
    Isabelle Adjani
    • Lucy Harker
    Bruno Ganz
    Bruno Ganz
    • Jonathan Harker
    Roland Topor
    Roland Topor
    • Renfield
    Walter Ladengast
    • Dr. Van Helsing
    Dan van Husen
    Dan van Husen
    • Warden
    Jan Groth
    Jan Groth
    • Harbormaster
    Carsten Bodinus
    • Schrader
    Martje Grohmann
    • Mina
    Rijk de Gooyer
    Rijk de Gooyer
    • Town official
    • (as Ryk de Gooyer)
    Clemens Scheitz
    Clemens Scheitz
    • Clerk
    Lo van Hensbergen
    • Harbormaster's Assistent
    John Leddy
    • Coachman
    Margiet van Hartingsveld
    • Vrouw
    Tim Beekman
    • Coffinbearer
    Jacques Dufilho
    Jacques Dufilho
    • Captain
    Attila Arpa
    • Violinist Boy
    • (uncredited)
    Michael Edols
    • Lord of the manor
    • (uncredited)
      • Werner Herzog
      • Werner Herzog
      • Bram Stoker(novel "Dracula") (uncredited)
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Klaus Kinski had to spend approximately four hours per day in make-up. Fresh latex ear pieces had to be poured for each day of shooting because they were destroyed at removal. Kinski, notorious for his violent daily temper-tantrums, had a very good relationship with Japanese make-up artist Reiko Kruk and was exceedingly patient and well-behaved during make-up. Kinski himself said of the make-up that he hated being excessively made up for a role, but for the role of Dracula it was important so he took it in stride.
    • Goofs
      When the captain of the ship is writing in his log he says they left the Caspian Sea, which is landlocked and nearly 1000 miles away from the port in Bulgaria where the voyage started. Bulgaria is on the Black Sea.
    • Quotes

      Count Dracula: [subtitled version] Time is an abyss... profound as a thousand nights... Centuries come and go... To be unable to grow old is terrible... Death is not the worst... Can you imagine enduring centuries, experiencing each day the same futilities...

    • Alternate versions
      The English-language version was only available in a shorter cut until 2000, which was about 10 minutes shorter.
    • Connections
      Edited into Catalogue of Ships (2008)
    • Soundtracks
      Richard Wagner: Rheingold
      Written by Richard Wagner (uncredited)

      Performed by Wiener Philharmoniker

      Conducted by Georg Solti (as Sir Georg Solti)

      Decca LC 0174 (uncredited)

    User reviews227

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    How do you remake one of the most historic films your country ever produced?
    With Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Werner Herzog replies firmly "by making it your own". Undertaking not only his first genre film in a career rich enough already by 1979 to earn Herzog a place among the most prolific German directors, but also a film with so much baggage, historical, stylistic or otherwise. Not only a retelling essentially of Bram Stocker's Dracula story but also a reimagining an expressionist universe defined by Herzog's cinematic forefathers (FW Murnau a key figure among them). In that aspect, Noferatu is one of the loftier, most ambitious and trickiest films Herzog tackled in a career already filled with them.

    Anyone who comes to this with a previous experience of Herzog's style will realize that the German infant terrible has made the material unmistakeably his. Like most of his films, Noferatu is like a film about a dream about a documentary depicting weird people doing weird things - yet, beneath the minimalism of the plot and the docu-style naturalism of his photography, the movie resonates with the kind of hypnotic power Coppola missed in the alchemical migraine of his '92 version. Filming a medieval German town swept by plague like a grotesque carnival complete with people dancing with goats on tables and having a feast in the middle of a swarm of mice, Herzog goes on to choreograph a heavily made-up Klaus Kinski (looking like a rodent and playing a theatric version of his real half-mad self) through the steps Max Schreck's character took on the deck of the ship in the original movie as though he wants to prove that he can make it look every bit as creepy as Murnau did.

    Perhaps reflecting the original in this department, Herzog's Nosferatu is still a pretty uneven film. Parts of it work better than others. When Kinski makes a grand appearance seething malice and despair, the screen is on fire. Grand antics work really well for this kind of character and this kind of movie. Bruno Ganz and Isabelle Adjani have enough charisma to carry the rest of the movie but the story structure occasionally betrays them. When Herzog cuts to Renfield's parts, you can feel the movie loosing steam with every gleeful cackle. When he cuts back to some kind of devilment going on, or even better the surreal stylizations of a bat flying in slow-motion set to Popol Vuh's repetitive drones, the movie comes closer to hitting the right emotional notes. When it achieves that kind of hypnotic, nightmarish vibe, the movie is great; when it doesn't, it's not bad.

    And lastly, even though I understand Herzog's dislike for formalism, is there any particular reason why 90% of the movie is shot from eye-level? Makes one wish for the extreme skewed angles of Japanese New Wave directors.
    helpful•7
    1
    • chaos-rampant
    • Apr 12, 2009

    FAQ2

    • Does anyone know how they handled all those rats (contained them, kept them from biting, etc.)?
    • What are the differences between the International Version and the German Version?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • January 17, 1979 (France)
      • West Germany
      • France
      • German
      • English
      • Romany
    • Also known as
    • Filming locations
      • Delft, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands
    • Production companies
      • Werner Herzog Filmproduktion
      • Gaumont
      • Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 47 minutes
      • Mono

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