Film at Lincoln Center Conjures Nosferatu
Films That Inspired Robert Eggers
By: Susan Hall - Feb 05, 2025
Film at Lincoln Center Conjures Nosferatu and Dracula
Where did Dracula, aka Count Orlok and Vlad the Impaler, a commanding figure of contemporary culture across the globe, come from?
Transylvania, of course, and the pen of Bram Stoker. Over a hundred years ago when Eastern Europeans were moving into Western Europe, the folklore and fairytales that came with them both terrified and intrigued.
The first Dracula, Nosferatu, was made into a film by Frederick Murnau in 1922 and re-set in Germany. None of the changes made to Stoker’s story kept it from being banned for plagiarism. A few copies of the film survived and now it is widely seen as one of modern cinema’s most important films. Murnau subtitled his silent film “A Symphony of Horror,” and the music is often appropriately overwhelming.
This conjuring at Lincoln Center offers a wide panoply of films that suggest the subject’s rich themes. Svengali suggests some evil men’s appeal to newly liberated women, who did not always want to be so liberated. In an unexpected twist, a female Serbian butterfly fills the blood-thirsty role. She is pursued by an unruly, funny band of small-town farmers in Eastern Europe where folk told these tales.
Missing is Francis Ford Coppola, who wanted a back story to explain Dracula’s journey to quench his bloodthirsty revenge.
Great actors are drawn to these roles, from Max Schreck to John Barrymore, Willem Dafoe and Gary Oldman among others.
Robert Eggers is a brilliant filmmaker whose journey many filmmakers wish was their own. Ten years of rejected scripts in Hollywood led him to make his own movie, The Witch, and the rest is history–including his own Nosferatu.
Here is the program.
Go give yourself up to the Count, Vlad the Impaler, or whatever you call him. (or her).
Tickets here.