Nosferatu (1922): Cinematography, Expressionism & Legacy

Introduction: Art, Entertainment, and the Canon

Cinema as art serves several functions, not least of which is visual impact. Yet because motion pictures are inherently multimedia, soundscape, theater, and writing converge with the elements of visual cinematography and mise-en-scène. Film is often dichotomized, placed into an artificial binary of art films versus films made for a popular audience and designed for entertainment. However, many movies in the history of cinema prove that the line between art and entertainment is at its blurriest with filmmaking. Some films have also reached the level of being considered "classics," either in their specific genre or across the broader gamut of filmmaking. One of those films is the original 1922 version of Nosferatu. Directed by F.W. Murnau, the 1922 film Nosferatu exemplifies surreal and haunting cinematography, deft use of timing, pacing, and editing, as well as the integration of sonic elements.

Murnau's Nosferatu has been called the "best and most artistically realized" film about vampires (Leavy 2). Based on the Dracula novel by Bram Stoker — which was itself inspired by centuries of Eastern and Central European folklore — Nosferatu offers audiences a multilayered work of art complete with eroticism and a sense of the grotesque (Leavy). Film critic Roger Ebert states, "To watch F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) is to see the vampire movie before it had really seen itself. Here is the story of Dracula before it was buried alive in clichés, jokes, TV skits, cartoons and more than 30 other films. The film is in awe of its material." Since Nosferatu was produced, numerous films have followed in its wake, including remakes by another German filmmaker, Werner Herzog. Art films, like other art media, inspire imitation and homage.

German Expressionism and Cultural Context

Art becomes firmly situated in and reflective of its cultural and historical context, something that Nosferatu achieves with aplomb. Several historians have pointed out the sinister and eerie ways in which the imagery and character of Nosferatu "foreshadows Nazi tyranny," given the precarious condition of being undead — both alive and dead (Vacche 162). Nosferatu "combines love and tyranny; he is both helpless and terrifying, striving for harmony . . . while bringing destruction to everyone who comes into contact with him" (Vacche 162).

Murnau's Nosferatu also exemplifies the era known to art historians as German Expressionism, which used film as one of many media. German Expressionism capitalized on abstraction and surrealism without being either one, since Expressionism self-consciously comments on the modern world with a dark and stark realism as well. The liminal position of the character of Nosferatu the undead reflects the filmmaker's own philosophy — his "ambivalent position between cinema as art and cinema as technology," as Vacche puts it (162).

Mise-en-Scène and Cinematography

One of the most notable features of Nosferatu is its mise-en-scène and cinematography. It is a dark film filled with chiaroscuro. The most famous scenes are those of the title character's shadow creeping along the walls of the gloomy castle, with death constantly a fixture in the air. The supernatural is also a key element of Nosferatu, linking it to its overarching genre of Romanticism as well as German Expressionism. The Romantic era of painting was characterized by its moodiness and its fascination with both the supernatural and the darkest sides of human nature. As Vacche notes, "The visual elements in Murnau's Nosferatu hearken directly to Romantic painting and reflect the filmmaker's own art-historical training" (162).

Like Germany in its first period of unification, the Romantic era was something longed for after the First World War, and yet something that was also forever lost. Unable to accept its own death, it clung to a mirage of life — an evil, living-dead form that encapsulated the German cultural zeitgeist of the early twentieth century. The film also emerged in an era of avant-garde art and can be considered a hallmark of the "internationally minded avant-garde" (Vacche 162).

Works Cited

Ebert, Roger. "Nosferatu." Retrieved online:

Leavy, Bill. "Nosferatu: Murnau's Use of Expressionism in His Film." University paper, 24 April 1985. Retrieved online: http://www.academia.edu/2205991/NOSFERATU_Murnaus_Use_of_Expressionism_in_his_Film

Murnau, F.W. Nosferatu. [Film]. Available:

Vacche, Angela Dalle. Cinema and Painting. University of Texas Press.