Monday, January 09, 2006

Last Emperor ; Broken Flowers ; Nosferatu 1979

Watched the last emperor - the long 200 minute version - it is a very good movie - which has suprisingly little anachronisms,and bitchin' acting. The advisors are reputedly the emperors brother(or cousin) and his biographer.

Watched Broken Flowers. A good movie but hardly Jaramusch at his best. Bill Murray found the golden middle between comedy and drama and towards the later years of his career shows his real talent.

Watched Nosferatu The Phantom of the Night(Werner Herzog's remake of Murnau's 1922 silent film) with Isabella Adjani and Klaus Kinski - I watched the german version - I know of a English one in exsistance with the original actors voices - it wasn't dubbed but shot parallel.

The movie is a perfect blend of the original Nosferatu and Dracula, leaning towards Nosferatu.If you take into acound that 55 years, color, sound,the copyright to dracula(which was the reason for the changed names in Nosferatu 1922),the 1979 version having a miniscule budget and being shot in Delft and West Germany(Instead of Bremen and Slovakia) are the differences between the original and the remake - the movie is still faithull to the origin. Even The added scenes(A lot of the scenes are one foe one)are in place.A great leisurely paced horror with a strong dramatic and humane emphasis - the horror being less important than the drama. I like the portrayal of Dr. Van Helsing as a older friend of the family and a Medical Doctor and not the bravado vampire hunter he is in the book. The actors are superb and their physical appearance fits perfectly with their roles.

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