#106
Post
by Tommaso » Thu Nov 22, 2007 9:51 am
My impressions of the MoC, which I watched yesterday evening:
1) The chopped head is still bothering me and it's really deplorable, but 2) after watching this resto, I SIMPLY COULDN'T CARE ANYMORE ABOUT THIS ONE SHOT. In other words: I'm totally freaked-out and blown away. This looks plainly unbelievable good and borders on a miracle. They cleaned up the image marvellously, it looks absolutely beautiful, stable, with perfect colours and contrast. Great detail and clarity and absolutely in no way comparable to any earlier edition. I can't imagine I would want to see this in any other form anymore, Orlok's head notwithstanding.
What amazed me even more was the Erdmann music. The improvement on any other version I have heard before is even more pronounced than with Meisel vs Shostakovitch in the recent "Potemkin". Erdmann's music, being so steeped in late 19th century symphonic style a la Strauss and Mahler, greatly helps to appreciate what I always thought was one of the main origins of the film: German romanticism. And it does a marvel to suck you in and enhances what we see: we even hear the fatal cock crow now via some clarinet solo. It builds up a lot of suspense, especially nearing the end of the film. That's the first time since long ago that I found the film genuinely frightening, and I suppose this has to do with that wonderful music. And it's played and recorded so well (crystal clear sound with a lot of depth, and I only even played the normal stereo soundtrack) that one really has the feeling of sitting in some big Berlin cinema in the 20s watching the film 'live' (greatly enhanced by MoC's as usual extremely cinematic-looking transfer).
I haven't seen the documentary nor listened to the commentary yet, but managed to read the booklet. The first essay by Elsaesser isn't overly great, basically repeating all the psychoanalytical stuff re: sexual desire and Murnau's homosexuality specifically, points which indeed may be relevant as additional influences but which to me never seemed to touch the heart of the matter (and incidentally, Elsaesser constantly calls Hutter and Ellen by their Stoker names, Harker and Mina....well....an indication that he's probably too much influenced by 100 years of spookoanalysing "Dracula"). Truly great however is the second and much longer essay by Gilberto Perez, one of the most illuminating bits of writing on "Nosferatu" I yet came across. He makes convincing points about the film being less about repressed desire or the role of women in late 19th century society (which he correctly establishes as being the center of Stoker's novel) but argues that the film is about the confrontation with and attitudes towards death in various forms. And instead of any psychoanalytic guesswork he constantly makes his points by fabulously analysing the film itself and especially the camerawork. Truly illuminating! The rest of the writings are also nice, especially a charming short one by Grau about his inspiration for the film.
Looking at the Beaver comparison: the differences in sharpness seem neglectable to me, but not necessarily the heavier artificating on the Kino. Add to this the wonderful booklet, I'd personally go for the MoC. But in any case: Don't miss this version, just don't. This might easily be the disc of the year.
Yes I know I might me nitpicking but my screen is 92" so small becomes greater. But still I guess I'll be picking up the MoC disc because of the overall package.
