Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
1922 · Directed by F.W. Murnau
Unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, featuring Max Schreck as Count Orlok.
Featured at CineVegas 2000
Classic Film Spotlights
CineVegas celebrated cinema history alongside new independent work
Design for Living
1933 · Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
Pre-Code romantic comedy based on Noël Coward's play.
Houdini
1953 · Directed by George Marshall
Biographical film starring Tony Curtis as the legendary escape artist.
Shadow of the Vampire
2000 · Directed by E. Elias Merhige
Fictional account of the making of Nosferatu, with Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck.
Featured at CineVegas 2000
F.W. Murnau Retrospective
Murnau is both one of the giants in the history of the cinema, and a forgotten figure. Many critics attribute the success of his films to his collaborators, Carl Mayer onThe Last Laugh and Sunrise, or Robert Flaherty on Tabu, and play down his role as director. But collaboration does not explain the brilliance that infuses all his films, no matter the contributors.
The theatre of Max Reinhardt and expressionism in general had a major impact on the style of filmmaking that arose in Germany after the First World War. Like many of the other figures who emerged as powers in the postwar German film industry, Murnau had worked with Reinhardt. From Reinhardt and the expressionistic theatre movement, Murnau inherited acting, lighting and staging styles that made the subjective emotions of his film's characters tangible.
"Murnau was one of the few in Hollywood of whom it can be said that he wanted to do great things in films not because of fame or fortune but because of a real personal enthusiasm for the medium." — Lewis Jacobs