NOSFERATU 1979 — Who else feels sorry for Dracula?

[CountWolkoff]

Dracula hasn't had servants in 400 years and then a man comes to his ancestral home, and he must convince him that he... that he is like the man. He has to feed him, when he himself hasn't eaten food in centuries. Can he even remember how to buy bread? How to select cheese and wine? And then he remembers the rest of it. How to prepare a meal, how to make a bed. He remembers his first glory, his armies, his retainers, and what he is reduced to. The loneliest part of the book comes... when the man accidentally sees Dracula setting his table.

These words were uttered by Willem Dafoe, who portrayed a fictional version of Max Schreck giving his thoughts on Bram Stoker's 1897 novel. It got me thinking Herzog's NOSFERATU.

Not only do I find the movie gorgeous, it did something I didn't expect: I felt bad for Dracula.

He clearly didn't like being a vampire, but had no choice in his actions. He doesn't want to be worshipped as a god (as Renfield does), but wants love and humanity. He doesn't even think death is a bad thing, stressing that immortality is the worst possible punishment to befall anyone.

Am I the only one feels this way?

On a lighter note, it's kind of a shame Bruno "Hitler" Ganz died, we might have gotten a remake-in-name-only of MYSTERY OF HOUSE 5 as a sequel.

[Sir Masksalot]

'Pathetic, perhaps, but never sympathetic.

[Akira-Devilman]

I remember those words from Willeme Dafoe. The book actually says more from Dracula than most movies, like the way he gets excited when talking about the outside world, and Van Hellsing mentions it sometimes, Dracula in essence is like a child

[roddmatsui]

I did see it in the theatres, back then, and I did feel they were trying to make Dracula at least sad, if not sympathetic.