Nosferatu The Vampyre - A German Film By Werner Herzog

Well, well, who do we have here? The biggest Count of 'em all, that's who!

The Hyderabad Film Club is organising a 5-day retrospective of Werner Herzog films, from 5th to 10th June, at the Sarathi Studios in Ameerpet. Today, the last day, Nosferatu The Vampyre is the first film that will be screened, at 5:30pm.

Jonathan Harker (Bruno Ganz) is an estate agent in Wismar, Germany. His boss, Renfield (Roland Topor), informs him that a nobleman named Count Dracula wishes to buy a property in Wismar, and assigns Harker to visit the count and complete the lucrative deal.

Leaving his young wife Lucy (Isabelle Adjani) behind in Wismar, Harker travels for four weeks to Transylvania, Romania, to the castle of Count Dracula. He brings with him the deeds and documents needed to sell the house to the Count.

On his journey, Jonathan stops at a village, where locals warn him of the castle's 'evil', pleading for him to stay clear of the accursed place, providing him with details of vampirism. But Harker ignores the villagers' pleas as wild superstition, and continues his journey unassisted.

Harker arrives at Dracula's castle, where he meets the Count (Klaus Kinski). The mysterious nobleman is a strange, ancient, almost rodent-like man, with large ears, pale skin, sharp teeth and long fingernails. However, Dracula is very accommodating, and offers Jonathan his full hospitality.

The lonely Count is enchanted by a small portrait of Jonathan's wife, Lucy, and immediately agrees to purchase the Wismar property, especially with the knowledge that he and Lucy would become neighbours.

As Jonathan's visit progresses, he is haunted at night by a number of dream-like encounters with the vampiric Count. Simultaneously, in Wismar, Lucy is tormented by night terrors, plagued by images of impending doom. Additionally, Renfield is committed to an asylum after biting a cow, apparently having lapsed into a psychosis.

Werner Herzog (born Werner Stipetic on September 5, 1942) is a critically and internationally acclaimed German film director, screenwriter, actor and opera director. He is often associated with the German New Wave movement (also called New German Cinema), along with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Volker Schlöndorff, Wim Wenders and others. His films often feature heroes with impossible dreams or people with unique talents in obscure fields.

Herzog's films have received considerable critical acclaim and achieved popularity on the arthouse circuit. They have also been the subject of controversy in regard to their themes and messages, especially the circumstances surrounding their creation. A notable example is Fitzcarraldo, in which the obsessiveness of the central character is mirrored by the director in the making of his film.

His treatment of subjects has been characterized as Wagnerian in its scope, as Fitzcarraldo and his later film Invincible (2001) are directly inspired by opera or operatic themes. He is proud of never using storyboards and often improvising large parts of the script, as he explains on the commentary track to Aguirre: The Wrath Of God.

Herzog and his films have won and been nominated for many awards over the years. Most notably, Herzog won the best director award for Fitzcarraldo at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Grizzly Man, directed by Herzog, won the Alfred P Sloan Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival.

He was honored at the 49th San Francisco International Film Festival, receiving the 2006 Film Society Directing Award. Four of his films have been shown at the San Francisco International Film Festival throughout the years - Herdsmen Of The Sun in 1990, Bells From The Deep in 1993, Lessons Of Darkness in 1993, and Wild Blue Yonder in 2006.

The screenings are open for members of HFC only. Please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy of the Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243 for further details.