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Film and the Arts
Eccentric Director Robert Eggers Devises Unique Imagery and a Peculiar Storyline for His Re-imagining of “Nosferatu”
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Previews
- Published on Thursday, 30 January 2025 15:21
- Written by Brad Balfour
Film: “Nosferatu”
Director: Robert Eggers
Cast: Lily-Rose Depp, Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson
As legendary characters go, few offer as much inspiration as does the vampire. The notion of an undead bloodsucker preying on the innocent and ignorant provokes endless variations. Credit has to be given to the late Irish author Bram Stoker who invented a character that has become an indelible institution throughout the creative global landscape.
Stoker infused into the character of Dracula, the ultimate vampire, elements from Irish mythology. Given the gothic nature and pagan background of Irish mythology, it makes sense that an Irishman would draw on the dark myths from a Gaelic tradition. Take the banshee and the selkie — mythic creatures who fit into the conception of a vampire.
Anything in the vampire tradition is okay by me. Filtered through the Germanic imagery of the original silent version — throwing in a bit from Werner Herzog’s reinterpretation — fantastical director Robert Eggers’ takes his Count Orlok one step further. Even the film’s title, “Nosferatu,” is an archaic Romanian word synonymous with “vampire.”
The concept was popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Western fiction particularly in Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel of “Dracula” and in F. W. Murnau’s 1922 masterful silent film “Nosferatu” a masterpiece of German expressionist filmmaking. Eggers‘ fourth film is a bold re-imagining of both the film and the original novel. In Eggers’ version, the image of the master vamp’s decaying flesh, grotesque fingers and absurdly exaggerated mustache leaves an indelible impact.
In the course of rewriting the first unauthorized vampire tale, Eggers took further liberties. He scrambled various details from the city in which the story takes place, as well as the various characters’ names and backstories. Nonetheless, the basics of the original narrative remain. A facilitator arranges for the vampire to leave his home turf and come to the city where he will establish a base. Once Orlok arrives and takes root in a local estate, he wreaks havoc. Eventually, as he pursues the young woman who provoked him in the first place, he takes possession of her — leading to his ultimate downfall.
The malleable actor Bill Skarsgård plays the grotesque Count who forces himself onto gorgeous Ellen Hutter (played by the enticing Lily-Rose Depp). The ever-growing connection between them terrifies and appalls Ms. Hutter’s new husband, Thomas (Nicholas Hoult.) In addition, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Emma Corrin and Eggers regulars, Willem Dafoe and Ralph Ineson, round out those who are threatened by the undead master. Eggers’ version really highlights — through the force of his depiction of the vampire — that this tale is a perverse love story.
Generally, vampire films elicit thoughts of sex and erotica. This film addresses those concepts forcefully with the idea that Ellen Hutter is actually the Count’s long-lost bride, forced, years later, to reconnect with her undead paramour. And although the film stumbles at times, this tale of the vampire’s passion makes it worthy of multiple viewings.
It should be noted that “Nosferatu” has been nominated for four Oscars including: Production Design — Craig Lathrop; Set Decoration: Beatrice Brentnerová; Best Makeup/Hair — David White, Traci Loader, and Suzanne Stokes-Munton; Linda Muir for Best Costume Design.
With all that in mind, Film at Lincoln Center has scheduled a unique mini-series showcasing cinematic influences on Eggers which informed the film.
From February 5–9, 2025, “Conjuring Nosferatu: Robert Eggers Presents” offers screenings of the films that inspired this spellbinding take on fiction’s most famous monster. These eclectic, gothic Hollywood deep cuts – rare works of Eastern European folk horror and captivating evocations of 18th-century England – are coupled with a special screening on 35mm of Eggers’ own “Nosferatu.”
Across four intensely stylish, powerfully atmospheric and richly detailed features, Eggers has established himself as one of cinema’s most singular auteurs. His films – deeply researched and steeped in worlds that predate the advent of cinema – are also the results of a consummate cinephile as conversant with film history as he is with the history of the occult.
“Nosferatu”
Robert Eggers, 2024, U.S., 35mm, 132m
Wednesday, February 5 at 6pm at the Walter Reade Theater
“Svengali”
Archie Mayo, 1931, U.S., 16mm, 81m
Thursday, February 6 at 6:15pm at the Francesca Beale Theater
“Beauty and the Beast”
Jean Cocteau, 1946, France, 35mm, 96m French with English subtitles
Friday, February 7 at 6pm at the Walter Reade Theater
Saturday, February 8 at 1:30pm at the Walter Reade Theater
“Great Expectations”
David Lean, 1946, U.K., 118m
Saturday, February 8 at 3:45pm at the Walter Reade Theater
“The Queen of Spades”
Thorold Dickinson, 1949, U.K., 95m
Friday, February 7 at 8:15pm at the Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, February 9 at 5:15pm at the Walter Reade Theater
“Andriesh”
Yakov Bazelyan, Sergei Parajanov, 1954, USSR, 63m Russian with English subtitles
Friday, February 7 at 4:30pm at the Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, February 9 at 2:00pm at the Walter Reade Theater
“The Innocents”
Jack Clayton, 1961, U.K., 100m
Saturday, February 8 at 6:15pm at the Walter Reade Theater
Sunday, February 9 at 7:30pm at the Walter Reade Theater
“The Eve of Ivan Kupalo”
Yuri Ilyenko, 1968, USSR, 71m Ukrainian with English subtitles
Thursday, February 6 at 8:15pm at the Francesca Beale Theater
Sunday, February 9 at 3:30pm at the Walter Reade Theater
“The She-Butterfly / Leptirica”
Đordje Kadijević, 1973, Serbia, 63m Serbian with English subtitles
Wednesday, February 5 at 9:15pm at the Walter Reade Theater
Saturday, February 8 at 8:30pm at the Walter Reade Theater
For more info, go to:https://www.filmlinc.org/
Second Batch of Curators' Choice at the Museum of the Moving Image
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Previews
- Published on Wednesday, 01 January 2025 21:25
- Written by Brad Balfour
All We Imagine as Light
The Museum of the Moving Image (36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY) continues its Curators’ Choice series with more titles in their annual survey of favorite films and great works of television from 2024. The series will continue to run January 4 to the 26 and includes 17 feature films and three works of television, along with a plethora of special guest appearances
Guest appearances include Annie Baker with Janet Planet, Mohammad Rasoulof with The Seed of the Sacred Fig, RaMell Ross with Nickel Boys, Karren Karagulian with Anora, Aaron Schimberg with A Different Man, Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen with Somebody Somewhere, Ken Leung with Industry, Josh Kriegman with Couples Therapy, and filmmakers with Sugarcane.
Works being shown are:
Evil Does Not Exist
Saturday, January 4, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi. 2023, 106 mins. Japan. In Japanese with English subtitles. DCP. Hitoshi Omika, Ryo Nishikawa, Ryuji Kosaka, Ayaka Shibutani.
Hard Truths
Saturday, January 4, 3:30 p.m.
Dir. Mike Leigh. 2024, 97 mins. U.K. DCP. With Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber, Tuwaine Barrett.
All We Imagine as Light
Sunday, January 5, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Payal Kapadia. 2024, 114 mins. India. In Malayalam, Hindi, Marathi with English subtitles. DCP. With Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Cchaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon.
Nickel Boys
With RaMell Ross in person
Tuesday, January 7, 6:30 p.m.
Dir. RaMell Ross. 2024, 140 mins. U.S. DCP. With Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
With Mohammad Rasoulof in person
Wednesday, January 8, 6:30 p.m.
Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof. 2024, 168 mins. Iran/Germany/France. In Persian with English subtitles. DCP. With Soheila Golestani, Missagh Zareh, Mahsa Rostami, Setareh Maleki.
Anora
With Karren Karagulian in person
Thursday, January 9, 6:30 p.m.
Dir. Sean Baker. 2024, 139 mins. U.S. With Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Aleksei Serebryakov.
Somebody Somewhere
Season 3, Episode 4: “What If It Spreads?”
With creators, writers, and executive producers Hannah Bos and Paul Thureen in person
Friday, January 10, 6:30 p.m.
Dir. Jay Duplass. 2024, 30 mins. U.S. DCP.
Sugarcane
With filmmakers in person
Friday, January 10, 7:00 p.m.
Dir. Emily Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat. 2024, 107 mins. U.S./Canada.
Industry
Season 3, Episode 7: “Useful Idiot”
With actor Ken Leung in person
Friday, January 10, 8:00 p.m.
Dirs. Mickey Down, Konrad Kay. 2024, 62 mins. U.S. DCP. With Myha’la, Marisa Abela, Harry Lawtey, Ken Leung, Conor MacNeill, Sagar Radia, Kit Harington.
Dahomey
Saturday, January 11, 1:00 p.m.
Dir. Mati Diop. 2024, 67 mins. Benin/France/Senegal. In English and French with English subtitles. DCP.
Janet Planet
With Annie Baker in person
Sunday, January 12, 6:00 p.m.
Dir. Annie Baker. 2024, 113 mins. U.S. With Julianne Nicholson, Zoe Ziegler, Elias Koteas, Will Patton, Sophie Okonedo.
Last Summer
Saturday, January 18, 6:30 p.m.
Dir. Catherine Breillat. 2023, 104 mins. France. In French with English subtitles. DCP. Léa Drucker, Olivier Rabourdin, Samuel Kircher, Clotilde Courau.
Pictures of Ghosts
Saturday, January 18, 4:30 p.m.
Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho. 2023, 93 mins. Brazil. In Portuguese with English subtitles. DCP.
Youth (Hard Times)
Saturday, January 18, 12:30 p.m.
Dir. Wang Bing. 2024, 226 mins. China. In Mandarin with English subtitles. DCP.
Youth (Homecoming)
Sunday, January 19, 12:45 p.m.
Dir. Wang Bing. 2024, 160 mins. China. In Mandarin with English subtitles. DCP.
Mambar Pierrette
Sunday, January 19, 6:00 p.m.
Dir. Rosine Mbakam. Cameroon, Belgium. 2023, 93 mins. In French, Bamileke, Cameroon Pidgin with English subtitles. DCP.
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Saturday, January 25, 3:00 p.m.
Dir. Radu Jude. 2023, 163 mins. Romania. In Romanian and English with English subtitles. DCP. With Ilinca Manolache, Nina Hoss, Uwe Boll.
A Different Man
With Aaron Schimberg in person
Saturday, January 25, 6:00 p.m.
Dir. Aaron Schimberg. 2024, 112 mins. U.S. DCP. With Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Adam Pearson.
Couples Therapy
Season 4 (2 episodes)
With executive producer Josh Kriegman in person
DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED
Two episodes from Season 4 will be presented, followed by a conversation with executive producer Josh Kriegman.
About Dry Grasses
Sunday, January 26, 5:00 p.m.
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan. 2023, 197 mins. Turkey. In Turkish with English subtitles, DCP. With Deniz Celiloğlu, Merve Dizdar, Musab Ekici.
To learn more, go to: https://movingimage.org/series/curators-choice-2024/
Curators’ Choice 2024: Second Batch
January 4 - 26, 2025
Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35th Ave, Queens, NY 11106
A.I. from "Metropolis" to "Ex Machina" at the Film Forum
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Previews
- Published on Monday, 30 December 2024 16:00
- Written by Brad Balfour
THX 1138
It’s 2025 and the machines are after us! It’s also 1927 and the machines are after us. And 1968, 1980, and 2014. Cinema for decades has explored the tension between man and machine, and that’s at the forefront of the Film Forum’s A.I. FROM METROPOLIS TO EX MACHINA … or, How the Movies Have Been Warning Us for Nearly 100 Years film series. Running from January 3 to the 23 at New York's Film Forum (209 W Houston Street) with an onslaught of over 30 films of mechanized menaces from the classic (Fritz Lang’s Metropolis), the kitschy (The Stepford Wives), and the sensual (Ex Machina).
Films being shown include:
- Alien
- 2001: A Space Oddyssey
- Alphaville
- The Matrix
- Her
- Westworld
- Moon
- Silent Running
- Ghost in the Shell (1995)
- Videodrome
- THX 1138
- The Iron Giant
And many more.
To learn more, go to: https://filmforum.org/
A.I. FROM METROPOLIS TO EX MACHINA … or, How the Movies Have Been Warning Us for Nearly 100 Years
January 3 - 23, 2025
Film Forum
209 W Houston Street
New York, NY 10014
The Film Forum is Just Talking About Blaxploitation, Baby!
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Previews
- Published on Monday, 12 August 2024 14:25
- Written by Brad Balfour
Coffy
The Blaxploitation movement of the 1970s changed cinema forever and now NYC’s Film Forum (209 W. Houston Street) looks back at the works of Ossie Davis, Gordon Parks, Gordon Parks Jr., Gilbert Moses and Van Peebles in their film series “Blaxploitation, Baby!”.
Running August 16 to the 22, this series features beloved actors including Pam Grier, Richard Roundtree, Ron O’Neal, Tamara Dobson, Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee, Fred Williamson, and Isaac Hayes. “Blaxploitation, Baby!” is dedicated to author and pioneering film historian Donald Bogle, collaborator on Film Forum’s first Blaxploitation festival (and the world’s first) in 1995.
“Melvin Van Peebles' SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG set the stage for a new type of Black American cinema and a new Black hero: tough, assertive, rebellious — in an open declaration of war on pushers, turncoats, and especially The Man. Eagerly embraced by a young Black audience, but reviled by the older generation, the post-SWEETBACK Black action pictures made a fast buck for their often white producers, but in their wake brought a gritty social realism to Hollywood's Pop landscape; offered work to Black writers, directors and producers; and explosively touched on a previously-ignored need for empowered heroes and heroines.” – Donald Bogle
Films being screened are:
Cotton Comes to Harlem
- Super Fly
- Sheba, Baby
- Foxy Brown
- Coffy
- Truck Turner
- Shaft
- Blacula
- Friday Foster
- Black Caesar
- Thomasine & Bushrod
- SWEET SWEETBACK'S BAADASSSSS SONG
- Trick Baby
- Willie Dynamite
- Slaughter
To learn more, go to: https://filmforum.org/series/blaxploitation-baby
Blaxploitation, Baby!
August 16 - 22, 2024
Film Forum
209 West Houston Street
New York, NY 10014
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