Nosferatu

Music by Jean-François Zygel, piano and celesta
Film by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau - Germany, 1922, 92 minutes
Original title: Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens
Screenplay: Henrik Galeen, based on Bram Stoker's Dracula
Copy: Fondation Murnau, restored in 2006.

In partnership with the Audiovisual Institute of Monaco

The iconic "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (1922) very nearly suffered the same fate as the Hanging Gardens of Bablyon. Adapting their material from Bram Stoker's famous novel Dracula despite not having secured the rights, the film's makers were sued and the court ordered all of the copies to be destroyed. Mere copyright issues almost deprived cinema of one its greatest legends. Fortunately, a few copies were miraculously spared, ensuring that contemporary audiences can continue to savour the same chills as their counterparts of a hundred years earlier. Murnau's work, so refined in its artful use of chiaroscuro and suggestion, can be seen simply as a superb horror movie, aesthetically brilliant and captivating. But this alone does not explain the profound impression it leaves on those who see it. Today, as it did all those years ago, Nosferatu challenges us to face up to our irrational fear of others and the disproportionate violence of our reactions. Food for thought…

Jean-François Zygel will draw on all his incredible talents of musical improvisation to provide a fitting soundtrack to this monument of the seventh art.

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