Shadow of a Vampire
How does Shadow of the Vampire appropriate the earlier texts of Nosferatu and Dracula and make or create something new?
Blood sucking, darkness, gothic and death; all relate to this mysterious creature, the vampire. A film within a film is Shadow of the Vampire and it moulds together the texts Dracula and Nosferatu using post-modernist techniques. This creates for the audience a film that entertainingly doesn’t follow universal themes but focuses on gothic features, character transformations and the plot.
Shadow of the Vampire is a docu-drama, as the film is based upon the filming of Nosferatu, this technique of intertexuality uses Nosferatu as a framework. However, Elias Mehrige the director uses the technique pastiche as well; which is the combination of two genres, they are gothic and docu-drama. Dracula and Nosferatu are where the gothic genre is obtained from; this then creates for the viewer an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. It has the gothic setting and landscape, for example the castle in all three texts are alike and described the same. Blood is a motif in each text as it symbolizes life and death; another motif used is the realm of darkness, this establishes for the viewer evil and unsolved mysteries. These are all elements of the gothic genre and it brings new aspects to the film, creating an art form.
Shadow of the Vampire inspects the way a film can create many interpretations of reality through deception. By weaving fact with fiction it makes viewers question what they are really watching. By twisting Count Orlock into a vampire in reality creates playfulness, which is a postmodernist technique. Also by making Max Schreck differ from the “traditional” and “classic” roles of a vampire establishes black humor and playfulness as well. Schreck states “I feel like an old man pees- sometimes all at once, sometimes drop by drop.”, this makes the audience review their perspective on evil because of his humor and absurdness. The audience is
Blood sucking, darkness, gothic and death; all relate to this mysterious creature, the vampire. A film within a film is Shadow of the Vampire and it moulds together the texts Dracula and Nosferatu using post-modernist techniques. This creates for the audience a film that entertainingly doesn’t follow universal themes but focuses on gothic features, character transformations and the plot.
Shadow of the Vampire is a docu-drama, as the film is based upon the filming of Nosferatu, this technique of intertexuality uses Nosferatu as a framework. However, Elias Mehrige the director uses the technique pastiche as well; which is the combination of two genres, they are gothic and docu-drama. Dracula and Nosferatu are where the gothic genre is obtained from; this then creates for the viewer an atmosphere of mystery and suspense. It has the gothic setting and landscape, for example the castle in all three texts are alike and described the same. Blood is a motif in each text as it symbolizes life and death; another motif used is the realm of darkness, this establishes for the viewer evil and unsolved mysteries. These are all elements of the gothic genre and it brings new aspects to the film, creating an art form.
Shadow of the Vampire inspects the way a film can create many interpretations of reality through deception. By weaving fact with fiction it makes viewers question what they are really watching. By twisting Count Orlock into a vampire in reality creates playfulness, which is a postmodernist technique. Also by making Max Schreck differ from the “traditional” and “classic” roles of a vampire establishes black humor and playfulness as well. Schreck states “I feel like an old man pees- sometimes all at once, sometimes drop by drop.”, this makes the audience review their perspective on evil because of his humor and absurdness. The audience is