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NOSFERATU – Robin Carolan
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
Irish author Bram Stoker essentially invented the concept of the vampire as we know it in popular culture with his novel Dracula in 1897, but the first on-screen vampire actually appeared in 1922 in director F. W. Murnau’s silent film Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens. Murnau’s film is a loose adaptation of Stoker’s story, with some key changes to the setting (England vs Germany), character names (Dracula is Orlok, Jonathan Harker is Thomas Hutter, Mina is Ellen), and some of the details on who and what the vampire is and does, but the core story is essentially the same. Hutter is a young clerk at the real estate company of Herr Knock, and is newly married to the lovely Ellen. Hutter is sent by Knock to negotiate a land deal on behalf of Count Orlok, who lives in a huge dilapidated castle in a far-flung corner of eastern Europe; when he arrives he finds Orlok to be a decrepit, ancient, terrifying creature, but nevertheless he signs the papers and purchases the property. Orlok sees a picture of Ellen in a locket that Hutter carries and recognizes her as the girl he has been mentally and sexually tormenting for years; he is obsessed with Ellen, and she is the reason he is purchasing the property in the first place. Orlok imprisons Hutter in his castle and leaves to finally claim Ellen as his own, but Hutter – who has realized that Orlok is a vampire – manages to escape and follows Orlok, intending to stop him. Read more…
THE NORTHMAN – Robin Carolan and Sebastian Gainsborough
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
One of the oldest stories in all of literature is that of a son avenging the death of a father. It has driven plots in cultures all across the world, and inspired some of the greatest pieces of art in history. One of the most famous of these is, of course, William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but I would hazard a guess that most people did not realize that Hamlet was itself based on a much earlier story from Norse mythology – I certainly did not until after seeing The Northman. That earlier story is the tale of Amleth, a Viking prince who sets out on a quest to avenge the murder of his father, King Aurvandill War-Raven, by his uncle, Fjölnir. This very simple story of honor and revenge is the basis for The Northman, from director Robert Eggers. It’s an epic, bloody, gory, ultra-realistic, but sometimes fantastical and hallucinatory story of what happens when a desire for revenge becomes a man’s sole purpose for existing – what that will drive a man to do, and whether this singular black-and-white view of right and wrong is justified, especially when shades of grey, doubts and secrets are revealed as the story progresses. It’s a film caked in blood and mud and sweat and shit, which pulls no punches and gives the audience an unflinching look at Viking life and culture. The film stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, Nicole Kidman as Amleth’s mother Queen Guðrun, Claes Bang as Fjölnir, Ethan Hawke as King Aurvandill, and a luminous Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga, a Slavic sorceress who is taken as a slave by Fjölnir and eventually becomes Amleth’s lover. Read more…
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