Klaus Kinski

Isabelle Adjani

Bruno Ganz

Roland Topor

Walter Ladengast

Martje Grohmann

Carsten Bodinus

Beverly Walker

Jacques Dufilho

Clemens Scheitz

John Leddy

Rudolf Wolf

Štefan Husár

Lo van Hensbergen

Johan te Slaa

Jan Groth

Bo van Hensbergen

Claude Chiarini

Margiet van Hartingsveld

Tim Beekman

Roger Berry Losch

Rijk de Gooyer

Dan van Husen

Werner Herzog

Attila Árpa

Bram Stoker

Jörg Schmidt-Reitwein

Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus

Gisela Storch

Ann Poppel

Reiko Kruk

Florian Fricke

Charles Gounod

Harald Maury

Michael Gruskoff

Daniel Toscan du Plantier

Richard Wagner

Walter Saxer

Popol Vuh

Dominique Colladant

Henrik Galeen

Drama

Horror

Nosferatu - Phantom der Nacht

Werner Herzog Filmproduktion

Gaumont

Germany

France

CinemaSerf

"Harker" (Bruno Ganz) travels to remote Transylvania where he is to help "Count Dracula" (Klaus Kinski) buy a new home in his hometown of Wismar. Why? Well that's because he has fallen in love with a photograph of his beautiful wife "Lucy" (Isabelle Adjani) and has determined to make her his immortal bride. "Harker" had been warned by the locals of the dangers of visiting the "Count" but he pressed on regardless, so ought not to have been surprised when his host absconds from his castle on a schooner laden with coffins, soil and a deadly plague of rats so he can ensnare his innocent young wife. Can he race back home in time to thwart this evil? There's nothing especially new about the chronology of the story here, it's the characterisation of the vampire that helps this stand out. It's obvious from the start that "Dracula" is not of human kind. Contrasting with most interpretations of the title role, Kinski and Warner Herzog attempt to imbue "Dracula" with a degree of humanity. He doles out his lusts left, right and centre upon the innocent, spreading plague and disaster wherever he goes, but he too is cursed. By his own immortality, by his search for some kind of fulfilment or contentedness. This isn't a depiction riddled with sharp teeth and ketchup, it's much more subtle, refined even, telling of a character that it's almost impossible not to feel sorry for. The production itself has dated rather badly, and at times it did remind me of one of these "Sherlock Holmes" remakes, but the thrust of the story is still interestingly different to the normal depiction of this epitome of evil and worth sticking with.