Nosferatu: Light And Dark

The story of Nosferatu is a tale of xenophobia that used heavy expressionism to display its stances. Without all of the expressionist elements for it, it would just be a bunch of people fearing migrant citizens as they don’t want their culture to be taken over by them. The added expressionism in the makeup, cinematography, acting, and set design added a more fearful and anxious tone to the film. The people of yesterday and today fear everything that Orlok stood for such as madness, disease, and lust as they still believe foreigners will bring all of those things to their home countries. The imagery in the film warned us about the power of Nosferatu and that he was something not to be tampered with. All of these techniques formed Murnau’s masterpiece film and it set the standard for the horror films of yesterday and today.

In Double Indemnity, lighting plays a key role in visual design. Throughout the film there seems to be and absence of light when something secretive is going on. It is night time (or dark outside) when Walter begins to confess his actions, when Phyllis and Walter continue to meet, and when murders take place. This aids in presenting the dark and mysterious actions of the characters and adds a sense of danger. Shadows, also a play on lighting, seem to follow Walter throughout the entire film. This may represent the idea that something menacing is following Walter, possibly a foreshadowing of the confessions that are soon to be revealed. The shadows are typically obvious and over exaggerated, giving the scenes more of an uneasy feel. There is also a significant shift in lighting when Walter first meets Phyllis. The day goes from bright and sunny to dark and rainy. This is also a foreshadow of what's to come. Walter will be stepping out of the light and into Phyllis’ darkness.

The contrast of light and darkness within the story is used alongside the characters to create suspense. At the beginning of the story, it was dark, which gave the reader an ominous impression. For example Mr White was going down the stairs to make a wish to bring Herbert back while it was so dark, he had to feel his way around. The darkness generates fear, as it is hard to be sure what is lurking around the corner, and what you might bump in to. Jacobs then contrasts this with the light of the next morning, which provides a break from the suspense. However it

The world of copyright was just as convoluted in the 1920’s as it is in our world today. The film studio Prana Film, which produced the 1922 German Expressionist film Nosferatu, was sued for copyright infringement by the estate of Bram Stoker, the author of the 1897 Gothic Horror novel Dracula, and ended up filing for bankruptcy after only distributing one film. While this may seem like an immense failure for the studio behind the silent film, it ended up influencing almost a century of vampires, in novels, television, and other films, and made the name ‘Nosferatu’ synonymous with the equally influential novel that it was based upon. On the surface, Nosferatu is a blatant copy of Dracula, from it’s plot, to the characters (besides the change in names), to the portrayal of vampires in general; in reality, many aspects of both bodies of work differ immensely from one another, providing both Stoker and director F. W. Murnau pieces that have influenced generations of vampire media. The structure, characterization and overall tone of Nosferatu is developed differently than Dracula in order to differentiate itself from it’s source material and provide an alternate adaptation of an iconic tale.

For example, the contrast made between cold and hot, the cold can represents the darkness because when someone is cold hearted they are not very nice. The opposite would be the light, which is depicted in heat and warmth. There is also a level of importance in the scene where Clarisse and Montag walk to her house. The scene is described, "When they reached her house all its lights were blazing" (Bradbury 7). This illuminates that Montag has only thought of houses to be dark and eerie.

"Fleance his son, that keeps him company, Whose absence is no less material to me Than is his father's, must embrace the fate Of that dark hour" (III.i.135-138). He refers to the ‘dark hour’ as the time when they die, and since they are travelling during the night. All in all, light and dark play a big role in impacting the the play.

darkness are used to make the atmosphere scary and teeming with danger, much as the 1931 film.

Similar to how the hazy quality adds to the oneiric atmosphere of the shots in the Dietrichson’s household, the elements of the mise-en-scène contribute to the realistic characteristics of the first shot. Here, the viewer is presented with a seemingly perfect upper class neighborhood full of California Spanish houses. The children outside are playing baseball and an ice cream truck drives by, representing the epitome of the American Dream. The image is sharp and clear, with the light source coming from the right. However, the lighting is practically uniform in this shot. There are several hues and colors present in this shot, which is consistent with the realm of reality. Each frame of the camera is busy and cluttered, and there is a great deal of movement from both the props and the actors. However, it can also be argued that the first shot—though fairly realistic—is interrupted by oneiric qualities.

These descriptions alone show that everything they are seeing is dark, which continuously adds to the eerie tone of the story. This is only continued

Dracula – When you see Dracula in the film he is clad in red armour

to Bram Stokers story as myself to a chimp. If it was named 'Parody Of

The dark tone of the story is established almost immediately in the piece by the writers focus on death. An example is seen by the reader at the beginning of the story with the threat of death upon any man who accepts the challenge of the trying to figure out where the princesses go. This immediate focus on the intense subject of death establishes a dark and almost nerve wracking threat of dying. This tone is then furthered by the description of one suitors failure to stay awake throughout the night and when he fails to give an answer his head was chopped off. Through the intense tone of death established at the beginning of the story, the reader experiences a dark tense feeling while reading through the

Silent horror films continued throughout the early 20th century. Some of the most famous horror films of this era included; The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Golem (1920), and Nosferatu (1920). These films feature a mad doctor, a vampire, and a monster that is never seen. (Wilson) These monsters were some of the very first to be introduced to horror but certainly not the last.

Ondaatje uses darkness and light as a recurring motif throughout the novel that proves to be very prominent. At first, it seems void of meaning, for example, Patrick describes his evening as “The house is in darkness except for the bright light in the kitchen”, soon followed by “He walks back into the bright kitchen and moves from window to window to search out the moths against the screens, clinging to brightness”, this is the first instance in which the reader notes Ondaatje’s use of the contrast between dark and light. I found this particular motif to enhance the mood of the novel in a number of plot areas. The juxtaposition between dreams and reality is very common throughout the novel, and when Rowland Harris is imagining the finished

His cinematography “creates an exceptionally inviting, varied look for this nocturnal story, and special visual effects are smoothly integrated into the action. The makeup that adds pale eyes, ghostly pallor and tiny blue veins to the principals' faces manages to create a frisson of danger without marring the actors' attractiveness” (Maslin). Rousselot used dark-lensing, a way to attain low key shots and thus created a huge contrast to the sets and costumes (Maslin). This made the characters seem as though they were the only important things in the otherwise dark and gloomy shots.