My Opinion on the Acting in Nosferatu – A Symphony of Horror

I feel as though it is nearly impossible to only be able to critique the acting in the film because all the other affects are needed to “help” the actors know exactly what kind of film they are in. For example, in this silent film, it was clever when we would hear a door slam and the actor could also hear it and react. Even though this is a “silent film,” I interpreted it to be loud in reference to its story and characters. The actors were bold with their movements and hilarious facial expressions. Comparing it to film today, I assume that the actors in Nosferatu only had one or two shots to do a particular scene, and now, 90 years later when filming, a scene could take up to 15 hours. This meant the actors had to be on their game when the director said go.

When looking at the actors’ performance in Nosferatu, I noticed they all had thoughts and lines but we couldn’t hear the lines which made it necessary for me to follow the actors’ thought process.  For example, Knock had an intriguing shift of tactics and emotions when he went from sneaky to evil, which led me to believe that he was planning something for Hutter to act upon. Knock truly illustrated his character by being over the top and exaggerated with his face and movements, especially in the prison scenes. I thought he was successful when playing this role. Graf Orlok was pretty much the villain with an actual hilarious presence when trying to play “evil.” The other actors’ reactions to his name were essential because it’s important that the meaning of their relationships to Graf Orlok is clear. In order to get what Graf Orlok wanted, he uses multiple tactics like being overly friendly or down to earth. I really was unimpressed by Hutter. I thought the other characters were better because Hutter didn’t seem like he was on the same page with everyone else; Hutter looked like he thought that this “Symphony of Horror” is a silly piece. The other characters, like his wife, were invested in what was going on in the story. I think this a necessary movie in history to watch when beginning to study film.