Nosferatu

I wasn’t a huge fan of this film, although it was an experience watching it. I have seen other silent films before which I enjoyed, but those were all comedies, mostly with Buster Keaton. The acting in “Nosferatu” was extremely over exaggerated. Although this is typical with a lot of silent films, I thought it works much better in silent comedies than with horror. In comedy, the over exaggerations add to the humor whereas with this film I found it distracting. This type of film is so different from contemporary films today. I understand that since the actors aren’t speaking they have to convey and communicate everything through their face and gestures; however, it takes away from the story. I found myself more focused on the over acting, so it was difficult for me to follow the narrative.

Hutter was the most obvious and exaggerated actor with his emotions. When he cut himself at dinner and Nosferatu tasted his blood, his “scared” reaction was so over the top, it became almost a parody of itself. I couldn’t take it seriously and found it funny rather than scary. On the other hand, I thought that his wife was the subtlest actor. Although she did tend to overact at times, her facial expressions and gestures were never incredibly over the top. When Hutter told her that he was leaving in the beginning of the film, her face looked stunned and shocked. Her acting was the closest to a realistic reaction that someone could have in that situation. I could still tell what she was feeling or wanted to express, but it didn’t seem as fake or heightened as some of the other actors’ expressions.