L'ombra del vampiro

(Shadow of the Vampire)

2000, regia di E. Elias Merhige

Scheda: Nazione: GB-Usa - Produzione: Long Shot Films, Saturn Film, BBC, DeLux Productions, Luxembourg Film Fund, Nicolas Cage, Jeff Levine - Distribuzione: CDI-Buena Vista - Sceneggiatura: Steven Kantz - Fotografia: Lou Bogue - Montaggio: Chris Wyatt - Scenografia: Assheton Gorton - Costumi: Caroline De Vivaise - Musiche: Dan Jones - Effetti speciali: Pauline Fowler, Julian Murray - Formato: Colore - Durata: 92'.

Cast: John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Udo Kier, Catherine McCormack, Eddie Izzard, Ronan Vibert, Cary Elwes, Aden Gillett, Marja-Leena Junker, Jean-Claude Croes, Graham Johnston, Myriam Muller, Sascha Ley, Brian Williams, Christophe Chrompin, Nicholas Elliott, Orian Williams, Milos Hlavac, Sophie Langevin, Tania Marzen.

Trama e commenti: cinematografo.it - kataweb.it - Dizionario Farinotti - film.spettacolo.virgilio.it: «Ricostruzione, tra veritą e leggenda, delle riprese di Nosferatu. Da qualche parte nell'Europa dell'est del 1921. Un regista tedesco, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, sta per iniziare le riprese di Nosferatu, il vampiro, un film di vampiri ispirato a Dracula di Bram Stoker. Per dare il volto al conte Orlock sotto le cui spoglie si nasconde il non morto, Murnau conta molto sull'interpretazione di Max Schreck, un misterioso attore. Nell'ambiente del cinema si mormora che Max sia veramente un vampiro... Didascalico, verbosissimo, inutilmente lento, il film butta al vento una bella occasione. Mehrige ha una scrittura compiaciuta e boriosa. Impressionante la mimetizzazione di Malkovich e Dafoe nei rispettivi caratteri».

Plot Summary, Synopsis, Review: IMDb - allmovie.com - entertainment.msn.com - tvguide.com - vampress.net: «Clever, engaging, and boosted by the sublime casting of Willem Dafoe as Nosferatu actor Max Schreck, Shadow of the Vampire is a film full of good ideas that are only partially developed. Its premise is ripe with possibilities, but the movie's too slight to register much impact, so you're left to relish its delightful performances and director E. Elias Merhige's affectionately tongue-in-cheek homage to a landmark of German silent cinema. John Malkovich is aptly loony as the eccentric director F.W. Murnau, whose passion in filming the 1922 classic Nosferatu leads to the extreme casting of Schreck as the vampire, a vision of evil who, in this movie's delightfully twisted imagination, actually is a vampire, sucking the blood of cast and crewmembers who've dismissed Schreck as an overzealous method actor. As these on-set maladies and "accidents" continue, Schreck wields greater control over Murnau, who descends into a kind of obsessive art-for-art's-sake madness until diva costar Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack, doing wonderful work) is served up as the actor's ultimate motivation. Merhige and his actors (including Cary Elwes, as intrepid cameraman Fritz Wagner) have great fun with this ghastly escapade, and the humor is kept delicately subtle to balance the movie's artistic aspirations. To that end, Dafoe is just right, his bald pate and gaunt features a perfect match for the mysterious Schreck, his grimace and talon-like fingers suggesting a human vulture on the prowl. Likewise, the re-creation of Nosferatu's expressionist style is both fanciful and brilliantly authentic. Too bad, then, that this movie suffers a mild case of vampiric anemia; if it shared the depth and richness of, say, Ed Wood, this might have been a cult classic for the ages» (Jeff Shannon).

Approfondimenti: Movie Review

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Conosciuto anche con il titolo: Burned to Light.

IL CASTELLO DELLE OMBRE: La recensione di Vito Attolini

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