Nosferatu the Vampyre

Nosferatu the Vampyre is a 1979 horror film written and directed by Werner Herzog. It is set primarily in 19th-century Wismar, Germany and Transylvania, and was conceived as a stylistic remake of F. W. Murnau's 1922 German Dracula adaptation Nosferatu. The picture stars Klaus Kinski as Count Dracula, Isabelle Adjani as Lucy Harker, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Harker, and French artist-writer Roland Topor as Renfield. There are two different versions of the film, one in which the actors speak English, and one in which they speak German. Herzog's production of Nosferatu was very well received by critics and enjoyed a comfortable degree of commercial success. The film also marks the second of five collaborations between director Herzog and actor Kinski, immediately followed by 1979's Woyzeck. The film had 1,000,000 admissions in West Germany and grossed ITL 53,870,000 in Italy. It was also a modest success in Adjani's home country, taking in 933,533 admissions in France. A novelization of the screenplay was written by Paul Monette and published by both Avon Publishing and Picador in 1979. The 1988 Italian horror film Nosferatu in Venice is a "sequel-in-name-only", again featuring Kinski in the title role. Plot In 1850, Jonathan Harker is an estate agent in Wismar, Germany. His employer, Renfield, informs him that nobleman Count Dracula wishes to buy a property in Wismar. Harker is assigned to visit the Count and complete the deal. Leaving his wife Lucy behind, Harker travels to Dracula's castle in Transylvania, in a journey that lasts four weeks, carrying with him the documents needed to sell the house. En route, Harker stops at an inn, where the locals beg for him to stay away from the accursed castle, providing him with details of Dracula's vampirism. Ignoring the villagers' pleas as superstition, Harker continues his journey, ascending the Borgo Pass on foot and arriving at the castle, where he meets Dracula, a man with large ears, pale skin, sharp teeth and long fingernails.