Release: Mar 03, 2011 - Author: LJSilver - Translator: DaxRider123
- external link: IMDB
Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu - Phantom der Nacht" is a remake of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's same-named film version of Bram Stoker's famous novel "Dracula" from 1922! The German version and the English version differ severely from each other, since Herzog shot the movie in 2 languages, meaning that he didn't just hire voice-actors to dub all the German lines but he decided to shoot the movie in German as well as in English. There are several reasons for that:
If you look at both versions you can recognize the following pattern:
We really recommend the audio commentary on the German as well as the international DVD - Werner Herzog reveals a lot of details about the production of both versions! Runtime: This is a comparison between the uncut international version released in the year 2000 and the German version. Both versions are included in the DVD-set released by Anchor Bay (while the German DVD released by Arthaus only provides the German version). The time designations always refer to the German PAL version. The international version runs in NTSC speed. Examples for the distinction between the German and the international version:
Example 1: Title screen (01:08 Min.)
Example 2: English as the "primary" language of this production You see a complex scene at the marketplace which (probably due to the effort necessary to shoot the scene) was not included in both versions. This scene was only shot in English and later on dubbed for the German version (79:05 Min.).
Renfield (played by Roland Topor) is a good example for a character who had to be dubbed by a voice actor in both versions due to his heavy French accent. All the scenes that include this character were only shot in English. If there are some scenes that include other characters than him (e.g. during his conversation with Jonathan Harker) then (again) there's only an English version of that scene (05:47 Min.).
Example 3: Heavily altered sequences (73:00 Min.) In this example you see that several sequences of dialogue sometimes appear at completely different points of the movie. In both pictures you see below, Dracula says "He will not die!" (German: "Er wird nicht sterben!").
Example 4: Different, yet still pretty similar sequences Here you see a few examples for sequences that are pretty similar to each other, yet still they do not originate from the same footage. This is the most frequent difference you will find when comparing the two different versions to each other.
Very often you won't immediately be able to spot the differences (82:45 Min./ 73:21 Min. / 77:35 Min.):
Example 5: Different camera angle (38:38 Min.) The scene where Jonathan writes something in his diary proves that they used different camera angles for a few scenes.
Example 6: Love for detail (38:39) During the scene where Jonathan writes something in his diary you also see the love for detail in this movie. Even the text he writes down is shown in the correct language.
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