Sometimes movies just stick with audiences long after their initial release. First released in March 1922, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror has managed to haunt movie-goers for a century, and now one local event will celebrate the enduring impact of this piece of cinema.
The Harris Theater will host screenings of Nosferatu with live music accompaniment by esteemed jazz pianist Tom Roberts. Taking place Fri., March 4 and Sat., March 5, the anniversary tribute is being co-presented by the Pittsburgh Silent Film Society, a group founded in 2013 to promote silent film exhibitions in the region.
Hosting the event is Adam Hart, a visiting researcher for the University of Pittsburgh Library System and scholar on horror cinema. Hart, who’s currently working on Pitt’s George A. Romero Archival Collection, finds it unsurprising that the German expressionist vampire film still endures as a captivating work.
“It's not every day that you get to celebrate the 100th anniversary of one of the most beloved, iconic movies in film history,” says Hart. “Nosferatu is a movie that I've seen countless times, that I've written about and that I've taught in classes, and those images still blow me away every time I watch it.”
The Harris Theater event comes after international film distributor Kino Lorber completed a high-definition remaster of the film’s 35mm restoration, complete with an orchestral performance of Hans Erdmann's original 1922 score, as well as “unprecedented visual clarity and historical faithfulness to the original release version,” according to a press release.
Kino Lorber describes the unauthorized adaptation of author Bram Stoker's Dracula as “the quintessential silent vampire film, crafted by legendary German director F. W. Murnau.”
“Rather than depicting Dracula as a shape-shifting monster or debonair gentleman, Murnau's Graf Orlok (as portrayed by Max Schreck) is a nightmarish, spidery creature of bulbous head and taloned claws — perhaps the most genuinely disturbing incarnation of vampirism yet envisioned,” the statement reads.
The statement also calls Nosferatu "an atypical expressionist film in that much of it was shot on location" — as opposed to shooting in a studio, a common practice at the time, the film's landscapes, villages, and castle were actual locations in the Carpathian mountains.
"Murnau was thus able to infuse the story with the subtle tones of nature: both pure and fresh as well as twisted and sinister,” it reads.
The March 4 screening is sold out, but tickets are still available for the March 5 event.
Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror with Tom Roberts. Showtimes vary. Fri., March 4-Sat., March 5. Harris Theater. 809 Liberty Ave., Downtown. $15. trustarts.org
Nosferatu creeps into Harris Theater for 100th anniversary screenings
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