While reading through the 70 plus comments for this film, I was struck by the wide and endless variety of comments. It's hard to believe that everyone saw the same film. "Malkovich was great"--"Malkovich was awful"; "The credits were too long"--"The credits were fantastic"--"The film is a great tribute to a great film"--"Murnau must be spinning in his grave"--just amazing. To one review in particular I must take exception--silent film directors often DID talk their actors through their movements while filming, which is one reason that so many of them, Murnau included, were not pleased by the coming of sound. Murnau said that he would have nothing to do with talkies--his sudden death prevented our finding out if he would've remained true to his word. Also, cameras were often cranked at different speeds. Most of the film techniques, except maybe the night shooting, were very accurate. I don't believe they had a fast enough stock for night shooting in 1921, and all the night shots in "Nosferatu" are "day for night", shot in daylight then tinted blue to resemble nighttime. I thought a fine job was done creating the world of 1920's German filmmaking, a heady time if there ever was one. I didn't really mind that the accents drifted in and out at times--I feel if you notice that kind of stuff up front, you're not paying attention to the film--it hasn't "caught you up." I had that watching "X-Men", but that's another review. All involved in "Shadow..." are to be complemented for a job well done, including Eddie Izzard, who seemed to have the most stable and positive response from almost all the review. Embarrassingly, I had never heard of him before seeing this film! He was quite excellent, though and missed from the ending scene (which that character is in in the Murnau original). The ending scene is the only part I have some trouble with. It seems as if they just ran out of steam and relied on a bit of "shock" to end it. I can't think of how it could have been done better, but it just needed something.
Review of Shadow of the Vampire
