Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Special Effects and the Techno-Romantic Paradigm
- 1 Imagining Technological Art: Early German Film Theory
- 2 Modern Magicians: Guido Seeber and Eugen Schüfftan
- 3 The Uncanny Mirror: Der Student von Prag (1913)
- 4 Visualizing the Occult: Nosferatu (1922)
- 5 The Technological Sublime: Metropolis (1927)
- 6 “German Technique” and Hollywood
- Conclusion: Techno-Romantic Cinema from the Silent to the Digital Era
- Bibliography
- Index
4 - Visualizing the Occult: Nosferatu (1922)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Special Effects and the Techno-Romantic Paradigm
- 1 Imagining Technological Art: Early German Film Theory
- 2 Modern Magicians: Guido Seeber and Eugen Schüfftan
- 3 The Uncanny Mirror: Der Student von Prag (1913)
- 4 Visualizing the Occult: Nosferatu (1922)
- 5 The Technological Sublime: Metropolis (1927)
- 6 “German Technique” and Hollywood
- Conclusion: Techno-Romantic Cinema from the Silent to the Digital Era
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
Public enthusiasm for occult themes was rife in the decades around 1900 and many German filmmakers and intellectuals were occupied with esoteric concepts. Constitutive of occultist thought is a belief in secret realities beyond our perceptual abilities. The vampire tale Nosferatu does not advocate for specific doctrines, but many of the film's idiosyncratic aspects, particularly the appearance, behaviour, and powers of the vampire, become intelligible in novel ways when examined from an occultist perspective. The film externalizes the vampire's nature through cinematic devices and most notably special effects. The materialization of the intangible by means of technology constitutes an essentially techno-romantic project. In Nosferatu, it served to consolidate objectives of occultists and cinephiles for the purpose of film art.
Keywords: occultism, vampires, the invisible, camera effects, stop-motion
The period between the 1870s and the 1930s saw a surge of occultist ideas and practices across the Western world. Although the history of occultism goes back to antiquity, a sharp upturn in public interest in the last quarter of the nineteenth century suggests that the occult revival constitutes a characteristically modern phenomenon. For philosopher Richard von Coudenhove-Karlegi, enthusiasm for the occult was indicative of “modern romanticism,” which also underlay other zeitgeist sentiments like nostalgia, exoticism, and faith in the future. All expressed longing for other, remote, and mysterious worlds and sprang from anguish in the face of modernity's concrete, cold, and pragmatic materialism, a feature that machine technology epitomized. The techno-romantic paradigm constitutes a response to the same affliction, yet paradoxically seeks to attain the intangible, specifically through technology. What concerns me here are the intersections between techno-romantic and occultist lines of thought. Although both construe the spiritual as the essential feature of human existence, occultism's quest for invisible realities and eternal truths through the pursuit of ancient hermetic wisdom did not specifically pertain to machine technology, and techno-romantic perspectives neither constituted a systematic doctrine nor were they expressly concerned with mysterious forces. Nonetheless, in cinema, occultist and techno-romantic approaches proved highly compatible.
In the decades around 1900, fascination with the occult permeated all layers of European society. Many artists, including filmmakers, engaged with occultist thought and practices.
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- Information
- Special Effects and German Silent FilmTechno-Romantic Cinema, pp. 145 - 184Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021