"Gods and Monsters" and "Shadow of the Vampire" are both tributes to old horror directors. The first stars Ian McKellan as James Whale, the director of the classic Universal Frankenstein movies. The second stars John Malkovich as Friedrich Mullan, the director of the silent classic "Nosferatu".
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Gods And Monsters (1998)
Ian McKellan is just great isn't he? Whether he's playing Magneto, Gandalf or Richard III, he is always brilliant. Here he plays James Whale, the director of the classic Universal Frankenstein movies. We see Whale here towards the end of his life, if anything feeling a little embarrassed by his Frankenstein legacy which seems to be the only thing anyone wants to talk to him about.
The other actor McKellan is playing against here is Brendan Fraser who has kind of fallen off the map recently. He was in the remake of Bedazzled, which I thought was horribly underrated (especially now that I've seen and hated the original) and he was great when he guest starred on a few episodes of Scrubs. Obviously he was in Joe Dante's Looney Tunes film and he didn't really make a good impression there. So all this is a big fall from grace after his time as the action star at the centre of the "The Mummy" movies. I wasn't particularly keen on the first of those, but I thought the sequel "The Mummy Returns" was absolutely great fun.
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So, in "Gods and Monsters" James Whale is not expecting to live very long, he seems mostly bored and he's a bit of a dirty old man. He finds that he has developed a condition which causes him to experience flashbacks of his past as a result of some recent strokes. Having taken a fancy to the gardener (played by Brendan Fraser) he asks him to pose for a portrait. However, his motives change a bit when he finds that looking at his handsome gardener sets off old memories. However, the relationship between him and this (entirely straight btw) gardener becomes even more conflicted because the memories stirred by Brendan Fraser are so mixed. Some are happy memories, but some are deeply sad and troubling memories. Memories of old love affairs are a source of great joy for James Whale, but he also gains memories of his social class growing up, which turns out to be a major source of personal shame for him.
Brendan Fraser's gardener figure is entirely fictional, but the condition which afflicts James Whale during this time is not. Brendan Fraser finds James Whale's past very interesting and somewhat inspiring. He acts as an outsider to whom James Whale can reveal his history and his secrets, but the way the two characters relate to one another also allows us to explore the historical figure of Whale in a more interesting way through the use of this contrasting and less cultured character.
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When "Bride of Frankenstein" is playing on tv, Brendan Fraser's character makes a point of getting his friends to watch it with him. When James Whale asks him whether he laughed at the movie, he is quick to assert that he didn't, keen to show the utmost respect to James Whale's work. I was pleased to hear James Whale here saying that this was a pity since the film was supposed to be funny.
James Whale feels a bit washed up, since what he planned to be his big cinematic masterpiece (not a Frankenstein movie) ended up being highly compromised. Now Whale is feeling his age. Nevertheless, McKellan captures the various aspects of James Whale's emotions, including his highly eccentric personality.
"Gods And Monsters" is not a biopic. It is a made-up story intended to explore the life of James Whale. Rather than simply recounting the events of his life, this explores the facets of Whale's personality. And it needs an entirely made-up character in order to make this possible.
A+
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Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Shadow of the Vampire stars John Malkovich as Friedrich Murnau, the director of "Nosferatu" and Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck. The film takes seriously a rumour from the time that Max Schreck was as effective in the movie as he was because he was actually a real live vampire.
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This is actually a wonderful tribute to the original "Nosferatu" with clear tributes to particular scenes from the original film scattered all the way through. And some of those scenes owe a lot to Eddie Izzard. I must say that, asides from this, I have not seen much evidence that Eddie Izzard is much of an actor. While I'm a big fan of Izzard as a stand-up comedian, I wasn't terribly keen to see him trying to act.
As it turns out however, I think that Izzard is particularly suited to this role more than any other because it's always been clear in his stand-up comedy that he has a real knack for miming. (This guy can really make you believe that he's actually talking to a frenchman with a table, chair, cat, mouse and monkey set up so he can finally use those helpful phrases he learnt in school. - Okay maybe that will only make sense to those who've seen his "Dressed To Kill" DVD.) He gives the impression of someone expertly performing careful motions, but who is nevertheless rather overdoing his facial expressions (as silent era actors were wont to do). Having seemed so over-the-top in the relatively recent "Day Of The Triffids" tv adaptation, here he seems to fit right in as a silent era actor.
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The main talent here is undoubtedly Willem Dafoe who blends right into the role. He and John Malkovich have a wonderful chemistry and deliver some blackly comic lines with awesome timing.
"Shadow of the Vampire" might be a comedy with little to really tell us about the real filmmaker, but its still a wonderful tribute to the original silent movie of "Nosferatu" nonetheless. So much so that I actually wish I had enjoyed the original movie. As with many other silent movies "Nosferatu" was no exception in that it made me want to fall asleep.![]()
xerinmichellex recently posted a wonderful little clip of Murnau's early moving camerawork in her review of "Gravity" and I'm sure there must have been some such elements to admire in "Nosferatu" too, but I just couldn't get into it.
But even though I cannot appreciate the homage elements as much as some, "Shadow Of The Vampire" should be lauded for being able to make me feel bad about that. (And also some of the scenes from the original movie are shot pretty similarly in Werner Herzog's remake of "Nosferatu" which I really enjoyed, so I can appreciate them from that too.) But most of all it should be lauded for being a wonderfully funny black comedy which reminds us how important the role of cinema has been in establishing the modern vampire myth.
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One element that I didn't like about "Shadow Of The Vampire" was the opening credits sequence. It's irritating that, of all the elements to pay tribute to, they should choose to pay tribute to over-long boring opening credits sequences. There's a set of boring images, some music that completely fails to give any impression of the style of the movie to come and by the time that opening credits sequence was over I was in the worst possible mood. It's fortunate that the film was as good as it was, because otherwise that opening sequence could have killed off all good will entirely.
A+
If anyone here is unfamiliar with Eddie Izzard as a stand-up comedian (as if!) then what better introduction than Eddie Izzard talking about horror movies and, of course, Dracula!
(video link)
Gods And Monsters (1998)
Ian McKellan is just great isn't he? Whether he's playing Magneto, Gandalf or Richard III, he is always brilliant. Here he plays James Whale, the director of the classic Universal Frankenstein movies. We see Whale here towards the end of his life, if anything feeling a little embarrassed by his Frankenstein legacy which seems to be the only thing anyone wants to talk to him about.
The other actor McKellan is playing against here is Brendan Fraser who has kind of fallen off the map recently. He was in the remake of Bedazzled, which I thought was horribly underrated (especially now that I've seen and hated the original) and he was great when he guest starred on a few episodes of Scrubs. Obviously he was in Joe Dante's Looney Tunes film and he didn't really make a good impression there. So all this is a big fall from grace after his time as the action star at the centre of the "The Mummy" movies. I wasn't particularly keen on the first of those, but I thought the sequel "The Mummy Returns" was absolutely great fun.
So, in "Gods and Monsters" James Whale is not expecting to live very long, he seems mostly bored and he's a bit of a dirty old man. He finds that he has developed a condition which causes him to experience flashbacks of his past as a result of some recent strokes. Having taken a fancy to the gardener (played by Brendan Fraser) he asks him to pose for a portrait. However, his motives change a bit when he finds that looking at his handsome gardener sets off old memories. However, the relationship between him and this (entirely straight btw) gardener becomes even more conflicted because the memories stirred by Brendan Fraser are so mixed. Some are happy memories, but some are deeply sad and troubling memories. Memories of old love affairs are a source of great joy for James Whale, but he also gains memories of his social class growing up, which turns out to be a major source of personal shame for him.
Brendan Fraser's gardener figure is entirely fictional, but the condition which afflicts James Whale during this time is not. Brendan Fraser finds James Whale's past very interesting and somewhat inspiring. He acts as an outsider to whom James Whale can reveal his history and his secrets, but the way the two characters relate to one another also allows us to explore the historical figure of Whale in a more interesting way through the use of this contrasting and less cultured character.
When "Bride of Frankenstein" is playing on tv, Brendan Fraser's character makes a point of getting his friends to watch it with him. When James Whale asks him whether he laughed at the movie, he is quick to assert that he didn't, keen to show the utmost respect to James Whale's work. I was pleased to hear James Whale here saying that this was a pity since the film was supposed to be funny.
James Whale feels a bit washed up, since what he planned to be his big cinematic masterpiece (not a Frankenstein movie) ended up being highly compromised. Now Whale is feeling his age. Nevertheless, McKellan captures the various aspects of James Whale's emotions, including his highly eccentric personality.
"Gods And Monsters" is not a biopic. It is a made-up story intended to explore the life of James Whale. Rather than simply recounting the events of his life, this explores the facets of Whale's personality. And it needs an entirely made-up character in order to make this possible.
A+
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Shadow of the Vampire stars John Malkovich as Friedrich Murnau, the director of "Nosferatu" and Willem Dafoe as Max Schreck. The film takes seriously a rumour from the time that Max Schreck was as effective in the movie as he was because he was actually a real live vampire.
This is actually a wonderful tribute to the original "Nosferatu" with clear tributes to particular scenes from the original film scattered all the way through. And some of those scenes owe a lot to Eddie Izzard. I must say that, asides from this, I have not seen much evidence that Eddie Izzard is much of an actor. While I'm a big fan of Izzard as a stand-up comedian, I wasn't terribly keen to see him trying to act.
As it turns out however, I think that Izzard is particularly suited to this role more than any other because it's always been clear in his stand-up comedy that he has a real knack for miming. (This guy can really make you believe that he's actually talking to a frenchman with a table, chair, cat, mouse and monkey set up so he can finally use those helpful phrases he learnt in school. - Okay maybe that will only make sense to those who've seen his "Dressed To Kill" DVD.) He gives the impression of someone expertly performing careful motions, but who is nevertheless rather overdoing his facial expressions (as silent era actors were wont to do). Having seemed so over-the-top in the relatively recent "Day Of The Triffids" tv adaptation, here he seems to fit right in as a silent era actor.
The main talent here is undoubtedly Willem Dafoe who blends right into the role. He and John Malkovich have a wonderful chemistry and deliver some blackly comic lines with awesome timing.
"Shadow of the Vampire" might be a comedy with little to really tell us about the real filmmaker, but its still a wonderful tribute to the original silent movie of "Nosferatu" nonetheless. So much so that I actually wish I had enjoyed the original movie. As with many other silent movies "Nosferatu" was no exception in that it made me want to fall asleep.
xerinmichellex recently posted a wonderful little clip of Murnau's early moving camerawork in her review of "Gravity" and I'm sure there must have been some such elements to admire in "Nosferatu" too, but I just couldn't get into it.But even though I cannot appreciate the homage elements as much as some, "Shadow Of The Vampire" should be lauded for being able to make me feel bad about that. (And also some of the scenes from the original movie are shot pretty similarly in Werner Herzog's remake of "Nosferatu" which I really enjoyed, so I can appreciate them from that too.) But most of all it should be lauded for being a wonderfully funny black comedy which reminds us how important the role of cinema has been in establishing the modern vampire myth.
One element that I didn't like about "Shadow Of The Vampire" was the opening credits sequence. It's irritating that, of all the elements to pay tribute to, they should choose to pay tribute to over-long boring opening credits sequences. There's a set of boring images, some music that completely fails to give any impression of the style of the movie to come and by the time that opening credits sequence was over I was in the worst possible mood. It's fortunate that the film was as good as it was, because otherwise that opening sequence could have killed off all good will entirely.
A+
If anyone here is unfamiliar with Eddie Izzard as a stand-up comedian (as if!) then what better introduction than Eddie Izzard talking about horror movies and, of course, Dracula!
(video link)