F. W. Murnau.

Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (December 28, 1888 – March 11, 1931) was one of the most influential directors of the silent film era. copied from http://internettrash. ... copied from http://internettrash. ... December 28 is the 362nd day of the year (363rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 3 days remaining. ... 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... March 11 is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... A silent film is a film which has no accompanying soundtrack. ...

He was one of a number of German film directors to take part in the expressionist movement that took root in German cinema during the 1920s, and he directed a number of movies that were influential and remain widely seen among film scholars today. Some of Murnau's output from the silent era has been lost, although many of his films still survive; film scholars widely acknowledge them as masterpieces. Expressionism in filmmaking developed in Germany (especially Berlin) during the 1920s. ... The 1920s was a decade sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ... Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... A lost film is a film which, for any of several reasons, is no longer in existence. ...

Career

Birth and early years

He was born as Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe in Bielefeld, Germany. He attended the University of Heidelberg and studied art history. He took the name "Murnau" from a town in Germany. He was a combat pilot during World War I and directed his first film Der Knabe in Blau ('The Child in Blue') in 1919. Bielefeld is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany (Population est. ... The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (German Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; also known as simply University of Heidelberg) was established in the town of Heidelberg in the Rhineland in 1386. ... This article is about the academic discipline of art history. ... Combatants Allied Powers: France Italy Russia Serbia United Kingdom United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Commanders Ferdinand Foch Georges Clemenceau Victor Emmanuel III Luigi Cadorna Nicholas II Aleksei Brusilov Herbert Henry Asquith Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Paul von Hindenburg Reinhard...

German Films

Murnau's most famous film is Nosferatu, a 1922 adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula that caused Stoker's estate to sue for copyright infringement. Murnau lost the lawsuit and all prints of the film were ordered destroyed, but bootleg prints were stored and preserved over time, so that Nosferatu is widely available in the present era. Werner Herzog remade the film in 1979. Nosferatu, subtextually, depicted demoralized Germany post World War I. The vampire, played by German stage actor Max Schreck, resembled a rat which was known to carry the plague. The origins of the word are from Bram Stoker's novel where it is used by the Romanian townsfolk to refer to Dracula and presumably, other undead. "Nosferatu" is similar sounding to the Greek "nosophoros", roughly translating to "plague-bearer", which may be a possible root of it. Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (A Symphony of Horror in German) is a German Expressionist film shot in 1922 by F.W. Murnau. ... Abraham Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847–April 20, 1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. ... Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, and the name of its title character, the vampire Count Dracula. ... Werner Herzog. ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (A Symphony of Horror in German) is a German Expressionist film shot in 1922 by F.W. Murnau. ... Nosferatu Maximillian Schreck (September 6, 1879–February 19, 1936) was a German actor most often remembered today for his lead role in Nosferatu. ...

Nearly as important as Nosferatu in Murnau's filmography was The Last Laugh ("Der Letzte Mann") (1925), written by Carl Mayer and starring Emil Jannings. Often voted second greatest film of all time by international critics' polls, the film introduced the subjective point of view camera, where the camera "sees" from the eyes of a character and uses visual style to convey a character's psychological state. It also anticipated the cinéma vérité movement in its subject matter. The Last Laugh : A New Philosophy of Near-Death Experiences, Apparitions, and the Paranormal is a book by Dr. Raymond Moody presenting case histories of adults and children who have clinically reached the point of death and survived. ... Emil Jannings (July 23, 1884 - January 3, 1950) was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor. ... Cinéma vérité is a style of filmmaking, combining naturalistic techniques that originated in documentary filmmaking, with the storytelling elements typical of a scripted film. ...

Murnau's last German film was the big budget Faust (1926) with Gösta Ekman as the title character, Emil Jannings as Mephisto and Camilla Horn as Gretchen. Murnau's film draws on older traditions of the legendary tale of Faust as well as on Goethe's classic version. This carefully composed and innovative feature contains many memorable images and startling special effects, with careful attention paid to contrasts of light and dark. Particularly striking is the sequence in which the giant, horned and black winged figure of Mephisto (Jannings) hovers over a town sowing the seeds of plague. The acting by Ekman (who miraculously transforms, in the course of the film, from a bearded old man to a handsome youth) and the sinister, scowling, demonic Jannings is first rate and the virtually unknown actress Camilla Horn gives a memorable performance as the tragic figure of Gretchen. Faust was a silent film produced in 1926 directed by F.W. Murnau with Gösta Ekman as Faust and Emil Jannings as Mephisto. ... Gösta Ekman d. ...

Hollywood

Murnau emigrated to Hollywood in 1926, where he joined the Fox Studio and made Sunrise (1927), a movie often cited by film scholars as one of the greatest films of all time. Filmed in the Fox Movietone sound-on-film system (music and sound effects only), Sunrise was a financial success and it received several Oscars at the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1928. It lost the award for Best Picture to the movie Wings. On the DVD version of the film one can see Murnau in a couple of the outtake shots. 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Fox Plaza, the company headquarters. ... Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (aka Sunrise) is a 1927 American silent film directed by F.W. Murnau. ... Movietone was created ever since silent movies came out, and was the primary source of news and current events for moviegoers until the first black and white television set came out in the late 1940s. ... Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same film strip of film carrying the picture. ... The Rayleigh effect, seconds before sunrise in New Zealand Sunrise, also called sunup in some American English dialects, is the time at which the first part of the Sun appears above the horizon in the east. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... Wings is a 1927 silent movie about fighter pilots during World War I (Charles Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen), who vie for the same girl (Clara Bow) directed by William Wellman. ... This article is becoming very long. ...

Murnau's next two pictures, Four Devils (1928) and City Girl (1930), were modified to adapt to the new era of sound film and were not well received. No copy of Four Devils now exists. Their poor receptions disillusioned Murnau, and he quit Fox to journey for a while in the South Pacific. Four Devils is a 1928 silent film by the great German film director F. W. Murnau. ... A sound film (or talkie) is a motion picture with synchronized sound, as opposed to a silent movie. ... Four Devils is a 1928 silent film by the great German film director F. W. Murnau. ... The South Pacific is an area in the southern Pacific Ocean. ...

Together with documentary pioneer Robert Flaherty, Murnau travelled abroad to Bora Bora to realize the film Tabu in 1931. But Flaherty left after artistic disputes with Murnau who had to finish the movie on his own. Because of images of bare-breasted "native" Polynesian women the movie was censored in the United States. The film was originally shot as half-talkie, half-silent, before being fully restored as a silent film - Murnau's preferred medium. Robert Joseph Flaherty (February 16, 1884, Iron Mountain, Michigan, United States - July 23, 1951, Dummerston, Vermont) was a filmmaker who directed and produced the first feature length documentary (Nanook of the North) in 1922. ... Mount Otemanu, Bora Bora Bora Bora Pearl Beach Resort, Bora Bora Frigate Flor al, stationned in Bora-Bora lagoon Bora Bora is an atoll in French Polynesia, about 260 km northwest of the capital, Papeete. ... Tabu (also called Tabu, a Story of the South Seas) is a 1931 film which tells the story of two lovers in the South Seas, who must escape their village when the girl is chosen as the holy maid to the gods. ... Carving from the ridgepole of a Māori house, ca 1840 This article is about the wider region in the Pacific. ...

Death

Murnau did not live to see the premiere of his last film; he died in an automobile accident in Santa Barbara, California on March 11, 1931. The car was driven by Murnau's fourteen-year old Filipino valet Garcia Stevenson. Murnau was entombed in Berlin. Robert Flaherty, Emil Jannings and Greta Garbo attended the funeral, and Fritz Lang delivered the funeral speech. Santa Barbara is a city in California, United States. ... March 11 is the 70th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (71st in Leap year). ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Robert Joseph Flaherty (February 16, 1884, Iron Mountain, Michigan, United States - July 23, 1951, Dummerston, Vermont) was a filmmaker who directed and produced the first feature length documentary (Nanook of the North) in 1922. ... Emil Jannings (July 23, 1884 - January 3, 1950) was the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor. ... Greta Garbo (September 17, 1905 – April 15, 1990) was a Swedish actress, by reputation one of the greatest and most inscrutable movie stars ever to be produced by MGM and the Hollywood studio system. ... Friedrich Anton Christian Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-American-jewish film director, screenwriter and occasional film producer, one of the best known émigrés from Germanys school of expressionism. ...

Legacy

A fictionalized account of the making of the film Nosferatu was Shadow of the Vampire by director E. Elias Merhige. Murnau is portrayed by John Malkovich. In the film, Murnau is so dedicated to making the film genuine that he actually hires a real vampire to play Orlok. Shadow of the Vampire is a movie that opened in America on December 29, 2000. ... E. Elias Merhige (Edmund Elias Merhige) is a film director born in Brooklyn in 1964. ... John Gavin Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor, producer and director. ...

Filmography:

• Der Knabe in Blau (The Blue Boy, released 28th June 1919)
• Santanas (released around 30th January 1920 but made in 1919)
• Der Bucklige und die Tänzerin (The Hunchback and the Dancer, released 8th July 1920)
• Der Januskopf (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde / The Head of Janus, released 17th September 1920)
• Abend - Nacht - Morgen (Evening - Night- Morning, released October 1920)
• Sehnsucht (Desire: The Tragedy of a Dancer, released 18th October 1920)
• Der Gang in die Nacht (Journey Into the Night, released 13th December 1920)
• Schloß Vogelöd (The Haunted Castle, released April 1921)
• Marizza (released 20th January 1922 but filmed in 1921)
• Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror, released 5th March 1922)
• Der Brennende Acker (The Burning Soil, released 16th March 1922)
• Phantom (released 29th October 1922)
• Die Austreibung (The Expulsion, released 23rd October 1923)
• Die Finanzen des Großherzogs (The Grand Duke's Finances, released 7th January 1924)
• Der Letzte Mann (The Last Laugh, released 23rd December 1924)
• Herr Tartüff (Tartuffe, released 25th January 1926)
• Faust (released 14th October 1926)
• Sunrise (released 23rd September 1927, won a special Oscar for "Unique Artistic Presentation" at the first Academy Awards)
• Four Devils (released 3rd October 1928, is generally regarded as one of his best works and is a highly sought-after lost film)
• City Girl / Our Daily Bread (released 19th May 1930)
• Tabu (released 18th March 1931)

Sehnsucht was a 1920 Silent film directed by F. W. Murnau and starring Conrad Veidt. ... The Haunted Castle (also known as Schloß Vogelöd and Vogelod Castle) is a silent chamber drama directed by F. W. Murnau in 1921. ... Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (A Symphony of Horror in German) is a German Expressionist film shot in 1922 by F.W. Murnau. ... Phantom is a silent film that was directed by F. W. Murnau in 1922, the same year he directed Nosferatu. ... The Last Laugh : A New Philosophy of Near-Death Experiences, Apparitions, and the Paranormal is a book by Dr. Raymond Moody presenting case histories of adults and children who have clinically reached the point of death and survived. ... Herr Tartüff is a German silent film produced by Erich Pommer for UFA and released in 1926. ... Faust was a silent film produced in 1926 directed by F.W. Murnau with Gösta Ekman as Faust and Emil Jannings as Mephisto. ... Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (aka Sunrise) is a 1927 American silent film directed by F.W. Murnau. ... The references in this article would be clearer with a different and/or consistent style of citation, footnoting or external linking. ... A lost film is a film which, for any of several reasons, is no longer in existence. ... Tabu (also called Tabu, a Story of the South Seas) is a 1931 film which tells the story of two lovers in the South Seas, who must escape their village when the girl is chosen as the holy maid to the gods. ...

External links

• They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
• http://internettrash.com/users/murnau/murneng.htm
• F.W. Murnau at the Internet Movie Database
• F.W. Murnau at filmportal.de

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about actors, films, television shows, video games and production crew personnel. ...