Shadow of the Vampire

I rewatched this 2000 movie this weekend. It is much darker than I remembered from first viewing (all that stayed with me from the first viewing was Willem Dafoe's creepy vampire saying "The script girl...I'll eat her later!").

It's an odd movie. The story of the making of the early cinema picture "Nosferatu." The conceit of the film is that the vampire movie was as creepy and convincing as it was because the Count in the film was a real vampire. John Malkovich plays a director willing to sacrifice friends and lovers and employees in order to "finish my picture!" Willem Dafoe plays a really creepy really old vampire who is obsessed with an actress whose breast he fondles as he drains her blood. In the final scene Malkovich films the vampire killing the actress (with whom Malkovich's character had had a romantic relationship), his friend and producer, and the camera man. Malkovich continues to call out direction even as everyone dies. At one point he says "If it isn't in frame, it doesn't exist." The movie's POV jumps back and forth between the color film I was watching, and the black and white camera through which Malkovich's camera captures "Nosferatu." I'm certain there's a message in there about sacrifice, obsession, art, and the danger of the artist dehumanizing his subject through the creation of art, but I couldn't articulate that message.

I ruminate about movies and fiction sometimes here, but if you want to read a really interesting blog about movies check out We like to watch. It's a sort of discussion group of academics who all really like movies. They have fascinating conversations about high cinema and blow-em-up movies alike, analyzing at a higher level of intelligence and insight than your average reviewers. They also snark at each other in interesting ways. That's almost as interesting as what they have to say about movies.