Nosferatu the movie is an undeniable classic of macabre. It makes no matter, vampires are never viewed clearly but they are all the more powerful for that, as is this book. Because this biography is fictional we see all of this through a window of unclear, and perhaps unclean glass.
And we see FW Murnau, the World War I fighter pilot whose films still reach out to us. We see the young man whose lives were changed, ruined, and many that were ended by the first world war. We see the painters, the writers, the poets, and the actors-most notably the transcendent Conrad Viedt. What we see is a view of the great artists of the time, such as Murnau's mentor, the visionary theater director Max Reinhardt. He gives most of the credit to his crew and his cinematographer, the famous, and notorious, Karl Freund. In fact he mainly seems unsure of himself and nervous. There's no great insight into what made Murnau such a transcendent film director. We first learn about Murnau in his youth, his family life and his first love affair with the boy who would be the love of his life, his own personal vampire that would haunt him until his death. I was enchanted by the first sentence and my interest and joy in reading only grew. I could say that the book had me at its title or its cover photo but as we all know we can't judge a vampire by it's reflection. A slim volume, this is fictional biography of the great director FW Murnau. And by coincidence, or maybe not, they both involve vampires in their own way. I was very lucky to have read two books last year that surprised and delighted me.
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