Robert Eggers explains why Nosferatu is a great twisted Christmas movie

This Christmas, there are plenty of options at your local cineplex. There are lions, hedgehogs, witches, demigods and more. But the coolest choice, the sexiest choice, is the vampire. This week, filmmaker Robert Eggers releases Nosferatua highly anticipated and highly anticipated film inspired by FW Murnau’s iconic 1922 film. Bill Skarsgård plays the sinister Count Orlok, who sneaks into the lives of newlyweds Thomas and Ellen (Nicholas Hoult and Lily-Rose Depp).

It’s a dark, atmospheric but entertaining film from a filmmaker who, even with only three films under his belt, has developed a well-earned reputation. With The witch, the lighthouse.and The northernerEggers has established himself as a meticulous visual filmmaker with a flair for the historical and the gothic. Nosferatu It is perhaps his most “Eggers” film yet, but it will also be released at Christmas, a very commercial time.

io9 spoke with Eggers via video chat a few weeks ago and that struggle between art and product is where our conversation began.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Germain Lussier, io9: I love your films because they are not only entertaining, but they are very meticulous, beautiful and often just plain strange. I wonder, at any point in the process do you struggle between artistic impulses and commercial viability?

Robert Eggers: Well, this movie from the beginning was intended to be my most “accessible” movie. Maybe you know it and maybe you don’t, but the main creative producer is Chris Columbus of alone at home and harry potter fame. And Chris has been a mentor to me since we met during post-production on the witch. But he knows that we’re very different filmmakers and that’s part of why we get along creatively, and I think it’s a good combination. And Jarin Blaschke, my cinematographer and I, meticulously storyboarded the films. Well, we worked with a storyboard artist, but we meticulously planned every shot. And Chris was going through the storyboards, looking at them all very carefully, and every once in a while he would say, “Where’s the story beat that’s in your script? You need this here.” And Chris, being a master of orthodox Hollywood storytelling, was often like an antidote to me and Jarin’s artistic inclinations to tell this story as well as I wanted, because he was there to make this Robert’s best film. Eggers possible. , not for Chris Columbus-ify it. But also, with this film, I had incredible support from Focus Features, who gave me a ton of creative control.

io9: And I think we have a clue that this was supposed to be more commercial because a year ago, when the movie was announced, Focus said, “Robert Eggers, Nosferatucoming out on Christmas Day.” And that’s always a big thing, a Christmas release. Were you part of that conversation? Does a major release date like that change the way you think?

eggs: Yes, I mean, I was part of the conversation, but in the end that was the date they proposed to me and I accepted it with great emotion. Obviously, the movie takes place, at the halfway point, around Christmas time, and there’s a Christmas tree, and there’s conversations about Christmas, and there’s a scene where there’s a music box playing “O Tannenbaum.” and it originally sounded like a Mozart piece. , and when we found out the Christmas release date, I thought, “Let’s put ‘O Tannenbaum’ in there.”

io9: That’s amazing. Now, Willem Dafoe is in the movie who you’ve worked with before. It’s clearly awesome, but it also has some history in this world. shadow of the vampire. Did you discuss that before and to what extent did those conversations influence this film?

eggs: I love that movie and it’s a great movie, but they’re completely unrelated. But obviously, we both recognize that it’s great for audience members who are in the know to know that he’s hunting himself in this movie.

io9: Is there anything in this film that you can pull off that you’re particularly proud of or that was particularly difficult, either technically in terms of story and tone?

eggs: I mean, there are a lot of things. One thing, for me personally, I don’t know how the audience will experience it, but I feel like the long, uninterrupted takes, the “owners” of this film, are a little less clunky and a little more invisible. That’s my impression, maybe I’m wrong. I am very proud of the atmosphere of the cemetery. That was something I really, really, really wanted. One of the few things Focus was wringing its hands about was my insistence on never shooting in anything but gloomy weather because we’re standing around waiting for a cloud to cover and that can be very tense. But the cemetery was an example of the need for that way of working. And the Transylvanian town scene was incredibly complicated to cast, disguise, and block. There are some actors, mostly non-actors, some professional dancers and they all speak a different language from a different country. It was very complicated, but I like how it turned out.

io9: That’s great. I also know that you love to research and that plays an important role in all your films. How deep did you go into the Count’s backstory, both for yourself and for Bill? Do you know how and when he changed, how he developed his powers or is it something superfluous?

eggs: No no. In trying to make this story my own, this story that has been told so many times, I wrote a novella when I was trying to break the script and the novel had a lot of backstories to learn about different characters. And the epilogue was a long backstory of Orlok that I gave to Bill as part of his preparation. That will never be shared because the mystery of the enigma is better for the audience, but for Bill it was important to have that story.

io9: So, it never occurred to you to put that in?

eggs: No, I mean, as much as this develops things that aren’t developed in Murnau’s film, a certain degree of mystery is important.

io9: This is a story you’ve wanted to tell for a long time and were even close at one point. What about this current version is different from a version you created later? the witch Or earlier in your career?

eggs: You know, my intentions didn’t really change once I wrote that novel and once I tore up that script. The script has become tighter and more refined, but my “vision” of what the film would be has not changed. But I’m glad it took a long time. I have grown a lot as a person, certainly as a filmmaker. My collaborations with my creative department head have become even more fluid and we are more extensions of each other. And I also ended up with this completely fantastic cast.

io9: Oh, a fantastic cast, which is something that makes all vampire movies unique. It’s also one of those genres where, you know, we have vampire comedies, we have vampire horror, we have vampire drama, we have everything. What is it about the genre that makes it so malleable and what do you love about it?

eggs: Yeah, I mean, it’s crazy how malleable the vampire is and how there’s room for Anne Rice and room for Blade and room for Count Chocula and room for all these things. But I’ve been asked this question many times, but the best I can come up with is sex and death. It’s a combination of sex and death.

io9: Latest, Focus recently revealed a $20,000 Nosferatu coffin bed, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. Do you have one? Do you want one? What do you say to someone who buys one? What are your thoughts?

eggs: Hmm. (Laughs, thinks, pauses). “Congratulations.”

io9: (Laughs) Exactly. Well, I congratulate you, sir, on a fantastic and beautiful film.

Nosferatu It’s in theaters December 25.

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