Shadow of the Vampire has one of the best "What if" premises I've seen on a vampire movie- what if Max Schreck, star of the original Nosferatu, was a vampire? And what if director FW Murnau knew, but didn't care?It's a lark sort of movie. Willem Dafoe as Schreck gets to over act, you can almost see the kid playing dress up gleam in his eye- but still manages to bring out a sense of melancholy out of this lonely creature, willing to do the movie as a respite from it's sad existence.
John Malkovich captures the obsessive fire that Murnau needed to bring his vision to life- at whatever the cost.
It's a pretty film, not as pretty as Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the 1920's period costumes and setting are great to look at.
I was a little confused when the movie came out, back in 2000- pre-wikipedia, mind you- because I'd read a novel back back in 1998 called Nosferatu that dealt with a similar scenario. It wasn't until I watched Shadow of the Vampire again for this did I realize that they were unrelated, just one of those odd creative coincidences.
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