The Screen: Into the Shadows - Nosferatu with live score by Minima

14 Jan 2023

Overview

This season we delve into the dark and explore psychoanalyst Carl Jung's concept of "the shadow". These films span the last century and probe those ignored or repressed parts of our collective unconscious. What happens when they surface?

Estate agent Thomas Hutter is summoned to a remote Transylvanian castle by Count Orlok, and finds his host is not all human. Made in Germany just after World War One, we see the usual cocktail of themes characteristic of German Expressionism here. The vampire Nosferatu is the personification of the darkness we keep buried festering and threatening our very existence; the darkness that needs to be brought into the light. From the spiritual and occultist preoccupation of producer Albin Grau, and the strange and ghoulish manner of the star Max Screk, the production was deliciously laden with mythology. Technically groundbreaking for its day, it remains a macabre, atmospheric, spooky, and sinister cinematic gem regarded as one of the most influential in its genre.

Minima have specialised in silent film accompaniment since 2006. The instrumentation of drums, bass, guitar, cello, double bass, synthesiser, and dulcimer immerse the audience in a nightmare world. Book Early to avoid disappointment

Book now