which version of nosferatu is the best (1920s version)?
 

There are several versions out there, which one should I get? I'm looking for the best total package.

The Restored Kino version should be the best deal. You can get it on amazon for 16 bucks!!! Now that's a deal!

second for the kino....you can also get the german masterworks box for cheap now as well...has der golem, waxworks, cabinet of dr. caligari

the image release is pretty good as well.

For a direct comparison of the Image and Kino discs, including screen shots, check out DVD Beaver:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/dvdcom...vs%20Kino.html

thanks for the link.....the commentary on the image disc is worth a spin...but i own the kino

Kino has the best film presentation.

Image has the best extras.

The 'German Masterworks' box Cameron mentioned is a great deal and was < $40 during the last DDD sale.

You know, I actually saw this on VHS once in a class and it had this psychedelic '70s-era rock soundtrack. Anyone recall a DVD version having a soundtrack like that? It really sounded great and worked well with the imagery.

It's $48.xx now. Still a good deal but maybe I should wait for the next sale.

You sure you're not thinking of Metropolis with a 1980s rock soundtrack by Giorgio Moroder?

No and it should stay off DVD.

No, I'm aware of that one. This seemed really obscure and has a '70s feel, not '80s.

I believe there was some kind of GOTHIC ELECTRONICA mix of sorts at one point lingering around out there.

You're probably right. I bet there have been many scores made for this, in all kinds of genres of music. This may just only make the version I am looking for less likely to be on DVD, since the music sounded so dated (but damn funky, I might at-- kind of prog rock of the early '70s). There have been so many versions of this movie on DVD, so I understand the purpose of a thread like this to seek out a definitive version. I'm all for seeing that pointed out by consumers. I'm just hoping anyone may have noticed a score like the one I am describing on any of the existing versions.

I've still not purchased this on DVD because the Kino seems to have the better picture (and a longer version of it) but I've heard some pretty bad things about the soundtracks for that version.

Other reviews comparing the Kino & Image editions are available at the Silent Era website.

Unfortunately, that's the dilemma. Kino does indeed use the longer cut and boasts a better overall picture. But you're right, the soundtracks are distractingly atrocious. However, Nosferatu is one of those silent movies that works OK if you turn down the volume and create your own soundtrack by playing a CD or two. (For example, I almost always play Prokofiev when I'm watching Image's release of Pudovkin's Mother, which uses a poorly recorded soundtrack from the 1960s.) For Nosferatu, I highly recommend using an atonal composer like Schoenberg or Alban Berg -- if you can stand them, that is. Bartok also works. Or if you're a little daring, Radiohead's album Kid A works remarkably well with this movie -- though I know some people would actually prefer Kino's soundtracks over that one.

Basically, just don't feel tied down to a bad soundtrack for a good transfer of a silent film.

None of the Region 1 editions come with the original (reconstructed by Gillian Anderson) Hans Erdmann film score, which is really better than everything produced ever since and is offered on some European editions. This score is also available on a Surround Sound CD from BMG from Germany (part of the "100 years of film music" series), which it took me many years to hunt down:

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/8786/nosferdmann.jpg

There is also a 1998 James Bernard version available on CD, which I haven't heard but is not as rare. [James Bernard was the composer of the Hammer horrors of the sixties and seventies.]

All the other scores I've heard are weird-for-weird's-sake unadulterated crappola. At least, this film has so far been saved from the indignity of yet another mind-numbing specially-commissioned "original" Philip Glass score... (Ugh!)

I spent hours trying to make the 60 minute Erdmann CD fit to the 80 minute film (with certain repetitions and jumps). Just when I found an acceptable way to do this convincingly with the Image laserdisc, Kino came out with a longer, differently cut DVD version of the film and I have yet to attempt to fit the music to this version. Making the synchronisation difficult is the fact that the Erdmann score is very precise in commenting musically on every key scene, such as the ringing of the hours in the castle, the movement of horses, the movements of the vampire, etc.

Needless to say that if Criterion came out with a DVD that had a perfectly synchronised Hans Erdmann film score, I'd buy it!

Besides, all available versions are badly cropped one way or another and I believe only a pillar-boxed or window-boxed edition would compensate somewhat for the natural overscanning of most TV sets which keeps the viewer from seeing the top of the monster's head in the famous standing-erect-from-the-coffin scene in the ship - even in the Kino edition.

i;ll have to hunt down that soudtrack

A quick look at ebay and amazon confirms that it is not readily available. It's a 10-year old CD and is out of print.

Another problem with synchronising the Gillian Anderson-reconstructed Hans Erdmann score is the fact that Ms. Anderson obviously worked from a European video source (possibly the Image DVD or video) with its 1/25th speed-up, which makes the synchronisation of the CD with the new Kino DVD (not speeded up) a bit of a challenge.

that should give me good excuse to buy the image disc...yah thats right....i'll own the same movie twice....and lose no sleep over it

That's funny, because today in film history class we watched a version of Nosferatu that had a soundtrack by the band "Type O Negative". I thought it would be just some cool orchestral type music, but it was just actual songs by them set to the film. I like their music normally fine, but it just didn't work here I thought.

And it had an introduction by David Carradine... :hscratch:

The only band that didn't tackle this film is the Backstreet Boys... The only film score that works for me is the reconstructed Hans Erdmann score. It's late romantic classical music but it still works and is genuinely scary and extremely well married to the images.