Simon McBurney, Willem Dafoe & Bill Skarsgård did not receive Oscar nominations for portraying Herr Knock, Prof. Albin Eberhart von Franz and Count Orlok respectively in Nosferatu.
Anyway, as such you are granted three of the classic Dracula characters, though with the names of the Nosferatu version, but McBurney, Dafoe and Skarsgård in reality play the oft-played roles of Renfield, Van Helsing and Dracula respectively. Starting with McBurney, who is an actor who cinematically at least, has been placed in a very specific box as a performer. In every role I’ve seen of McBurney up until this one he played a British man of some kind of authority, who usually delivers exposition. To McBurney’s credit, he’s good in these very simple and standard roles, but it did seem like casting directors had one idea of him in mind only. AND it seems like with Nosferatu this image of McBurney was actually in mind to play with because in the opening of the film McBurney is in his more traditional type of role, which is as Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult)’s boss at his real estate company. Where once again McBurney in the rather regal voice of his delivers exposition about how Hutter will need to travel to settle a real estate deal with a faraway client, Count Orlok. Which hey if you need someone to do the job, McBurney is always up to that task and exposition never sounds ropey out of his mouth. But, this is not your traditional McBurney role despite opening with your traditional McBurney setup seemingly, which is something you can notice more overtly on re-watch particularly. As before McBurney’s Herr Knock tells Hutter about his role he does comment on Hutter’s wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp) something one can take upon initial viewing as an old-timey overly descriptive praise towards the beauty as just generalized appreciation, but McBurney’s performance actually has some bizarre glints of intention beyond just a going overboard compliment. There is a moment where he seems almost lost in alternative thoughts and we see a man who has some strange designs on her, which could be considered behavior of a creepy old man, however in this instance it is somehow even worse than that. Something we see when as Hutter is on his way we come back to Herr Knock in his office at night, however he’s now naked, carving symbols into the bottom of his floor and into himself. Which is especially striking to see the usually refined McBurney basically on all fours, being wholly convincing as being entirely animal in the moment as he unleashes a very different, rather terrifying exposition of his purpose is to serve the Count, clearly far more than a client and creates this terrifying demonic ceremony to embrace the arrival of his master.
Contrasting that is when we come back to McBurney in the place that Renfield often begins in most adaptations, which is in the sanatorium after Herr Knock evidently started eating livestock in a marketplace. His office scene being a mere warmup to what McBurney does in this scene, where he is truly amazing in going all the way out on the limb to portray Herr Knock. Which McBurney makes the essential choice in this version to portray Herr Knock not as a man cursed as a maddened fool into obeying Dracula, but rather a devoted follower of Orlok as a religious zealot. We open the scene where he is displaying his various animals that he has slain with his own teeth which he says are his offerings to his Lord with this especially disturbing eerie calm in McBurney’s voice. As he speaks the words as though he truly making grand gifts to something he so strongly believes in when showing his “kills off” and even cradles a poor pigeon with such a loving yet wholly deranged way, as he doesn’t love the pigeon but he loves the pigeon as yet another thing he can sacrifice in the name of Orlok. McBurney goes from quiet disturbing to loud disturbing however when the doctors ask him more about who is sacrificing to. McBurney is outstanding in the mania he brings forth in the sequence, because he manages to be both stylized as the cult member of a vampire but also just a completely deranged man to the period. McBurney brings this sort of religious zealotry, the rage of it so specific where there is this vicious passion in every word he says, as his eyes beam with intention and fundamental truth. McBurney is amazing because he makes it more than just servile, there is also this idea of the attack against his wardens, and more so the inspiration that his “savior” will smite them due to his religious belief. McBurney delivers on this focused intensity with such a chilling sense of while Herr Knock sounds completely insane to the rest of us, it is clear this man absolutely believes that Orlok is his god that will enact vengeance upon his enemies.
Speaking of Orlok, Skarsgård’s performance differs greatly in the way we see Orlok impose his will on others than the previous iterations of the character. Skarsgård’s performance very much is of the Lord who presses his will onto others whether or not they like it. Even as we see him initially feed off of Hutter, Skarsgård’s performance is one that focuses on the physicality of his very being, particularly his height and size and brandishes himself even about, as a man of great power both physically and in terms of the nature of old feudal houses. When Orlok specifically commands Hutter, such as not speaking of a ceremony he thinks he witnessed involving killing a vampire, Skarsgård’s version of Orlok speaks his command not as an ask, or a demand but rather as law. Something that extends in his relationship with Ellen, which is telepathic before it is in person. Although as much as we see Orlok searching for through time this is not the case of the long romance of say Gary Oldman’s version in Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Orlok isn’t at all romantic in the least, rather he’s a lord essentially demanding that a vassal’s wife come to him, to service him as he sees fit. Skarsgård’s performance is nearly without feeling, though I would say effectively so in portraying that he doesn’t love her, nor is so specific as a hatred, rather it is just his decree that she be with him, and like an old warlord will kill whoever it takes to convince her of this. There is a hollowness to Skarsgård’s entire performance as Orlok, and I don’t mean that as a criticism. Rather, there is a penetrating power to his work by presenting Orlok as a creature who truly just feeds on life, and has little purpose beyond that. He is a corpse who wishes to make things like him, and feed on those with that life, meanwhile he is nothing but death that wishes to infect more with death.
Contrasting that darkness is Dafoe, which I think is notable is his relationship and chemistry with Depp throughout the film. In their opening scene together, Dafoe’s performance I think importantly delivers two things at once with her, one is the driving curiosity within his performance of von Franz who Dafoe purposefully plays as wholly obsessed even if he is correct, but I think importantly he also brings genuine warmth within his work. When he initially looks over Depp there is real tenderness in every look from him in her dire state, and that is even more so in their final conversation. Dafoe brings a keen sense of nuanced understanding that even though he is so fixated on the arena of the supernatural there is an undisputed sense of humanity in every gesture of a man genuinely cares about the afflicted Ellen. Obviously all three eventually come clashing together towards the climax where each have different roles to fulfill, and each do so quite magnificently. McBurney is great in portraying the ever growing intensity of Herr Knock as he expresses with all of himself his rapturous glee as Orlok does arrive and he breaks out of prison by acting the vampire himself by biting into a man’s neck. A moment where McBurney has full fledged animalistic frenzy which is combined with just the pure mania of the man as he escapes to take Orlok to his sleeping spot. Where McBurney’s last substantial scene begins as he takes orders from Orlok and McBurney is again great in the presence of his master McBurney’s performance is eyes glued in fascination and the demeanor of a loyal dog ready to brutalize anything for the sake of his master. Speaking of his master Skarsgård’s performance is one of consistency but effectiveness within that consistency of being the fixated nature of death. Skarsgård’s performance being one of that force and a natural cruelty of a creature whose whole undead experience has been to cause death and likely was even before that time as a cruel noble. His physicality being through the form of expression of the menace of his upright moments, combined with his bloodlust moments, that aren’t even rat, but more closely I’d say pure parasite in the way he latches onto his victims. And even in his final moment, not entirely sure where Skarsgård ends, and the effects begin, however whatever there is within it his death scream is extremely memorable ends of this purging of a grotesquery. And finally there’s Dafoe, which I haven’t mentioned what I think is really the greatest aspect even beyond the humor and warmth he brings to von Franz, which is essentially being the great Shakespearean actor however instead of the bard for Eggers’s specified period dialogue. As Dafoe just has a natural way with the words and the way within the specific style. Dafoe makes it as natural as any day English the with the ease of it, but more importantly makes all the precise dialogue regarding the exposition behind what it will take to destroy Orlok, absolutely captivating because Dafoe brings such natural conviction to every single word, knowing exactly what to amplify and just take absolute ownership of it all. Something that is essential to the finale of the film, where in the last scene essentially you have von Franz deliver the Prince’s eulogy from Romeo and Juliet, but for Ellen and her sacrifice to end the curse of Nosferatu. Something that lives and dies by Dafoe’s delivery, which he does so impeccably, he finds with ease making the style just live through his tongue, but more so Dafoe accentuates the emotion beautifully to make it a heartbreaking reflection of the loss of Ellen. Through all three performances, you craft a truly striking ensemble, with McBurney you have the greatest rendition of all Renfields, by bringing the insanity to that extreme but also specifically this religious worship fashioned within that is particularly potent in his work. In a performance that allowed an actor usually in one type of role to spread his wings a bit most successfully. With Dafoe you have an actor in his wheelhouse, but what a wheelhouse it is. Offering a most welcome sense of comfort and gravity combined with the right amount of proper Dafoe mania. And with Skarsgård you have a performance fully embedded into the character in every sense creating a dynamic and new approach to an over century old character of cinema.
