UKC

In short

don't bother

not even if you liked The Northman. 

I watched The Lighthouse the other night. Thar was quite a thing.

He obviously likes monochrome.

I understood that the first part of the film is good, but that it becomes tedious later on, and is too long.

Nosferatu was slated on BBC R4 (Front Row) the other night.

I have not seen the original silent film, but would like to.

Meantime, I aim to see Conclave a second time. The critics were right, a 5 star movie.

Shame. I really liked his first two, and quite liked The Northman 

Well I was intrigued by the idea of another Nosferatu but sounds like it's not worth the bother. Maybe I'll re-watch the Herzog/Kinski version instead. I also didn't like The Northman, even though I wanted to. Probably didn't help that I'd expected something more like Valhalla Rising, so it was never really going to measure up.

I understood that the first part of the film is good, but that it becomes tedious later on, and is too long.

Do you mean The Lighthouse or Nosferatu?

Nosferatu.

The Lighthouse is a curious film, but worth watching.

I liked it a lot (Lighthouse), although "liked" doesn't feel the right word.  The close up Neptune-esque monologue was fabulous 

Interesting.

I saw it last week and quite liked it. The basic story has been reused and redone so often it's quite hard to do something fresh with it, but I thought it had been made different enough to be worthwhile, and that it set the tone of the horror pretty well.

I'd give it a solid six and a half out of ten!

Edit - my experience may have been enhanced by the fact that around half the cinema audience appeared to be plague-ridden, existing somewhere 'twixt life and death themselves.

I'll do it the honour of elaborating on the OP though.

The first 55 minutes are 100% dispensable if you've ever seen any Dracula film, regardless of how Hammer-hokey it might be. It's the same old "young ambitious naive man goes to the castle" shit, and this version adds nothing to it, despite some nice set dressing in "Germany, 1838" which didn't even exist (though I should really let this slide). Hoult is fine in this half but like almost everyone else, he is given NOTHING to work with (and presumably out of boredom, he expertly channels the 1990s and 00s output of John Hannah and James Nesbitt!). Then Willem Dafoe rocks up and teases a possibility of saving the film but alas, after ten minutes he's gone again (he does come back - it's not just a 10 min cameo - and it is always at its best when he is on screen) and it goes mostly boring. It picks up a bit at the 95 minute mark when Lily-Rose Depp finally gets given something to do but by then you've long lost interest in the outcome for any of these characters, if you even had any to start with. Bill Skarsgard's Orlok is offensively embarrassing with ALL THE ACCENTS AT THE SAME TIME. Hoult, Corrin, Ineson, Dafoe and McBurney come out of it unscathed (though there is remarkably little Hoult in any of it that's vaguely dramatic). Depp, I am neutral on. Taylor-Johnson is just sort of "in it"

As for that muted palette. It looks like it was shot in standard colour and then just had a one-click filter put on it. Literally like iPhone "dramatic cold" (and a bit of desaturation), and "vivid warm" for some candle-lit interiors. And lazily done. Basically "blue-ish for spooky stuff, autumnal for happy family interiors"

I am not sure about Eggers. We are meant to say we love The VVitch but even when it was released I only went to see it for Anya (I was an early adopter - I saw Thoroughbreds at the cinema), and The Northman was overblown indulgence. I have not however seen The Lighthouse and I won't let Nosferatu deter me from doing so.

I really want to revisit Shadow of the Vampire now!

For the first ten minutes of the new Nosferatu I sat wondering whether I had a copy of Mel Brooks' "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" starring Leslie Nielsen and Amy Yasbeck, as the new film was playing out like that underrated-if-lazy/obvious parody, minus any humour  
(I have it only on VHS recorded from television)

Disappointing, I'd agree: zero character development; Defoe, and the rest, have a paper thin script so never get the chance to shine and it's way too long.  After "The Lighthouse", which I enjoyed, there was little challenge and it's visually underwhelming.

If you like noirish monochrome it's worth checking out "The Universal Theory" which has excellent cinematography and despite some weakish central performances is definitely one of last year's most interesting offerings.

Happy watching, dudes.

Agree. A masterpiece in every respect. Ralph Fiennes is outstanding. Dominates the film. One of the great film performances of modern times, imo,

Nosferatu is a short route but a great one and worth the bother!

The Northman was indeed rubbish but you can erase the memory by watching Slow Horses!

20 minutes too long and, spoiler, you probably know the ending. But I would watch it. Interesting filmmakers are too thin on the ground to ignore.

Conclave managed to draw me right into something ostensibly I have little interest in. Recommended.

But a horror film that's not scarey,say no more

I've enjoyed all the robert eggers films. Of those, I probably enjoyed nosferatu least but it was a nice experience in the cinema. I'm not much of a horror fan and i remember falling asleep watching the original nosferatu screening at the Broadway a few years back with live musicians playing. I would say that the witch and lighthouse were excellent by I don't often comment on cinema reviews as it's so subjective. 

Incidentally I just watched the sound of metal on iplayer and thought that was pretty good, albeit traumatic at times. 

I would like to offer a counterpoint and say I thought it was an amazing film, visually very interesting with some beautiful shots and cinematography, well acted and overall great.

I'll definitely be giving that one a miss then, ta.

Silly question I'm sure, but have you seen What We Do In The Shadows?  I'm sure you'll have seen the film - the TV series follows on from the film beautifully.  (The first few series anyway, before it jumps the shark somewhat.)

Not a silly question. I saw the film and was rather disappointed. I heard that the TV series was much better (but inevitably jumped the shark). 

I don't watch many TV series

If you were disappointed by the film then I'm not so sure you'd like the TV series after all, I think it's great but I liked the film too so dunno.  The clincher might be how you feel about Matt Berry.  The best of it is available on BBC iPlayer, so no subscription required at least. 

The later series of WWDITS, where it jumps the shark and then improves slightly afterwards towards the end, are on Disney+ and probably not worth the subscription really.  I paid a month's subscription to watch Shogun, and watched them (and some Marvel nonsense) afterwards.

Speaking of Shogun - if you only watch one TV series this year, watch that!  It's absolutely outstanding, seriously - I don't think Kurasawa couldn't have made it better.  Sorry about the irrelevance of this recommendation but seriously, do!

I watched The Lighthouse a couple of times too many during lockdown. Really not sure I can face another Eggers production just yet.

Saw this yesterday.

First off I liked the cinematography, the mood, the sets, the scene changes and the dreamlike drive to the castle. There were some very good costumes and I don't mind a film being slow.

However the script and dialogue took a lot to be desired, and the weird possessed sex thing between Ellen and Thomas was odd.

The problem as I see it is wanting to do a 2024 homage to a 1922 silent film. Nosferatu 1922 was ground breaking in its use of imagery and Max Schreck has become an Icon but over a hundred years later the plot and thin script won't cut it. There was some attempt to plaster some cod Freudian psychology on to this but some how that made it seem even more dated. As my wife said at the time "I just don't care about any of the characters".

Beautiful to look at, maybe just turn the sound down and watch it as a silent film