History Film / ShadowOfTheVampire

* DoingItForTheArt: Murnau's excuse InUniverse, though he uses the words ForScience.

** The obvious one: the film's premise is that the urban myth that Max Schreck was a real vampire is ''not'' a myth. Any reputable source will attest to Schreck having been an accomplished stage actor for over a decade when he was cast as Orlok, and he continued to appear on the German stage and screen until he died of a heart attack in 1936. For that matter, neither was Schreck a method actor who remained constantly in character, though the elaborate make-up he wore as Orlok couldn't be removed during breaks in filming. The myth, however, makes for a much more entertaining story. (It didn't help Schreck himself was an eccentric, solitary man who delighted in being scary.)

* ChekhovsGun: During the opening scene of the film, Albin reveals they gave the cat actor laudanum to make it less difficult to control under the hot lights. [[spoiler:Murnau uses this again on Greta to make her more docile after she sees Schreck has no reflection, making her docile for "Orlock's"feeding scene and her eventual death. The plan is twofold here, as it also drugs her blood so that Schreck passes out after drinking from her.]]

* AllThereInTheManual: When Albin Grau and Henrick Galeen ask Schreck how he became a vampire, Schreck states it was a woman and the film doesn't go into detail about it. The original script revealed that it was his wife, a child bride who died while giving birth. He would only ever see her at night as she was slowly turning him into a vampire. She eventually left him and over the centuries Schreck forgot what she even looked like.

* ChekhovsGun: During the opening scene of the film, Albin reveals they gave the cat actor laudanum to make it less difficult to control under the hot lights. [[spoiler: Murnau uses this again on Greta to make her more docile after she sees Schreck has no reflection, making her docile for "Orlock's"feeding scene and her eventual death. The plan is twofold here, as it also drugs her blood so that Schreck passes out after drinking from her.]]
** Seems like the shutter door mechanism Schreck finds will be one. [[spoiler: Schreck sabotages it before his final scene, cutting the counterweight out of an excess of caution. However, when some of the crew open the shutter door manually, Schreck is exposed to the light and dies.]]

'''Greta:''' [[spoiler: A theatrical audience gives me life. This... thing only takes it from me.]]

* NoSell: [[spoiler: Fritz tries to shoot Schreck at the end. It doesn't work, with dust pouring from his injuries.]]

Malkovich plays Creator/FriedrichWilhelmMurnau, the German director who sets out to make his most identifiable film, ''{{Film/Nosferatu}}: Eine Symphonie des Grauens'', in 1922. To make his somewhat lawyer-friendly take on {{Dracula}}, he hires the mysterious Max Schreck to play the vampire Count Orlock. Murnau knows that Schreck is a real-life vampire, and he's hired the actor to ensure a real-life performance. [[{{Pun}} But, he's really bitten off more than he can chew this time]]...

** The film also implies that Murnau's camera can record sound, even though this is still TheSilentEra and talkies were less than a decade away in 1921.

** In 1922, shooting outdoors at night simply wasn't possible with the film stocks and cameras available, and in fact all of the night scenes in the actual ''Nosferatu'' were obviously shot [[HollywoodDarkness day-for-night]] for this reason. However, it serves the "Max Schreck was a vampire" narrative better to pretend these scenes were shot at night.

-->'''Crew member:'''f you're so lonely, why don't you make more vampires?\\

->'''F. W. Murnau''': I! Will! Finish! My picture!
->'''Max Schreck''': This is hardly your picture any longer!

* WritersSuck: After Schreck [[spoiler:kills the cinematographer, he quips "I don't think we need the writer..."]]

* FakeNationality: Other than Udo Kier, none of the actors are actually German(or Romanian in Schreck's case). Cary Elwes accent as [[spoiler: OohMeAccentsSlipping Fritz standing out the most.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Everyone involved with filmmaking will recognize the film as one big metaphor for film production itself. Creator/RogerEbert noticed this in his [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010126/REVIEWS/101260302/1023 review]]:

* EnforcedMethodActing: The end result of having to work with an actual bloodsucker InUniverse. Murnau even lampshades it:
-->"They don't need to act. They need to '''be'''"
** "Consider this a ''sacrifice'' for your art"

%%* BlackComedy

* NotSoDifferent:
** One of the themes of the film is that film is a vampire of its own. The celluloid of film itself is destroyed by sunlight -- just like a vampire. When Shreck dies, the film melts.
--->'''Greta:''' A theatrical audiences gives me ''life'', while this... thing ''(indicates movie camera)'' takes it from me.
** Invoked verbatim, by Shreck, telling Murnau, "You and I... are not so different."

* RealityEnsues: When you live as long as Schreck (which is ''centuries''), you don't remember your early life as well as you'd expect. It's like trying to remember one's infanthood.

* WhoWantsToLiveForever: Schreck reads the book ''{{Dracula}}'' in order to study for his role, and is saddened by the scene where Dracula leaves a meal for Jonathan Harker, and remembers when [[RichesToRags he used to have servants to do such tasks for him, which reminds him of when he had a wife, family, estates, etc., and now he's just a lonely scavenger squatting in a ruined castle]].
-->'''Max Schreck:''' He has to feed him, when he himself hasn't eaten food in centuries. Can he even remember how to buy bread? How to select cheese and wine? And then he remembers the rest of it. How to prepare a meal, how to make a bed. He remembers his first glory, his armies, his retainers, and what he is reduced to. The loneliest part of the book comes when the man accidentally sees Dracula setting his table.

* DangerouslyGenreSavvy: [[spoiler: Schreck.]] After an incident where he hits a lever that opens a large metal shutter door and [[spoiler: lets in the daylight, forcing him to flee to the safety of darkness, Shreck]]destroys the chain mechanism unseen before the crew [[spoiler: uses Greta's blood, drugged with laudanum, to put him to sleep, hoping to expose him to the sun.]] This leads to him waking up and being extremely pissed off. [[spoiler: RoaringRampageOfRevenge ensues.]]