History Film / ShadowOfTheVampire

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 Shreck 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]]...

* BadBadActing: Schreck is hyped up as an insanely dedicated method actor who toured with a prestigious company. However, his actual performance is stilted line readings, dialog screwups and looking at the camera. Of course, it makes sense because he isn't really an actor and was cast for the overwhelming creepiness and legitimacy he brought to the role.

* 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 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.

* AnachronismStew: Creator/SergeiEisenstein is cited as a great director. ''Nosferatu'' was filmed two years before Eisenstein directed his first movie.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: 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.

%%* BaldOfEvil
* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Max Shreck is portrayed as an actual vampire, so he's ''really'' not acting as Count Orlok.

* ContinuityNod: The famous scene of Orlock's projected hand's shadow is reproduced several times.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: The first appearance of Shreck. Few vampires have ever made a more frightening entrance - and it's exactly the same as it was in the actual ''Film/{{Nosferatu}}''.

* LooksLikeOrlok: Max actually plays Orlock.

* BreakingAndBloodsucking: Played with. Schreck doesn't attack Greta in her room, it's a movie set, the bedroom from the climax of Nosferatu. Per the arrangement with Murnau, Schreck only receives his payment for playing "himself" in the movie in the scene were Orlok feeds on Ellen.

* SchrodingersCat: If we are to count "real life" as the source material, then the deaths of several cast and crew members, [[spoiler:including Schreck]] counts.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade Well, to begin, Max Shreck probably wasn't a vampire...

** Schreck comments that he cannot make other vampires (whether he is physically limited himself or just doesn't know how to is unclear), [[IDoNotDrinkWine drinks alcohol]] in more than one occasion (and gets drunk by it), can feed on animals, and while he refuses to board a ship he manages to reach an island by plane (thus passing over moving water).

* AcademyAward: Two nominations, including a deserved one for Willem Dafoe (Schreck).

* GratuitousGerman: HerrDoktor, Herr Doktor, Herr Doktor, Ja...
** Also, EddieIzzard as Gustav. He basically uses the same German accent he uses for his stand up routine about the Heimmlich Manoeuvre.

* BaldOfEvil
* BlackComedy

* AcademyAward: Two nominations, including a deserved one for Willem Dafoe (Schrek).

* BadBadActing: Schreck is hyped up as an insanely dedicated method actor who toured with a prestigious company. However, his actual performance is stilted line readings, dialog screwups and looking at the camera. Of course, it makes sense because he isn't really an actor and was cast for the overwhelming creepiness and legitmacy he brought to the role.

* BreakingAndBloodsucking: Played with. Schrek doesn't attack Greta in her room, it's a movie set, the bedroom from the climax of Nosferatu. Per the arrangement with Murnau, Schrek only receives his payment for playing "himself" in the movie in the scene were Orlok feeds on Ellen.

** F.W. Murnau's perfectionist tendencies are also played up for the film. While it's true that he, like other directors of {{German Expressionism}}, had strict control over his set, he certainly didn't [[spoiler:allow his crew to be murdered in order to create a film masterpiece.]]

Malkovich plays Creator/FriedrichWilhelmMurnau, the German director who sets out to make his most identifiable film, ''{{Film/Nosferatu}}: Eine Symphonie des Grauens.'' To make his somewhat lawyer-friendly take on {{Dracula}}, he hires the mysterious Max Shreck 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]]...

Malkovich plays Creator/FWMurnau, the German director who sets out to make his most identifiable film, ''{{Film/Nosferatu}}: Eine Symphonie des Grauens.'' To make his somewhat lawyer-friendly take on {{Dracula}}, he hires the mysterious Max Shreck 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]]...

->'''F.W. Murnau''': I will not allow you to destroy my picture!

Malkovich plays F.W. Murnau, the German director who sets out to make his most identifiable film, ''{{Film/Nosferatu}}: Eine Symphonie des Grauens.'' To make his somewhat lawyer-friendly take on {{Dracula}}, he hires the mysterious Max Shreck 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]]...

->'''F.W. Murnau''': ''I will not allow you to destroy my picture!''
->'''Max Schreck''': ''This is hardly your picture any longer.''

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Everyone involved with filmmaking will recognize the film as one big metaphor for film production itself. RogerEbert noticed this in his [[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20010126/REVIEWS/101260302/1023 review]]:
-->'''RogerEbert:''' Schreck muses aloud, "I do not think we need . . . the writer . . ." Scenes like this work as inside comedy, but they also have a practical side: The star is hungry, and because he is the star, he can make demands. This would not be the first time a star has eaten a writer alive.

''Shadow of the Vampire'' is a 2000 film directed by E. Elias Merhige, starring Creator/JohnMalkovich and Willem Dafoe.

''Shadow of the Vampire'' is a 2000 film directed by E. Elias Merhige, starring JohnMalkovich and Willem Dafoe.

** F.W. Murnau's perfectionist tendencies are also played up for the film. While it's true that he, like other directors of {{German Expressionism}}, had strict control over his set, he certainly didn't [[spolier: allow his crew to be murdered in order to create a film masterpiece.]]

** F.W. Murnau's perfectionist tendencies are also played up for the film. While it's true that he, like other directors of {{GermanExpressionism}}, had strict control over his set, he certainly didn't [[spolier:allow his crew to be murdered in order to create a film masterpiece.]]