Nosferatu

OUTDOOR SCREENING AT IBIRABUERA PARK FEATURING LIVE MUSIC BY THE PETROBRAS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA AND CHOIR, CONDUCTED BY PIERRE OSER

PIERRE OSER, guest composer and conductor
Oser is a composer, musician, and conductor in Munich, Germany. He graduated from the Jazz School Munich and studied classic piano in Mainz and Munich, giving continuity to his studies at the Richard Strauss Conservatoire Munich. He worked at Schauspielhaus Wien (The Vienna Theatre) and at Bayerische Staatsschauspiel München (The Bavarian State Theatre in Munich).

He composed soundtracks for television, radio and stage plays, and for film, writing new scores for classics such as Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Michael (1924), F.W. Murnau’s Aurora (1927), and Fritz Lang’s Destiny (1921).

The score for Nosferatu that will be played during the 36th Mostra is the second version Pierre wrote for the classic, the first one being from 2000, and was composed in 2012 as a tribute for the centenary of the death of Bram Stoker (1847-1912), author of Dracula, the book that inspired the film. After its world premiere in Jakarta, Indonesia, this will be the second performance of the original score, composed for a choir, percussion, and string orchestra.

Petrobras Simphony Orchestra
Created in 1972 by maestro Armando Prazeres and sponsored by Petrobras for the last 25 years, the Petrobras Symphony Orchestra is distinguished for supporting the democratization of access to classical music. Directed and conducted by the renowned maestro Isaac Karabtchevsky, the present-day orchestra consists of 80 instrumentalists, being the only one in the country managed by its own musicians, following the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. Its curriculum consists of regular seasonal performances at the Municipal Theatre of Rio de Janeiro. The orchestra created the Metrônomo series, offering didactic concerts in schools and for social projects.

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The 36th São Paulo International Film Festival is celebrating the 90th anniversary of Nosferatu (1922), the silent film classic directed by F.W. Murnau, with an outdoor screening of a restored print of the film at Ibirapuera Park. The presentation of this key work of German expressionist cinema is accompanied by a score composed by Pierre Oser, with the conductor coming to São Paulo in order to lead the Petrobras Symphony Orchestra and choir for a live performance of his score.

Despite being unauthorized, Nosferatu is the first adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula for the screen. Murnau ignored the denial from the Irish author’s widow, Florence, when he tried to acquire the rights and proceeded with the project by altering the names of the characters.

Real estate agent Hutter travels to the Carpathian Mountains to visit a new client, the eccentric Count Orlok. He slowly discovers that Orlok is a vampire. Before Hutter can stop him, Orlok manages to relocate to Winsborg, where Hutter lives with his wife Ellen. The vampire spreads plague and death through the village until Ellen notices that he feels a strong attraction for her. Unlike later vampire films, Orlok casts a shadow – as one can see in the tirelessly recreated scene where he climbs the stairs in order to possess Ellen.

The use of shadows and strong contrasts, together with the risk of using outdoor locations – as opposed to other classics of German expressionism such as Metropolis (1927, 34th Mostra) – are characteristics that later influenced the horror genre as well as film noir.

About the print

The restoration of the copy that will be screened in São Paulo was made between 2005 and 2006 by Luciano Berriatúa for the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation. The process has a 1922 print as a source, with the original title cards and color work – the only one from the time of the film’s release that survives today in the archives of the Cinémathèque Française in Paris.

The digital restoration process allowed for the preservation of the original title cards, differentiating this version from the previous ones which had to recreate them. The care with the film’s transfer also includes the removal of scratches, tears, and print damage, as well as light and density adjustments done manually, frame by frame, image by image.

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA

43ª MOSTRA INTERNACIONAL DE CINEMA