Crandell Theatre brings 1922 horror classic ‘Nosferatu’ to life with live musical accompaniment
Chatham, N.Y.— On Friday, October 4th at 7 p.m., the Crandell Theatre will go back to its roots and screen the silent horror classic “Nosferatu,” directed by film pioneer F.W. Murnau. Musician and silent film historian Ben Model will accompany the film on theater organ, brought in for one very special night, allowing the audience to experience the film just as it sounded upon its original release in 1922.
“Nosferatu” is an expressionist fever dream full of looming shadows and emerging film techniques Murnau used to great effect. Unlike other silent film directors of the era, Murnau shot this unauthorized and freely adapted version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula on location, in the Carpathian mountains. He also used negative exposure, stop-motion, and low-angle camera positions, to give his sinister, taloned vampire Graf Orlok an altogether otherworldly presence on the big screen.
Ben Model is one of the nation’s leading silent film accompanists, and performs on both piano and theater organ. Over the past four decades, he has created and performed thousands of live scores for several hundred silent films. He is a resident film accompanist at the Museum of Modern Art (NY) and at the Library of Congress’ Packard Campus Theatre, is a regular at festivals such as the TCM Classic Film Festival, Capitolfest and the Kansas Silent Film Festival, and performs regularly at historic theaters, museums, schools and other venues around the US and internationally…