Classic vampire film to open Cinematheque’s spring screenings

Students in Tomislav Longinovic’s new class, The Vampire in Literature and Film, won’t have far to look for their assignment to see German director F.W. Murnau’s 1922 classic “Nosferatu.”

Cinematheque, UW–Madison’s student-run film venue, will offer the film on Friday, Jan. 20, as an introduction to its semester-long tribute to Murnau’s German (he came to Hollywood in 1926) work. The series includes all nine of Murnau’s German films, six of which have only recently been found and restored.

Other titles in the Murnau series are:

• “The Haunted Castle” (1921) at 7:30 p.m. and “Journey Into Night” (1921) at 9 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 27. The first film finds a group of hunters encountering a mystery; the second, Murnau’s earliest surviving film, is a harrowing tale of sexual and psychological torment.
• “Phantom” (1922), Friday, Feb. 3. In a precursor to “Vertigo,” a clerk becomes obsessed with a woman he knows slightly. When he finds a prostitute who looks like his love, he tries to make over the fallen woman into his ideal.
• “The Burning Soul” (1922), Friday, Feb. 10. When a peasant marries into a family wealthy from “devil’s field” oil, he discovers that his virtues are severely tested.
• “The Grand Duke’s Finances” (1924), Friday, Feb. 17. A comedy revolving around a schemer’s efforts to separate an aristocrat from his money.
• “Tartuffe” (1924), Friday, Feb. 24. Moliere’s tale of a religious hypocrite who convinces a rich couple to open their house to him.
• “The Last Laugh” (1928), Saturday, April 8. Emil Jannings as an elderly but proud doorman at a luxury hotel demoted to toilet attendant.
• “Faust” (1926), Saturday, April 15. Emil Jannings as the title character, just in time for tax day.

All the films will feature live piano accompaniment on Cinematheque’s new instrument. Unless otherwise noted, all start at 7:30 p.m. in 4070 Vilas Hall.

Other Cinematheque series this semester will include contemporary cinema from France and Japan, America’s earliest talkies, an exploration of the idea of childhood, and a Mexican film festival on Friday-Sunday, March 3-5.

For more information or complete listings, visit the Cinematheque Web site.