The Sound of Air Erased in Restored Version of Feature Film
The original, yet decaying print of Werner Herzog's 1979 movie Nosferatu emits an exaggerated track of breath, wind and background noise as can be witnessed when the vampire serves dinner to his unassuming guest at the 27:32 mark, here:
(It's clearly a worn celluloid copy as there is also one dropped frame at two separate points within the 30:00 mark.) But much of the essence of the scene is lost from the blurry version when moved to this more perfect rendering, probably a blue-ray version uploaded to YouTube:
The anticipation clicks of the grandskeleton clock is much diminished in the restored version, and overpowered by its eventual top-of-the-hour chime. The viewer's ears to recoil. Why the restoration team made this choice is a mystery, as anticipation heightens suspense.
Also lost is the gurgling of the champagne leaving the decanter and splashing into the goblet. The slicing through a fresh crust of bread. The audible swallow. Together these effects activate a viewer's sense of taste. And plays with our allegiences when, in concert with the heaving vampire, the audience member finds himself salivating.
This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
(It's clearly a worn celluloid copy as there is also one dropped frame at two separate points within the 30:00 mark.) But much of the essence of the scene is lost from the blurry version when moved to this more perfect rendering, probably a blue-ray version uploaded to YouTube:
The anticipation clicks of the grandskeleton clock is much diminished in the restored version, and overpowered by its eventual top-of-the-hour chime. The viewer's ears to recoil. Why the restoration team made this choice is a mystery, as anticipation heightens suspense.
Also lost is the gurgling of the champagne leaving the decanter and splashing into the goblet. The slicing through a fresh crust of bread. The audible swallow. Together these effects activate a viewer's sense of taste. And plays with our allegiences when, in concert with the heaving vampire, the audience member finds himself salivating.
This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
