Shadow of the Vampire

at the Toronto International Film Festival

Merhige interviewed by Joanne Yamaguchi and Gus Calabrese

E. Elias Merhige = director
John Malkovich = F. W. Murnau
Willem Dafoe = Count Orlock
Nicolas Cage, Jeff Levine = producers

Clicking on some of the photos and text will run video clips

Murnau in Shadow of the Vampire says in a desperate moment when it seems the entire production may be lost "if it isn't in frame, it doesn't exist". Unless immortalized, the thing never was at all. This is existential anguish stated in cinematic terms. Wittgenstein believed that if it couldn't be spoken, it doesn't exist. This is the same anguish stated in linguistic analytic terms.

Elias Merhige brings to the screen, both in the cult classic Begotten (1991) and in Shadow of the Vampire (2000), the eternal duo of mortality and immortality. Merhige is as fascinating to interview as his films are to view--both the director and his works are profoundly affecting. You cannot remain the same after the encounter. A move has been made in the court. Now it is Your Serve.
Merhige's preparation for Shadow of the Vampire involved submersion into Wittgenstein, Nietzsche, and 10 days of conversation with Malkovich in Paris. Merhige says that Malkovich is an exhilirating intellectual and conversational partner. In those 10 days Merhige and Malkovich, with Murnau himself along in a sense, discussed the Faustian themes embedded in the Nosferatu story. Meta-vampiric talk. When asked how he would compare working with Malkovich to working with Willem Dafoe, Merhige burst into the pleasure of recalling that with Dafoe, there is NO talking. Willem is a physical rather than an intellectual actor. You give him the costume, and that's it. Willem becomes his own interpretation of the character who would wear such a costume. When Willem as Count Orlock answers Murnau's rhetorical challenge, why not eat the scriptgirl, Willem rubs his hands together menacingly and says, "I will eat her later". We take it personally and physically -- he WILL eat her later!

Begotten opens with "God killing himself". What better algorithm for expressing the other side of the eclipse where everybody else is trying to be God? Merhige describes the process of making Begotten, from building his own optical printer, to telling the actors what to do step by step. It reminds one of the early Muybridge break-down of action into still frames, only in reverse. Merhige is ever at the root of the orderly chaos of experience.

Merhige's vision sees the hierarchical structure of the vampiric -- the director as vampire / the camera as vampire / the vampire as vampire / God as vampire. WHAT is the substance of the vampiric addiction? Is it thirst, thirst, thirst for immortality? How is this different from the will to survive which is allegedly in all of us. Here we arrive at the realization to which Merhige's works lead: we are all vampires. Move over Nosferatu.

We mortals know nothing apart from existence and the mortal. We spend thirsty lifetimes in search of satisfaction for the parched throat. Friday afternoon happy hours are watering holes for closet vampires. Nietzsche was infamous for the expression "God is dead". If we take him to mean that belief in God is dead, then we have the sort of universe where human beings are on their own in the creation of meaning. Different drinks for different styles. A blood aperitif for you, with a twist of lime? Great cocktail parties. Elias Merhige is a profound talent in presenting the viewer with characters who are eloquently working the mortality game.. In Shadow of the Vampire Malkovich's Murnau is wrenching. So close, closer, just a bit closer still -- to crossing over to the immortal side. Creatures such as the vampire in Shadow of the Vampire, or God in Begotten are out there to feed and to speak and to frame the fleeting moment of meaning.. The introductory scenes of Begotten with God slashing himself to shreds of flesh, his mouth and jaw in free fall along the rest of his machete'd body (a sort of Bunuel slashing of the cow's eye X a googol) is sick-making. As the tormented existentialist Kierkegaard said about life, that it is a sickness unto death, that it is a state of fear and trembling. Elias Merhige, how do you manage to capture all of that on film? Thanks for the party -- enjoyed drinking with Murnau, Count Orlock, God, and yourself!