After returning to Berlin in 1919, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau started working as a film director. His first feature film was a collaboration with Ernst Hofmann, a former colleague from the Deutsche Theater. Hofmann was the producer and lead actor in DER KNABE IN BLAU (THE BOY IN BLUE), 1919. The film tells the story of an impoverished nobleman who thinks he sees himself in a portrait of an ancestor and falls victim to the painting's »curse«.

By late 1921 Murnau had made ten feature films, five of which starred Conrad Veidt. Veidt and Murnau had been friends since they both worked for the Reinhardt theaters. SATANAS (1919-20), DER JANUSKOPF (LOVE' S MOCKERY), and ABEND - NACHT - MORGEN (EVENING - NIGHT - MORNING), 1920, all of which were directed by Murnau, contributed to Veidt's image as a portrayer of the devil and the demonic.

Movies boomed in the years immediately following World War I. Censorship was lifted and the new times called for amusement. Adventure and crime films were especially popular among film audiences. Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's first films were also characterized by exotic subjects and crime stories. Only three of his feature films from 1919 to 1921 still exist; seven are considered lost.

Murnau's NOSFERATU premiered in Berlin in March 1922. It is a vampire film that continues to influence international genre cinema today. The eerie, sinister mood of the film was created in close cooperation between the director and his scriptwriter Henrik Galeen and costume designer and art director Albin Grau. Grau - set designer, painter, and spiritualist - also produced the film with his newly founded production company Prana Film.

>>

DER KNABE IN BLAU

DER JANUSKOPF

NOSFERATU