As though to make up for being the star of what has been one of the worst-reviewed TV series in recent memory, The Idol, Lily-Rose Depp (nepo baby or not) has proven herself to be capable of a tour de force performance as one of the leads in Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, Ellen Hutter. A woman so lonely that she’s seduced by the darkness enough to let it in years before she encounters her “true love,” Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult). Alas, having been impatient to fulfill both her lusty desires and her desire for company full-stop, Ellen realizes too late that she’s made a grave error (no pun intended) in judgment. Then again, being bad feels pretty good, so why fight it?
As for casting Depp, Robert Eggers knew she was right for the part when she immediately mentioned Isabelle Adjani’s possession scene performance in, what else, Possession. That Andrzej Żuławski is also the director speaks to his overall influence on Eggers’ version of Nosferatu, additionally citing Żuławski’s The Third Part of the Night and The Devil as inspirations for the film. Not to mention Jack Clayton’s 1961 film, The Innocents—an adaptation of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw (“probably the biggest cinematic influence on this film,” as Eggers says in a Letterboxd inteview).
And yet, despite his many frames of reference in order to create this movie, Eggers was certain to emphasize, “It needs to be an alchemy and not just, like, constant references” (try telling that to Quentin Tarantino). An alchemy it is indeed, featuring some of the best of both F. W. Murnau’s original 1922 film, the 1979 version directed by Werner Herzog (and co-starring none other than Adjani as Lucy Harker a.k.a. Ellen Hutter) and Bram Stoker’s Dracula itself. Considering that Eggers has been attracted to the Murnau original since his days in high school when he staged a theater production of the movie, it was perhaps inevitable that he would come back to it again—once he had developed enough directorial chops. Something that the big-budget, sweepingly epic nature of The Northman helped prepared him for.
Still, for being only his fourth film, the pressure to deliver on remaking such a quintessential-to-cinema-history movie was daunting. Hence, the need to turn to the masters who came before him for inspiration in matters related to both storytelling, cinematography and execution. In a certain sense, Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz (Willem Dafoe)—based on Stoker’s Abraham Van Helsing character—is the one who notes, that, in order to face the darkness, we must first acknowledge that it exists (something that Americans have yet to do in terms of accepting the extent of the damage that will be done during a second Trump presidency). And perhaps that’s how Eggers coped with the notion of taking on such an iconic film. Not only maintaining the core of Murnau’s original, but also building some new themes into the framework. Most notably the consequence of repression. Particularly for women. This is precisely why Depp remarks of Ellen’s character, “I think that, you know, Nosferatu himself is the physical kind of manifestation of that darkness and those darker desires that she’s…learning to come to terms with.”
Except that women—most markedly, women “back then”—were not supposed to have such “sinful” desires. Let alone conjure them so freely. But, of course, as with all female sexual and emotional fulfillment, there is a punishment to be had as “recompense” for the pleasure that she dared to enjoy. And oh, how Ellen is punished. Though, more accurately, her “beloved” Thomas is. For he is the one who must encounter Count Orlock (Bill Skarsgård) face-to-face for the first time in such an unsettling way. Indeed, it seems that Thomas spends more time with Count Orlock physically speaking than Ellen ever did—she who is more at one with his specter, as it were, than his tangible…carapace. After all, he is, first and foremost, a presence in her life. A dark force that attracts her and is attracted to her. Prompting such misogynistic commentary in the film as how her “base nature” is what has attracted evil spirits into her bedchamber throughout her life. For, as she confides to Von Franz, she’s had these “visions” and “experiences” since she was a young child.
Of course, if one were to ask Friedrich Harding (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the friend of Thomas “tasked” with “minding” Ellen while he’s away, he would write off Ellen’s “night terrors” or what have you as mere “delusions.” Because, as he tells it, “women invent delusions all the time.” Something that men believed even more ardently in the 1800s than they do now (which is almost difficult to fathom, considering how much dismissing women is back in fashion thanks to a nation now calling itself Trumplandia). As for Friedrich’s wife, Anna (Emma Corrin), she’s much more sympathetic and attuned to Ellen’s “sensitivities.” Maybe too much, for there is more than a hint of lesbianism in their dynamic…which might be a nod to both F. W. Murnau and Lily-Rose Depp’s homosexuality. On a side note, in the original Nosferatu, the Hardings were a brother and sister, therefore had no children (though one wouldn’t put it past this time and place for it to be a possibility that they could). The additional detail of the Hardings having two daughters—all angelic and pure as they say their prayers—is an important one in terms of conveying the notion that evil has no compunction about defiling and destroying purity. In fact, that’s what gets evil off the most: corrupting.
This notion plays into a line asked by Greta Schröder’s Ellen in 1922’s Nosferatu: “Why did you kill them, the lovely flowers?” A question that Depp’s Ellen demands of Thomas as well, indicating the delicate, “empathic” temperament of this character. The type of person that can easily be turned into a “vessel” or “conduit.” Especially as Ellen is so susceptible to doing whatever it takes to be loved or shown some small token of affection. Hence, her proneness to submitting to “dark forces” capable of seducing her. Indeed, Schröder’s Ellen is not even remotely as “at one” with the darkness like Depp’s. Does not “secretly” relish it with abandon, but rather, chooses to sacrifice herself for the greater good of the town, and the preservation of those still left in it (a.k.a. those not killed by the plague that Nosferatu brought with him on the ship).
As for the Ellen of Depp and Egger’s imagination, she is a woman who has “Give Him A Great Big Kiss” meets “Off to the Races” sentiments regarding her true beloved. In other words, “He’s good bad, but he’s not evil” and “My old man is a bad man/But I can’t deny the way he holds my hand/And he grabs me, he has me by my heart.” And Ellen uncontrollably worships at the metaphorical altar of this false idol who has seized control of her blackened heart…all while wiping away any memories that Lily-Rose Depp ever starred in The Idol.
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