Wednesday Night Cinema: F. W. Murnau – Nosferatu (1921)

Hutter is powerless to prevent the Count from travelling to Wisborg and bringing plague and death to the small town. Hutter’s wife, Ellen, has sensed the impending disaster and sees only one way to save the town.

F. W. Murnau’s first adaptation of Bram Stoker’s *Dracula* is an icon of the horror genre. The film derives its impact not from the depiction of physical violence or an artificial studio atmosphere. The horror arises from the contrast between the rigidity of the vampire Nosferatu and the impetuosity of the youthful hero Hutter, from the juxtaposition of the barren, desolate Carpathian castle and the Biedermeier atmosphere of the town of Wisborg.

• Directed by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Germany 1921, 95 minutes, starring Max Schreck, Alexander Granach and Greta Schroeder. FSK 12

A film from the collection of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau Foundation, Wiesbaden.

At the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ: Jörg Joachim Riehle

The Mighty Wurlitzer theatre organ at the Musical Instrument Museum is one of the largest surviving instruments of its kind in Europe. In 1929, Werner Ferdinand von Siemens, the grandson of the company’s founder, acquired it from the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company in North Tonawanda, NY.

It has four manuals, 1,228 pipes and more than 200 stops. In addition, there is a large number of percussion and effect instruments. Thunder rumbling and birdsong, sirens wailing and bells ringing – the Mighty Wurlitzer’s range of sounds is truly impressive.