The day scenes were shot during the daytime in this film. The tinting helps the daytime scenes look like night (it really worked in the older DVDS). Why on earth did they change the moody blue tinting to light green??? I somewhat feel that it hurts the film. You can really tell that it's still daytime! The remastering on the Masters of Cinema and Kino DVDs were great, but I wish they would change the tinting back for the Blu-rays.
shareyou mean this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQK3CRr5qQs&feature=related
I agree with you, the night scene looks much better than Bundesarchiv version that I got on the net. Too bad, the score is not Hans Erdmann's original and the subtitle font is too modern.
Yes, that's the version. I really dislike that score, though. The print on the remastered versions are great. I also really liked the musical score. I have a feeling that the light green tinting will remain for the Blu-rays... It's still a great film.
shareI thought that too. I always loved the blue tinting.
Any ideas why it was changed? Is it more accurate to the original 1922 release? I know that not many people from that era would still be alive today (that would be old enough to see and remember the film from back then), but I'm wondering if anybody could confirm anything as to how the film actually appeared in 1922.
They obviously had records to confirm what the original score and title cards were like, so what about the tinting?
Look, you have two choices here: kill or be killed, your call! - Claire Redfield
There are essentially three different versions of the tinting, done on different restorations at different times.
This in-depth article details Nosferatu's history, its many different versions, restorations and scores, and every restored DVD and Blu-ray worldwide:
http://www.brentonfilm.com/articles/nosferatu-the-ultimate-blu-ray-and-dvd-guide
Brenton Film: The past, present and future of silent film
http://www.brentonfilm.com/
The version I recently saw has five tints, Brown, Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow. Different tints would have been used for different lighting levels back then.
Yellow was bright daylight or intense light.
-
Brown would be unnatural lighting that almost approximates daylight or an overcast day. Note that in The Wizard of Oz, the dusty dull light of the Kansas day(not to mention the fact it is cloudy out since there is a storm) has a brown tint to it.
-
Red represented dawn/sunset, and a slight but warm natural lighting like fireplaces and candles.
-
Green was more of a dank or dirty light on the verge of darkness, or just plain light on the verge of darkness. This was used for the boat hold scenes in my copy.
-
Blue represented night without light sources, or deep darkness.
Of course, they also used tints to give moods to scenes without any intent to indicate the light level, but that is another story. When you understand what they are supposed to mean, it helps to bring the print alive. In my case, when the red showed up at the end, I knew that dawn was coming and the vampire would soon die. And the red during the sea burial indicated it was sunset and the rest of the ship's crew would soon die at the vampire's teeth. It is sad they stopped doing this around the time talkies came in, because tinting could add a lot to a black and white movie.