Accents and Ancient languages in Nosferatu

By: Tanishka D 

Robert Egger's Nosferatu is a movie I had mixed feelings about. On one hand, I adored the cinematography as well as the acting, however, the accents as well as the revivial of an ancient language were someting that confused me, but don't worry, as in this post I will be talking about how the creative choices surrounding language in the film influence the overall tone of the film as well as the significance of Orlok's speaking style in the movie.

English in the 19th century

Just like the world during the Industrial Revolution, The english language was rapidly undergoing changes to fit the modern world. When watching the movie, one may notice that the english spoken by the characters sounds different to the Englishwe speak today.  Speakers of modern english woud consider the english spoken in the 19th century to be very posh and overtly polite. This can also be noticed when watching Nosferatu, however in the film, the poshness of the english spoken is used to communicate the fact that characters such as the Hutters and the Harkers are from affluent backgrounds. 

But what language is Orlok speaking? 

well, you can always count on Robert Eggers doing his research when making a movie, which is why he instilled the help of linguists to reconstruct the extinct language known as Dacian. The language is related to modern day Romanian which is what he would have spoken in the present day because he's from Translavania. Tohe dacian lanlguage was used as having orlok speak  in a mysterious ancient language would really emphasize how old he is.

The count-clusion

To conclude, The language choices in the film nosferatu help enhance the audience perception off the film and adds to the unsettling tone of the film.

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