(Directed by F.W. Murnau from an adaptation of Bram Stoker's DRACULA by Henrik Galeen; starring Max Schrek, Gustav Van Wangenheim, Greta Schröder, and Alexander Granach. Released 04 March 1922); (re)watched 2023w06 via Blu-Ray)

a still from Murnau's Nosferatu: Orlok ascends the stairs in shadow

First time (re)watching Murnau’s masterpiece (among several) in years – first time, certainly with German intertitles – and it feels like I watched a different, even better, film than I remember: I’m sure I’ve seen countless iterations of it over the years – this site has a staggering and rich history of the film and its various theatrical and home video re-releases (though according to Reid’s work, the “different, even better film than I remember,” that I (re)watched was the awful version (the only available version in the US) but at least the jittery thing – which I knew wasn't in any of the other versions I've seen – makes sense):

As if that wasn’t enough, to make the resulting mess still fit into 24fps, (Kino) then eliminated every eighth frame. This results in the complete loss of over 11% of Nosferatu’s images. The outcome is that visible motion jitter, a juddery, stutter-like effect, is introduced throughout and a goodly chunk of the actual film is gone. The restorer’s job wholly undone. To look at it another way, the Kino is cut, throughout its length, and the Eureka is uncut. If we rejigged the Kino transfer to match the Eureka’s pulldown, it would run shorter by about 10 minutes. No thanks.

Brent Reid https://www.brentonfilm.com/nosferatu-unleashed-in-hd-every-blu-ray-reviewed

Well, fuck.

Still, great to revisit it, even if it was something of a jittery mess (now I’m pissed but at least researching it brought me to DRAKULA HALÁLA so my lost film love has been sated). I'm going to go buy a region-free Blu-Ray player and binge on Euro-Blu and probably rewrite this thing once I see the BFI version.