Quote of the Day (Willem Dafoe, on Whether ‘Realism’ Means Anything to Him as an Actor)

“When you say realism, I think of naturalism, and I think about natural acting. And when I think about natural acting, I think about natural behavior. And I think sometimes that destroys movies, you know? Because we don't just want to see imitations of life. We want to see something that is beyond that. Cinema is not just about telling stories. Everybody clings to this. Telling stories, telling stories, telling stories! It’s about light. It’s about space. It’s about tone. It's about color. It's about people having experiences in front of you, where, if it's transparent enough, they can experience it with you. You become them. They become you. That's the communion. That's the experience."—Oscar-nominated character actor Willem Dafoe, quoted by Matt Zoller Seitz, “The Art of Surrender,” New York Magazine, Dec. 2-15, 2024

It would take that most prolific of movie actors, Willem Dafoe, to present the most passionate defense possible of cinema as a different style of storytelling—a primarily visual one.

Some screenwriters might be annoyed at one word conspicuously absent from his description of cinema—dialogue. But “light,” “space,” “tone,” and “color” are certainly defining characteristics of F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent vampire classic Nosferatu.

Now audiences will decide if variations on these traits are worth seeing in that film’s remake, in which Dafoe (pictured) has a key supporting role as a vampire-hunter.