Mike Frank wonders: > but does it matter? . . . does anyone go to movies expecting > accuracy in historical recreation?? . . . or is this another > version of what hitchcock famously called "the plausuibles," > those people who take a special delight in pointing out > places where the director violated some idea of plausibility? As usual, I think, it all depends . . . It depends on the amount of historical distance that seems to allow us to admit the artist (novelist, playwright, filmmaker) more leeway with more ancient materials (think of I, CLAUDIUS; SPARTACUS, GLADIATOR, etc., etc.) It depends on the expectations created by the work's genre and format that uses historical characters to probe particular questions (think of Shakespeare's history plays, BECKET, THE LION IN WINTER, RESTORATION, RIDICULE, etc.) It depends on the particular questions that the film raises in regard to specific historical events (think of JFK, etc.) And it depends on particular audiences and their knowledge (or lack thereof) of the events and characters being portrayed. In regard to SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE, the very title suggests that the film is working as much within the realm of the horror genre as of historical/biographical film. The original NOSFERATU (and its influences on Coppola's own DRACULA as well as Herzog's remake) are plausibly going to be familiar to the art-house audience that will be the original group going to see the film, but even so, the precise circumstances of the film's making, of Schreck, of Murnau and so on are likely to be obscure to all but a relatively small group. In short, the promotion and circumstances of the film's exhibition seem likely to pose the film as an example of "What if . . . " (rather like DC comics' "Elseworlds" series or alternative histories in science fiction). If the film is taken *as fiction*, then it should be judged as such. Unfortunately, there are always people willing (or even eager) to judge such film as *fact*. Don Larsson ----------------------------------------------------------- Donald F. Larsson English Department, AH 230 Minnesota State University Mankato, MN 56001 ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu