Robert Eggers names his favourite director of all time
Only three films into his directorial career, Robert Eggers has already made a name for himself as an auteur of historical horror. Eggers released his debut feature film The Witch in 2015, distributed by A24. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy, the period film followed a 1630s family encountering the occult in the woods. The debut has since been helmed as one of the most innovative contributions to the horror genre in recent memory.
In 2019, Eggers followed up the success of his debut with The Lighthouse. The film also marked his second collaboration with cult film company A24, who picked up the film for production as well as distribution this time. Starring Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, the film has become a modern cult classic in the genre for its outlandish weirdness and distinctive black-and-white almost square cinematography.
Eggers’ most recent offering was another historical epic which saw him expand out of the horror genre. The Northman, released in 2022, featured a star-studded cast including Björk, Nicole Kidman and Ethan Hawke, alongside Eggers’ previous collaborators Dafoe and Taylor-Joy.
The cult director’s next feature endeavour will see him move into remakes, taking on a story from over a century ago, the 1922 silent film Nosferatu. The film was also remade by Werner Herzog in 1979. In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Eggers named the original as one of his five favourites of all time, amongst Fanny and Alexander, Mary Poppins, Andrei Rublev, and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.
Eggers gushes over the film’s director, F. W. Murnau, “Murnau is neck to neck with Bergman as my favourite director. He’s responsible for some of the best images in cinema of all time, from Nosferatu to Faust to Sunset. His work was so influential that filmmakers generations later can be referencing Murnau without knowing it.”
The influence of Murnau can certainly be felt in Eggers’ own filmography – the influence of German Expressionism and the gothic on The Lighthouse is palpable.
Eggers displays his in-depth knowledge on Nosferatu specifically, sharing, “Nosferatu is an interesting movie. It was produced by Albin Grau, an occultist who started an independent film studio to make occult-themed movies. Nosferatu was his first endeavour. And he hired the screenwriter, and he hired Murnau, and he was the production designer and did a lot of concept art. Very much part of the authorship of this film.”
He continued, “And Max Schreck, as much as he is a folk vampire and a reinterpretation of Stoker’s literary gothic vampire, he’s also influenced by Albin Grau’s early 20th-century occultist views on vampirism.”
Eggers concludes that, “in many ways – there’s horror movies before it, obviously – Nosferatu invents horror movies. The editing of the parallel story together in some ways invents cinema.”
It’s unsurprising that Eggers would consider the inventor of horror to be his favourite director. From his directorial debut, his roots have been firmly in the horror genre. Now, he takes on the monumental task of paying homage to Murnau as he shoots his own take on Nosferatu.
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