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Friedrich Wilhelm "F. W." Murnau (born Friedrich Wilhelm Plumpe; December 28, 1888March 11, 1931) was a German film director. Murnau was greatly influenced by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays he had seen at the age of 12, and became a friend of director Max Reinhardt. During World War I he served as a company commander at the eastern front and was in the German air force, surviving several crashes without any severe injuries. Arguably Murnau's best known work is his 1922 film ''Nosferatu'', an adaptation of Bram Stoker's ''Dracula''. Although not a commercial success due to copyright issues with Stoker's novel, the film was considered a masterpiece of Expressionist artwork. He was also known for his work with the 1924 film ''The Last Laugh'' and his interpretation of Goethe's Faust (1926). He later emigrated to Hollywood in 1926, where he joined the Fox Studio and made three films, including ''Sunrise'' (1927), ''4 Devils'' (1928) and ''City Girl'' (1930). In 1931 Murnau travelled to Bora Bora to make the film ''Tabu'' with documentary film pioneer Robert J. Flaherty, who left after artistic disputes with Murnau, who had to finish the movie on his own. A week prior to the opening of the film ''Tabu'', Murnau died in a Santa Barbara hospital from injuries he had received in an automobile accident that occurred along the Pacific Coast Highway near Rincon Beach, southeast of Santa Barbara. Of the 21 films Murnau directed, 8 have been completely lost, leaving 13 surviving in their entirety. One reel of his feature ''Marizza, genannt die Schmuggler-Madonna'' survives. ==Early years== Murnau was born in Bielefeld, Province of Westphalia, and grew up in Kassel from the time he was seven. He had two brothers, Bernhard and Robert, and two stepsisters, Ida and Anna. Murnau's mother Otilie Volbracht was the second wife of his father Heinrich Plumpe, the owner of a cloth-factory in the north-western part of Germany. Their villa was often turned into a stage for little plays, directed by Murnau, who already read books of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Shakespeare and Ibsen plays at the age of 12.〔()〕 He took the name "Murnau" from the town of that name, which is near Lake Staffel, south of Munich. The 6'11" (210 cm) director was said to have an icy, imperious disposition and an obsession with film.〔F.W. Murnau. Eisner, Lotte H. (1964). Le Terrain Vague. ASIN: B0029LAF1M〕 Murnau studied philology at the University in Berlin and later art-history and literature in Heidelberg, where director Max Reinhardt saw him at a students' performance and decided to invite him to his actor-school. He soon became a friend of Franz Marc (the Blue Rider artist based in Murnau), Else Lasker-Schüler and Hans Ehrenbaum-Degele. In World War I Murnau served as a company commander at the eastern front.〔 Murnau joined the German air force in northern France two years later and survived eight crashes without severe injuries. He landed in Switzerland where he was interned and won a prize for the best production-concept. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「F. W. Murnau」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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