Vampyr (1932) - The Criterion Collection

Synopsis

With Vampyr, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery (The Passion of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath) was for once applied to the horror genre. Yet the result—concerning an occult student assailed by various supernatural haunts and local evildoers in a village outside Paris—is nearly unclassifiable, a host of stunning camera and editing tricks and densely layered sounds creating a mood of dreamlike terror. With its roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s great nightmares.

Cast

Allan Gray	Julian West
Lord of the chateau	Maurice Schutz
Gisèle	Rena Mandel
Léone	Sybille Schmitz
The doctor	Jan Hieronimko
The woman from the graveyard	Henriette Gerard
The old servant	Albert Bras
His wife	N. Babanini
The nurse	Jane Mora

Credits

Director	Carl Th. Dreyer
Screenplay	Christen Jul and Carl Th. Dreyer
From a novel by	Sheridan Le Fanu
Cinematography	Rudolph Maté
Art direction	Hermann Warm
Music	Wolfgang Zeller

Disc Features

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET:

The original German version in a new high-definition digital transfer from the 1998 restoration by Martin Koerber and the Cineteca di Bologna
Newly credited alternate version with English text
Audio commentary featuring film scholar Tony Rayns
Carl Th. Dreyer (1966), a documentary by Jørgen Roos chronicling Dreyer’s career
Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer’s influences in creating Vampyr
Radio broadcast from 1958 of Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, Koerber on the restoration, and a 1964 interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg, as well as a book featuring Dreyer and Christen Jul’s original screenplay and Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 story “Carmilla,” a source for the film

From the Current

Communication Arts Features Vampyr

Oct 16, 2008

Michael Boland’s design for Criterion’s special edition release of Vampyr has gotten some special attention of its own, from the prestigious design journal Communications Arts. In the Exhibit section—highlighting “outstanding examples of graphic design and advertising”—of the journal’s...

Press Notes: Vampyr Resurrected

Sep 11, 2008

“Before there were Luis Buñuel, Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, or Andrei Tarkovsky (not to mention Lars von Trier, Carlos Reygadas, and Guy Maddin), there was Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889–1968), the original solitary, uncompromising film artist.” So begins J. Hoberman’s http://www.villagevoice...

Vampyr and the Vampire

by Kim Newman Jul 21, 2008

A search for films using the word vampire or vamp in the title will turn up dozens of pictures made in the silent era. But this is only...

Vampyr’s Ghosts and Demons

by Mark Le Fanu Jul 21, 2008

A glance at Vampyr should begin with a glance at its Danish begetter, Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889–1968), whose relatively restricted output has not prevented...