Vampyr
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| Vampyr | |
|---|---|
 Original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Carl Theodor Dreyer |
| Produced by | Carl Theodor Dreyer Julian West |
| Written by | Sheridan Le Fanu (novel) Christen Jul Carl Theodor Dreyer |
| Starring | Julian West Maurice Schutz Rena Mandel |
| Music by | Wolfgang Zeller |
| Cinematography | Rudolph Maté Louis Née |
| Editing by | Paul Falkenberg |
| Release date(s) | 1932 |
| Running time | 75 min. |
| Language | German |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Vampyr is a 1932 Danish film by Carl Theodor Dreyer. An art film and early example of a sound film, it is short on dialogue and plot, but is admired even today for its innovative use of light and shadow. Dreyer achieved some of these effects through using a fine gauze filter in front of the camera lens to make characters and objects appear hazy and indistinct, as though glimpsed in a dream.
The film exists in prints of various qualities, and under alternate titles including Vampyr: Der Traum des Allan Grey (The Dream of Allan Grey); The Vampire, and Castle of Doom.[1] It stars Julian West (a stage name of Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, the film's producer and financial backer), Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel, Sybille Schmitz, Jan Hieronimko, and Henriette Gérard.
Dreyer's cast was predominantly made up of amateurs (only Sybille Schmitz and Maurice Schutz were professional actors), however, this was unimportant to a director who was more concerned with creating an atmosphere of dread than staging a play. Dreyer reportedly told his cameraman, "Imagine we are sitting in an ordinary room. Suddenly we are told that there is a corpse behind the door. In an instant, the room we are sitting in is completely altered: everything in it has taken on another level; the light, the atmosphere have changed, though they are physically the same. This is because we have changed... This is the effect I want to get."[2]
No sets were constructed for the film. The inn and castle were real, and the building of dancing shadows was a disused ice cream factory. Dreyer altered the ending of the film to include a white, dust-filled plaster works.[3] White is the predominant colour, representing the loss of blood, and seen in the use of white mist, white flour and the white buildings and skies that recur throughout the film.
Contents |
[edit] Cast
- Julian West as David Gray
- Maurice Schutz as the Lord of the Manor
- Rena Mandel as Gisele
- Sybille Schmitz as Leone
- Jan Hieronimko as the Village Doctor
- Henriette Gérard as Marguerite Chopin, the Woman from the Cemetery
- Albert Bras as an Old Servant
- N. Babanini as His Wife
- Jane Mora as a Nurse
[edit] Plot
The plot is credited to J. Sheridan Le Fanu's collection In a Glass Darkly, which includes the vampire novella Carmilla, although, as Timothy Sullivan has argued, its departures from the source are more striking than its similarities.[4]
The actual events are rather obscure and dominated by a weird, dream-like atmosphere. David Gray (despite the film's German title), a youth travelling in the French countryside, puts up at an inn in the surroundings of a solitary castle, near the village of Courtempierre. He begins to see strange sights that are impossible to explain (notably shadows leading a life independent from that of their "owners").
Having been asked for help by the Lord of the Manor, David visits the castle and becomes involved in the tragic events that are befalling the family. Leone, the daughter of the Lord of the Manor appears to suffer from anaemia, but her father already suspects that her illness is caused by a vampire. The Lord of the Manor dies, seemingly of natural causes, but actually as a result of the actions of the servants of the undead. As David reads an old book about vampires, he learns more and more about these creatures, while the fiend continues to assault the young woman.
The vampire turns out to be an extremely evil old woman, Marguerite Chopin, who died in mortal sin and caused a similar epidemic a quarter of a century ago. She is conspiring with the village doctor who helps her to gain access to her victim; her ultimate objective is to cause the victim to commit suicide and thus deliver her to the devil. Eventually, David and an old servant stake her, and her servants also die. At the end, David is seen leaving together with Leone's sister, Gisele.
[edit] References
- ^ Sullivan, J. (editor), The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, Penguin, 1986, p.440. ISBN 0-670-80902-0
- ^ Cited in Aylesworth, T.G., Monster and Horror Movies, Bison Books, 1986, p.74. ISBN 0-86124-285-8
- ^ Butler, I., Horror in the Cinema, Zwemmer/Barnes, 1970, p.57. ISBN 0-302-02058-6
- ^ See Sullivan, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural, p.440.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Full movie at Google video
- Vampyr at the Internet Movie Database
| Carl Theodor Dreyer | |
|---|---|
| Silent films | The President • The Witch Woman • Leaves from Satan's Book • Love one Another • Once Upon a Time • Michael • Thou Shalt Honor Thy Wife • Bride of Glomdal • The Passion of Joan of Arc |
| Sound films | Vampyr • Good Mothers • Day of Wrath • Two People • Water from the Land • The Struggle Against Cancer • The Danish Village Church • They Caught the Ferry • The Storstrom Bridge • The Castle Within the Castle • Ordet • Gertrud |
