#Tonka Taldy

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Vampyr, Carl Theodor Dreyer (1932)

[thewarmestplacetohide]

Dread by the Decade: Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Gray

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★★★

Plot: A man must save two young women from a vampire’s curse.

Review: Vampyr boasts striking visuals, a noteworthy experimental style, and interesting lore, but falls short in terms of plot and characters.

English Title: Vampyr: The Dream of Allan Gray Source Material: In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu Year: 1932 Genre: Vampires, Gothic Country: Germany Language: German Runtime: 1 hour 15 minutes

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer Writers: Christen Jul, Carl Theodor Dreyer Cinematographer: Rudolph Maté Editors: Tonka Taldy, Carl Theodor Dreyer Composer: Wolfgang Zeller Cast: Nicolas de Gunzburg, Sybille Schmitz, Jan Hieronimko, Henriette Gérard, Maurice Schutz

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Story: 2.5/5 - Bare-bones, it works best when viewed as a dream. Too much time is dedicated to making the audience read lore written on screen and not enough on the monster.

Performances: 3.5/5 - Schmitz creates one of the most unsettling shots of the film without a word, and the rest of the cast is surprisingly strong for nonprofessional actors.

Cinematography: 4.5/5 - Fantastic camerawork, framing, and use of shadow.

Editing: 3/5 - Purposefully disjointed with varying degrees of success.

Music: 3/5

Effects: 4/5 - Really creative shadow effects and use of multiple exposure.

Sets: 4.5/5 - Varied and rich. The film was entirely shot on location to its benefit.

Costumes & Make-Up: 4/5

Trigger Warnings:

Very mild violence

[byneddiedingo]

Rena Mandel in Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932)

Cast: Julian West, Maurice Schutz, Rena Mandel, Sybille Schmitz, Jan HIeronimko, Henriette Gérard. Screenplay: Christen Jul, Carl Theodor Dreyer, based on a novel by Sheridan Le Fanu. Cinematography: Rudolph Maté. Art direction: Hermann Warm. Film editing: Tonka Taldy. Music: Wolfgang Zeller. 

In the catalog of vampire movies, Vampyr is probably the second scariest after Nosferatu (F.W. Murnau, 1922). Which is odd, because its narrative, based by director Carl Theodor Dreyer and co-writer Christen Jul on a story be Sheridan Le Fanu, is fractured and almost incoherent and its characterization scattered. But you get the feeling that Dreyer himself really believed in the malevolent creatures he put on film, not surprising since most of Dreyer's films were in one way or another about faith. One story has it that the look of the film came about accidentally: Cinematographer Rudolph Maté shot an early sequence slightly out of focus, and when he apologetically showed it to Dreyer, the director insisted that was exactly how he wanted the film to look. Maté consequently shot many sequences through gauze. Accident also dictated some of the story: Dreyer insisted on location shooting, and in scouting for places to shoot, discovered the flour mill, giving him the idea for the scene in which the doctor meets his rather gruesome end. The lead character, Allan Grey, was played by a non-professional, Nicolas de Gunzburg, under the pseudonym Julian West -- Gunzburg was also the principal financial backer of the film. Most of the rest of the cast were non-professionals as well, and the sense that Vampyr is the result of serendipitous filmmaking has given the film a certain cachet over the years, especially with filmmakers and critics struggling with the restrictions that the corporate bottom line places on their art. To my mind, Vampyr is a collection of fascinating, disturbing images -- the man with the scythe crossing the river, the play of eerie shadows, the unusually successful double exposure that gives us Grey's out-of-body experience, the sequence in which Grey sees himself in a coffin, and so on. But it seems to me to be brilliant parts in search of a satisfying whole.

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Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932).

[icollectimages]

Vampyr (1932)

Country: Germany / France

Directed by: Carl Theodor Dreyer

Written by: Dreyer & Christen Jul Based on a story from the book “In a Glass Darkly” by: Sheridan Le Fanu

Cinematography by: Rudolph Maté & Louis Née

Edited by: Tonka Taldy

Produced by: Dreyer & Julian West

Music by: Wolfgang Zeller

Art Direction by: Hermann Warm

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Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932).

[sesiondemadrugada]

Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932).