Vampyr (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1931): France | Germany

Reviewed by Byron Potau. Vewied on DVD.

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1931 classic, Vampyr, gets the royal treatment from Criterion in their recent two disc release of the film. It is the kind of product film lovers salivate over, chock full of extras.

The film centers on David Gray, played by Julien West, a young traveler who spends the night at an inn in a secluded village and is mysteriously visited in the middle of the night by a man who, cryptically, enlists his help to save his daughter. Gray soon finds that there are strange goings on in this village and that the man’s daughter is the victim of a vampire. To free her soul he will have to hunt down and destroy the vampire.

The film is slow moving, as with many Dreyer films, but ultimately brilliant. West is good as David Gray, effectively commanding our attention with his wide eyed inquisitiveness and leading man good looks, and Sybille Schmitz stands out as the vampire’s victim, Leone, with effective slight bursts of frenzy. There is a soft look to the cinematography which lends a hazy mysteriousness to the village, and the film is loaded with and carried by memorable scenes and imagery including Gray’s dream of his own funeral seen from inside the coffin. The camera is surprisingly mobile, employing dolly shots and pans not typical of the usually static camera of Dreyer. This film has been available on DVD already through Image Entertainment, a solid company, so the real treat of this release is the transfer, which is gorgeous, and the extras, which are plentiful. This Criterion two disc edition is not one to rent, it is one to buy.

DVD Extras: English text version of the film, audio commentary from film scholar Tony Rayns, Carl Theodor Dreyer documentary by Jorgen Roos, Visual essay on Dreyer’s influences for Vampyr by Casper Tybjerg, 1958 radio broadcast of Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking, and a booklet featuring essays by critics Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, a 1964 interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg, Dreyer’s and Christen Jul’s screenplay, and Sheridan Le Fanu’s story “Carmilla,” a source for the film.