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Carl Dreyer's 1932 film is a masterpiece of early sound, phantasmagoric imagery, and macabre themes.
Vampyr's narrative is secondary to the imagery, the plot involving a man who finds himself embroiled in a mystery with a female vampire and the strange figues that surround her in the gothic castle wherein they dwell. The film is quite loosely based on Le Fanu's short story Carmilla. Vampyr and Sound The film is pure dream, pure hallucination. Within the first fifteen minutes we are exposed to a place where shadows play, and, though we cannot quite place it, we know nothing is as it should be. Provided with set decoration by the same man who worked on The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Vampyr is overwrought with symbols and shadows and places, owing a great deal to the German Expressionism of Murnau, Weine, and Lang. Technically a sound film, Vampyr still uses title cards to relay the bulk of its narrative, and the sound itself is quite selective, used not merely as representation for the action on screen. This use of sound is reminiscent of what Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein called "monistic ensemble", being the use of sound which does not actually parallel action, but functions as an element of equal significance with the visuals. Doors close, animals chatter, and machines whirl, all made more impactful by being either out of place, from an impossible source, or by interrupting what was pure silence. Vampyr and Shadow Yet, it is in the film's images that the truly extraordinary takes place. The camera, not entirely static, follows the action slowly, discreetly, mirroring the general dreamlike cadence of the action. Most memorable in this regard are the times when the camera moves in long, unbroken strides down a hallway, around turns, slowly revealing previously unknown space. Dreyer also employs numerous camera tricks to further enhance the macabre atmosphere; time moves backwards, shadows move independently of their owners, and characters move about their surroundings, transparent. One of the most impressive scenes involves a funeral procession from the perspective of the corpse. Through a window in the coffin, we see the faces that peer in and the passing scenery above as the casket is taken away. This first-person perspective forces the viewer to experience this dream for themselves, personalizing the horror and making it more real than, perhaps, is desirable. Dreyer's other famous works from the silent era include The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), and Leaves from Satan's Notebook (1921). Though all these films exhibit the same mastery over black and white tonality, Vampyr stands apart in its use of pure expressionistic fantasy.
The copyright of the article Carl Dreyer's Vampyr in Foreign Films is owned by Zachary Hughes. Permission to republish Carl Dreyer's Vampyr in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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