Vampyr
(DVD) 

Title from feature.

Frei nach dem roman [Freely after the novel] 'In a glass darkly' von [by] J. [Joseph] Sheridan Le Fanu.

Originally produced as a motion picture in 1931/32.

Based on the book : In a glass darkly / by J. [Joseph] Sheridan Le Fanu.

Accompanying booklet, "Vampyr", includes the essays "'Vampyr's' Ghosts and Demons" by Mark Le Fanu, "'Vampyr' and the Vampire" by Kim Newman, "Some Notes on the Restoration of Dreyer's 'Vampyr'" by Martin Koerber, and "An Interview with Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg" by Herman G. Weinberg and Gretchen Weinberg.

"VAMPYR was produced in 1931/32 in German, French, and English versions. The original negative for picture and sound was lost. Partially complete prints of the German and French versions served as the basis for this restoration. The new German version of 1998 was a collaboration between Cineteca del Comune de Bologna, Deutsche Kinemathek and ZDF/Arte."--Opening screen note.

Photographie, Rudolph Maté ; musik, Wolfgang Zeller; dialogregie und tonschnitt [dialog direction/sound editing], Paul Falkenberg.

Julian West (Allan Gray), Maurice Schutz (Der Schlossherr [The lock gentleman]), Rena Mandel (Giséle), Sybille Schmitz (Léone, seine töchter [his daughter]), Jan Hieronimko (der Dorfarzt [The village physician]), Henriette Gerard (Die alte Frau vom Friedhof [The old woman of the cemetery]), Albert Bras (Die alte Diener [The old servant]), N. Babanini (seine Frau [his wife]), Jane Mora (Die Krankenschwester [the nurse]).

"With Vampyr, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyser's brilliance of achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery 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 rolling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema's great nightmares."--Container.

Not rated.

DVD, NTSC region 1, full screen (1.19:1) presentation; Dolby Digital mono.

Feature in German with German intertitles and optional English subtitles; special features in German with English intertitles and optional English subtitles.