VAMPYR [Germany/France 1932] is one of the most extraordinary works of the legendary Danish director Carl-Theodor Dreyer, whose The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and Day Of Wrath (1943) are frequent choices on critics‘s lists of the greatest films ever made.
 
In Vampyr, Dreyer has transformed LeFanu‘s horror tales into a mystic quest, a meditation on the theme of death, and neatly fashioned it as an abstract experimental film. The camera is like a sleepwalker, leading us, trance-like, into a labyrinth from which cause and effect have disappeared. The hauntingly sinister atmosphere created is disquieting and unforgettable.
 
The group involved in creating Vampyr represented a confluence of great talent. Dreyer himself is one of the true brilliant avant garde pioneers of the medium. Hermann Warm, the art director, had created the sets for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and cinematographer Rudolph Maté went on to photograph several landmark Hollywood films including Foreign Correspondent and Gilda. - Kino International
 
Credits:
 
Director - Carl Dreyer
Screenplay - Dreyer & Christian Jul
Based on the Short Story Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Producers - Dreyer & Baron Nicholas de Gunzburg
Photography (b&w) - Rudolf Maté
Music - Wolfgang Zeller
Art Direction - Hans Bittman & Hermann Warm.
 
Cast:
 
Julian West [Baron Nicholas de Gunzburg] (David Gray)
Jan Hieronimko (The Doctor)
Sybille Schmitz (Leone)
Henriette Gerard (Margeurite Chopin)
Rena Mandel (Gisele)
Albert Bras (Alfred)
Maurice Schutz (Lord of the Manor)