Vampyr

There’s just something fantastic about German Expressionism isn’t there? Dark. Complex. Experimental. Highly Influential. It’s a film movement that was very effective in the silent era and produced some of the most influential films ever made. Think Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu, or The Last Laugh. Audiences have been entertained and studying these films since their release in the 1920s and 30s. Between the stark contrast of light and shadow, the complex stories, and the stylized set design there’s a lot to like. The aforementioned Nosferatu debuted the vampire in film and it has captured the fear and imaginations of audiences since its release. Today I want to talk to you about another German Expressionist film...made by a person who directed one of the greatest and influential films of all time.

So if you’re like me and you enjoy film and the impact and emotions it can convey then grab a glass of your preferred liquid and join me for the next half hour. For me, that’s a nice warm mug of hot chocolate. So sit back, relax, and let’s talk about the love of film. Welcome to "Glazed Cinema"

Nosferatu was my introduction to German Expressionism and it opened up a door that upon entering I never wanted to look back. It was unlike anything my eyes had ever seen. It was so dark and the way the shadows were cast on the actors and set created such an eerie atmosphere. It just oozes awesomeness, at least to me. I started watching more and more films of the time and movement and soon I was introducing myself to directors like Bergman, Kurosawa, Tarkovsky, and Antonioni. However despite Nosferatu being the catalyst for this there is one film I keep coming back to as I eluded to in the intro of this episode. Now some of you may have been thinking Shadow of the Vampire, however the last part of my clue makes it impossible. No, today I want to talk to you about a film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer called Vampyr. I usually watch Vampyr at least once a year and I always look forward to it. It’s one of those films that for me will never get old and it seems like I find something new with each viewing. Vampyr went through some tribulations to even get made before it was eventually released in 1932. It was Dreyer’s first sound film and the follow up to his 1929 classic and one of the most beautiful and poignant films ever made, The Passion of Joan of Arc. Vampyr is a film that doesn’t seem to get a lot of mention, which is unfortunate because it’s one of my favorite horror films of all time. The film has an interesting backstory involving an Irish short story, a wealthy aspiring actor, and a director’s innovation among new challenges. The largest challenge Dreyer faced was how he was going to fund the film. You see Dreyer’s previous film about Joan the saint and martyr was a success, but the studio wasn’t interested in shooting Vampyr and dropped the project. Especially since his vision was to make a film different from all the others. As a filmmaker he was never comfortable with convention and took risks with almost every film he made. He once said, quote:

"Consciously, I don't do anything to 'please' the public. I only think of working my way to a solution that satisfies my own artistic conscience."

We can see with that one quote how he and a film studio differ...the studio wanted money and he wanted art. Dreyer, confident and determined, decided to pursue the film without the studio’s help and recruited the same crew from Joan. Challenges to fund the picture would soon end when he met a man...and I absolutely love this name...Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg. The Baron was a wealthy young Parisian man who was born into a wealthy family as his father had founded banks in both Russia and France. The Baron was known to close friends, simply as "Niki" and he was known for hosting extravagant parties and balls with attendees being the likes of Coco Chanel and Cole Porter. He was also a man who desired to be an actor and saw his introduction into the medium with Dreyer's new project. After speaking with Dreyer, the Baron agreed to finance Dreyer's film...on one condition. That he would play the leading role of the film. Dreyer agreed and Gunzburg would act in the film under the pseudonym of Julian West.

Luckily Dreyer did not have the challenge of story as he already knew what he wanted to direct. The film is based on an Irish novella, called Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. The story tells of a young woman named Laura and her father who form a relationship with a female vampire named Carmilla. The story tells of events surrounding the family, which revolve around sickness, disappearances, and identity. It's quite influential, being the precursor to Bram Stoker's Dracula by a quarter century and the story within Vampyr follows a lot of the same plot lines. In fact, the Criterion Collection's release of the film includes a booklet with the novella inside, which is really nice.

Apart from the plot however, the story of how the film was to be made is also quite interesting. For the most part and with a few exceptions films of that time were made on sets and only shot on location if necessary. With Dreyer going outside the studio however it was impossible to shoot on set since he didn't have the studio support he once had. So Dreyer began scouting locations on where his movie would take place and eventually landed on Courtempierre, France. Courtempierre offered a lot of what Dreyer was looking for including seclusion. Today the village is home to roughly 236 residents, so one can only assume this was less than that in the early thirties. It also offered interesting architecture including a chateau, which would become his centerpiece. Along with location, another challenge Dreyer had was speech, after all this was the 30s and talkies were picking up steam. Dreyer and crew had to learn a lot while filming. For instance how to record and utilize speech, but how they would do so without a controlled environment like a film studio. Amongst those challenges they also needed to decide on which language they would record in. Dreyer decided to do something quite unique amidst all these challenges and decided that the actors would say their lines three different times, in three different languages. French, German, and English. Now there isn’t a lot of talking in the film, but still, that is quite the undertaking for a film at the dawn of speech in the industry. Even with the English option I prefer watching it in German or French, it just feels right somehow.

Vampyr begins quite wonderfully. It begins with a young man named Allen Grey arriving at a house just before dusk. The film doesn’t have a lot of precursing and seems to jump right in. It is among these early scenes that we see perhaps one of the most recognizable and famous shots of the film. We see a dock on the water and a man and a hat holding a scythe ringing a bell by the water. He then boards a boat and Mr. Gray gets a room for the night and quickly goes to the room to get some shut eye. Upon hearing some noises however he goes out into the hall. We see a man venture down the steps from upstairs. His face is a little morphed and he is muttering to himself as he descends the decline. This sight shocks Mr. grey and he turns round back into his room and we see him lock the door. In the middle of the night the skeleton key turns. The camera cuts to our hero’s eyes as he looks on frozen in fear staring wide eyed toward the door. The door opens and an older gentleman walks in to the room. He’s dressed rather nicely with a suit jacket and styled hair. He looks anxious and tense, almost defensive. He says “She mustn’t die, understand” and we like our hero are caught unawares and confused about who this man is and what he is talking about. Before he leaves the room he writes on a sealed parcel “to be opened upon my death”. We soon learn that his daughter has fallen ill and that he needs the man’s help. The next day our hero ventures to the stranger’s house and so begins his adventure to help a family escape the clutches of an cursed vampire.

Vampyr is an excellent film that unfortunately was not recognized in it’s time. I think part of that is because it was so ahead of its time. Between the camera tricks, experimental story telling, and pacing it stands out among the other films of that time. There are many shots and sequences that I love in this film. Some are short and simple while otters are longer and intriguing. There’s a scene in the beginning when our hero is walking to try and find the stranger that is quite simple, but so good. As he walks along a path that follows a creek he sees a specter. We see this in the form of shadows on the water where there is no physical person on the trail on the other side. He follows the specter until it begins climbing a ladder upward. We also see a shadow of a man shoveling in reverse, which is also really cool. Mr. Grey follows him up where we see a man with one leg and a cane sitting on a bench thinking. His elbow on his leg and head in his palm, reminiscent of Rodin’s thinker. The shadow we’ve been following sits in the same position and soon the man gets up and so does his shadow. While they walk away we see more black shadows on the white walls. There are shadows of couples dancing, a clock ticking, and wheels spinning. At one point the camera is high on a wall looking down when an old woman walks in and raises his arm and yells “silence”. Soon the old woman speaks to the man and asks, "Where is he?" to which the man point on and we see our hero walk out as the old woman begins following behind him.

I also really like it when we see the girl victim start to show signs that she is falling under the vampire’s spell. We join her in a bedroom where a nun is tending to her by candlelight. The girl is muttering “the blood” and writhing in bed, a wet cloth on her forehead. The bit of this sequence I like though is when her sister comes into the room to visit. The ill girl is now sitting in a chair clearly distraught as she states that she is damned her fingers brushing tears from her face. The fingers stop at her lips and she begins to tinker with her teeth as her distraught slowly turns into something else. She turns to look up at her sister and as her head cranks upward she develops a wicked, creepy dog toothed grin. Her sister walks backward horrified at this and she has these great eyes that are wide and really lend themselves to the scene. The camera follows her out and her sister’s smile slowly fades to frustration and anger when the nun moves her sister back out into the hallway. I love that entire sequence, it’s so well executed.

Of course I cannot talk about Vampyr without mentioning the burial sequence. At one point in the film our hero Mr. Grey enters a dream like state. He’s walking to follow the doctor who was tending to the sick girl and we see our hero sit down on a bench from exhaustion. As he sits the camera does this great effect where he splits into two a spirit and a physical body. The spirit is translucent and it gets up as the physical body is still sitting hunched over on the bench. As the spirit walks off he comes to a house and upon entering he sees a casket with a tarp over it. The lid of the coffin is propped up against a wall and we see there is a window and writing in German there is a message that translates to “for dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return”. As he peels back the tarp we see that inside the casket is Mr. Grey...his eyes open and body stiff, looking skyward. Soon the doctor walks in smoking a cigar and the spirit of Mr. Grey goes to hide. The one legged man walks into the room and soon he placed the lid on top of the casket. The camera is now in the coffin looking through the window as we see the man turning a swivel screwdriver. We also see the old woman glance down through the window. Soon we’re carried off by ghosts of criminals and the camera gazes out of the window as we pass the doctor looking down at us. We see trees above as the moon passes through the leaves and branches. We pass by the rising stone walls of the house while the camera intermittently cuts to show our hero gazing upward. Soon we see his body on the bench as the casket pass by. As the casket and pallbearers fade away into the brush, Mr. Grey rises from the bench and begins to walk off toward the home of which we just departed from. This scene is phenomenal and my words cannot do it justice, it must be viewed to be enjoyed and appreciated. As much as I love this film at the time it was a tremendous flop.

Looking back, I truly believe the film was misunderstood and not appreciated for what it really was, which is a work of art. Dreyer thought he truly had something with his new film, but much to his disappointment people did not respond well to it. Some audiences laughed, others were furious that they had wasted money on tickets, but few were impressed. Today we can look at the film with a new lens, but unfortunately at the time the negative reception resulted in Dreyer having a nervous breakdown. He stopped making films for quite some time afterward. In fact he didn’t return to directing until 1943 when his film Day of Wrath debuted 12 years after Vampyr’s release. Despite all of this however, the film has gone down in history and one that continues to amaze film fans all over the world to this day. I wonder what Carl would think seeing how it is regarded and appreciated today? I wonder what his reaction might be.

As for The Baron, well he never acted again. In fact he rarely discussed his role in film in public. I learned a lot about the Baron in a Vanity Fair article about his life. It turns out that he he moved to America entered the print industry. He became somewhat of a style icon, becoming an editor in magazines like Town & Country, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue. Through his career he also discovered actress Lauren Bacall and designer Calvin Klein. If you have the opportunity, it's worth a read, I found it quite neat to learn more about him.

I remember being taken by this film the first time I watched it and have watched it countless times since. I vividly recall the first time I discovered this film. I went into Barnes and Noble back in my home town and they were having a sale on Criterion films. I locked eyes with this cover that excited me. It was a black and white picture of a woman laying down on a couch seemingly asleep with a large shadow of a scythe on the wall above her and in black font read Vampyr. I had no idea what it was, but being a sucker for good cover art, I had to have it. I bought it and watched it the same night. I love the camera movements and camera tricks of this film, but I also love the scarceness as well. The story is fairly simple in terms of plot, but it's the direction and camera work that in my opinion make it exquisite. Vampyr is a film that is not afraid of what it is. Pushing boundaries, taking risks, just overall being a boss. It’s different and it’s okay with that. I like to think of the camera work as a guitarist who’s just way above everyone else in the band. Solo here, solo there. Oh you got a steady beat? I’ve got a solo to fill that right in! It’s awesome and the work deserves to be recognized. However the thing I love the most about watching this film isn’t even within the film itself.

If there’s one thing I have to say about Vampyr is that I cannot watch it in its original state ever again. You may think that sounds weird after all I‘ve said about it, but you see there’s one facet of the film I haven’t discussed yet. Something that every film has and sets the mood of the film...The score. The original music of Vampyr to be perfectly honest is a bit awkward, but I don't suggest casting it aside without watching the film in it's original state to form your own opinion. However, I cannot talk about this film, without discussing an external force of nature that completely elevates the film through sound.

Before I get into that I must say that, I love all kinds of art and music is no exception. I am quite fortunate in the fact that my dad introduced me to many forms of music growing up. I love the messages, sounds, and chills I get while listening to great music; whether that work is done by Miles Davis, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, The Who, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Joyner Lucas, or Hank Williams. My favorite music genre however is metal. Doom. Black. Death. Progressive. Industrial. Sludge. I like my metal dark and murky with some hair on it. I can’t explain it, It’s just so good that way and it completely calms my soul. I could and have in the past fallen asleep to some dark and heavy music, but anyway...I'm rambling now...Why do I mention this?

Well...about 6 years ago a band I like named Year of No Light released an album that peaked my interest. It was called Vampyr. I already liked the band for their other albums like Ausserwelt, but this had me really intrigued. All I knew about vampire spelled with a y and an r was Dreyer’s film, so naturally I was curious. The cover features a clouded sky with light peaking through the clouds, which is a shot taken from the film itself. When I turned the LP over though, I was greeted with the shot of a silhouette walking through the sunlight forest and I knew it was connected.

Knowing that I'd have to pause and play the film while I turned over the vinyl I first went home and watched the film with the album on iTunes. After listening to the score with the film I can't watch Vampyr without it ever again. The music is perfect and gels beautifully with the visuals and themes. The only learning curve was finding where in the film to start the album so it would match with the movie. Once I found it though I was completely blown away. Year of No Light’s Vampyr album played with the film adds such a great layer that just feels like the missing piece. It truly sets the film off and I rejoiced on my first playthrough as it matches the tone of the imagery so well. The music is completely instrumental and at times can be dark and broody, while other times bright and moving. If you’ve never watched Vampyr set to Year of No Light’s album of the same name I highly recommend trying it out.

Lining the film and music up as I said before is a bit of a learning curve. Since Vampyr has been released by multiple companies I find that each release of the film may have different time stamps. So instead of judging by time I like to measure when to start the album by using the film itself. Try to press play on the album when the spiderwebs fade during the script intro after the opening credits. The key to knowing if you’re synced up is when the door of the room opens in the beginning. That moment should be met with a deeply distorted and broody guitar. If that happens, you’re golden the rest of the way through. Every time I watch Vampyr I always play the album with it. I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s even good on its own honestly just as a piece of music. I ended up buying the vinyl just to have it in my collection and to casually listen to, but with the film...brilliant.

If you’d like to watch Vampyr you can find it on the Criterion Channel. The Criterion Channel is a streaming service of tremendous value from our friends at Criterion. Criterion prides itself in respecting and restoring classic films to a stunningly clear quality fit for modern devices and the criterion channel has a similar vision. The Criterion Channel has different pricing structures including $10.99 per month or $99 per year, which is what I chose to do. The service is a tremendous value as you get a lot of the quality films Criterion has to offer plus films that are not among their repertoire as well. They have interviews, insights, and they also add films all the time as well, so there’s always something new. If you like film I highly recommend a free trial to see how you like it.

Apart from the Criterion Channel you can also watch Vampyr on streaming services like Prime Video and YouTube at the price of $1.99 to rent. You can also find it on HBO Max if you subscribe to that service.

If you’d like to find Year of No Light’s album you can find more information on their bandcamp. You can also listen to the album on streaming services like Spotify, YouTube, or Apple Music.

If you’d like to learn more about the podcast please feel free to visit our website at glazedcinema.com. There you’ll find some background on the show and also a place to submit ideas for future episodes. For film fans who are hearing impaired the blog page features each episode in written form as well. If you like this podcast tell your friends or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Each week there will be new content including hints about episodes before they air. As always, thanks for listening and I hope to see you next time.