Vampyr - videos, teasers and stills from filming

All videos, teasers and footage from the filming of the film "Vampyr"

Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Grey (1932)

Timing: 1:13 (73 min)

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All about film

Video 1

Photo 33

Actors and characters

VAMPYR 90th Anniversary Official Theatrical Trailer

English

1:30

What's left behind the scenes

3 tons of real wheat flour were used for the final shoot.
The credits state that the plot motifs of 'Vamp' are based on two novellas from this book – 'Carmilla' and 'The Mystery of the Dragon Hotel'. However, according to modern researchers, the film's plot is largely a product of Dreyer's own imagination.
Work on 'Vampyr' began at the end of the silent film era. A significant portion of the information in the film is conveyed 'in the old manner' through title cards (including pages from a book about vampires that the main character flips through). To study sound technology, which was poorly understood by the French, Dreyer traveled to London, where he met with Danish writer Christen Jul. Together they wrote the screenplay for 'Vampyr'.
When Dreyer returned to France, the artist Valentina Hugo introduced him to a fashionable socialite, Baron Ginzburg, who dreamed of an acting career. Nicolas de Ginzburg promised to find funding on the condition that he play the lead role in the film.
'Vampyr' was filmed outside of studio sets, which was rare for that time. Location shooting took place in 1930 and 1931 in the remote village of Courtempierre (Loiret department).
Dreyer found the performer for the role of the sinister doctor in the Paris Metro.
Most of the actors involved in the film were not professionals. Exceptions include Sibylle Schmitz, who played Léone, and Maurice Schutz, with whom Dreyer had worked on a film about Joan of Arc.
Operator Mate received instructions from Dreyer to adhere to a soft-focus shooting style, so that the depicted image would be veiled in a light haze, as if in a dream. To achieve this effect, a transparent fabric was stretched approximately a meter from the camera. During editing, several scenes that caused objections due to their naturalism were cut from the film.
“Vampyr” was dubbed after filming concluded at the Universum Film AG studio in Berlin. Of the original cast of actors, only Ginzburg and Schmitz participated in the dubbing. The film was dubbed into three languages – English, French, and German. Of these versions, only the German one has survived in a relatively complete form.
“Vampyr” was not successful with the public and did not recoup its production costs. It was particularly poorly received in Vienna. Ordinary viewers could not grasp the fragmented plot of “Vampyr,” while aesthetes ignored it due to their disdain for the plebeian genre of horror films. Following this failure, Dreyer checked himself into the Jeanne d’Arc psychiatric hospital complaining of nervous exhaustion. He did not direct a single full-length film for the following 12 years.
Until recently, only low-quality, heavily cut versions of the film were available to viewers, making it difficult to understand its plot. In the summer of 2008, “Vampyr,” restored by German experts, was released on DVD by two companies simultaneously – Criterion Collection (which collected almost all surviving film materials on two discs) and Eureka Films (with commentary by director Guillermo del Toro).
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s film (1932) was shot in the traditions of German Expressionism in France, funded by Nicolas de Ginzburg, who performed the lead role of Allan Grey under the pseudonym “Julian West.”

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