SCREENVILLE :: Vampyr : Der Traum des Allan Grey

Notes

Notes from a pre-screening lecture by a Dreyer scholar (whose name escaped me)

Dreyer shot the film at the beginning of sound cinema, althought it is built almost like a silent film, with intertitles, large use of writting on screen (pages of book and handwritting) and very little dialogue. it was also originaly shot in 3 versions : German / French / English, to be distributed without subtitles. The english version is partly destroyed and was lost.
the score was composed for the german version, so on the french version (the one i saw), the editing freeze-frame when the german intertitles were longer to read.
Also the german version was censored on release and some images were cut. The french version features a longer dance sequence with the shadows on the wall, the "very graphic and violent" shots where they plant a stick in the corpse's heart, and the scene with the man burried alive under flour.
however the german version shows the gears of the flour mill stop at the very end of the film (in the french version the gears keep running until the end cut)

The lead actor (Allan Gray) credited as Julian West, was Baron Nicholas De Gunzberg, the producer of the film who funded Dreyer's project. He was a non-professional actor like most of the cast (only Lord of the Manor and Leone were professional). The film was a commercial failure and he gave up his acting career.
Dreyer even cut the film between the morning show and the late show on release day!!! 150 meters of film are gone, and we'll never know what was on it

Allan and David are the same firstname respectively in german and French/English

Inspired by a Sheridan Le Fanu's novel In a Glass Darkly (as mentionned on credits), Dreyer used some elements in other short stories contained in the book to compose his scenes. In a Glass Drakly is a quote from the scripture, meaning what humans see alive is like looking at blury shapes in a rough mirroring surface, while dead people (after life i.e. eternity with God) acquire a total vision, a deeper sight... this theme helps to understand the film which interpretation is hard to grasp.
The quirky death trip, where the lead might be asleep or awake (according to intertitles version), walks outside of his body and visit a world of shadows, spirits and vampires.
The narrative and performance manner are stylized, overplayed, slow, discontinuous. Pauses and poses might kill the frightening atmosphere if you look for classic vampire flick, and the silly voices did it for me, but as a silent film it works perfectly. The use of light and shadows is outstanding!!! this sequence with the shadows on the wall that live their own lives (with no actual people on screen to cast the shadow), and like Cocteau, he uses a couple of clever tricks to fake special effects.

The film could be inspired from Murnau's Nosferatu (1922) and Browning's Dracula (1931)

All the camerawork and the subjective point of view in the death trip where Allan Gray is in a coffin with a glass window over his face, the camera is upside down and looks at the top of the trees and the houses. This is somehow reminiscent of De Palma's Carlito's way opening/ending scene.

Vampyr Der Traum des Allan Grey

Notes

Vampyr
Der Traum des Allan Grey