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Licensor Information
The Danish Film Institute
Directed by: Carl Th. Dreyer
Featuring: Julian West
With Vampyr, Danish filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer’s brilliance at achieving mesmerizing atmosphere and austere, profoundly unsettling imagery (The Passion of Joan of Arc and Day of Wrath) 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 roiling fogs, ominous scythes, and foreboding echoes, Vampyr is one of cinema’s great nightmares.
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Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Discs:
DVD-9 (1 Disc)
DVD-5 (1 Disc)
Total: 2 Discs
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.19:1
Audio Options:
German Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Resolution:
480p/29.97
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Alternate Edit, Audio Commentary, Documentary, Video Essay, Radio Program, Booklet
- Newly credited alternate version with English text
- Audio commentary featuring film scholar Tony Rayns
- Carl Th. Dreyer (1966), a documentary by Jørgen Roos chronicling Dreyer’s career
- Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer’s influences in creating Vampyr
- Radio broadcast from 1958 of Carl Th. Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking
- A booklet featuring essays by Mark Le Fanu and Kim Newman, a piece by Martin Koerber on the restoration, and a 1964 interview with producer and star Nicolas de Gunzburg
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Film
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Release Credits
Producer: Issa Clubb
Artwork: Michael Boland
Release Notes on Restoration
Vampyr
Vampyr is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.19:1, an early sound format that is narrower than a 1.33:1 image. The black bars along the side of the screen called “pillarboxing” are normal for this format and will be even more pronounced on widescreen televisions. The narrowness of this format is due to the variable-density soundtrack which was positioned to the left of the picture are. This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 2K Datacine from a 35mm fine-grain master positive. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 has been encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of materials included.
The soundtracks were mastered at 24-bit from the 35mm optical soundtrack pnegative, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss, and crackle. The Dolby Digital 1.0 signal will be directed to the center channel on 5.1-channel sound systems, but some viewers may prefer to switch to two-channel playback for a wider dispersal of the mono sound.
The soundtracks were mastered at 24-bit from the 35mm optical soundtrack pnegative, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss, and crackle. The Dolby Digital 1.0 signal will be directed to the center channel on 5.1-channel sound systems, but some viewers may prefer to switch to two-channel playback for a wider dispersal of the mono sound.