Vampyr - How about a new transfer!
 

I'm viewing this classic Dreyer film for the 4th or 5th time and can barely stand it! The Image transfer is abysmal. Dust and dirt abound, the framing is strange with a ragged fuzzy frame occupying a lot of the image area. The sound (what there is of it), is poor.

With an artist like him, can't we somehow get a restoration of this classic vampire film?

It ain't fair! :mad:

With all the many different versions of the film, you'd think a massive Criterion disc would be released one day.

IMO, the worst things about this disc are the sound and the subs... the image is almost bearable!

Here I am ranking the worst qualities of this disc, which ought to provide some idea of how poor it is. This great film deserves a great DVD.

The film is supposed to be washed out (it was shot that way, oddly enough), but a new edition wouldn't hurt.

Criterion really ought to release a DVD of the film, though. They mentioned it on an insert included with The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Wasn't there a light-leak into the camera or something that Dreyer actually liked when he saw it in the dailies, and then decided to shoot the rest of the film that way? Something like that, I think...

In 1998, Martin Koerber (the film archivist who also did the incredible restoration of Lang's Metropolis for the F.W. Murnau Foundation) completed a full restoration of the German cut of Vampyr. He has written a very interesting article on the problems of constructing a "definitive" version of the film, which is posted at carldreyer.com.

So far, this version has not been released on DVD, but I suspect it will be forthcoming from Eureka's "Masters of Cinema" series (R2/PAL/UK) sometime in the next year (if the rights issues can be worked out). Speculation is that Criterion will also release Vampyr at some point, but they may be waiting on further restoration efforts.

It's funny that you mention carldreyer.com. I was just looking through it last night looking for information regarding his published screenplays. Although I haven't seen it, I'd love to see a restored version of this film.

Another Dreyer film is scheduled for release this month. Parson's Widow is being released on Sept 21. I started a thread a few weeks back if anyone is interested.