Why So Blu?

‘Vampyr’ on Blu-ray May 30!

The first foray into sound filmmaking by one of cinema’s pivotal artists, Vampyr remains a cornerstone work of the horror genre. The dreamlike tale of an occult-obsessed student’s visit to a small French village, as he is drawn into the unsettling mystery around a stricken family’s struggle with malevolent forces, remains an unparalleled evocation of the uncanny. Adapting the haunted stories of Sheridan Le Fanu, Carl Th. Dreyer‘s ceaseless innovation delivers a tour-de-force of supernatural phantasmagoria and creeping unease, via audacious camerawork and sound design. Vampyr is released on Blu-ray in the UK May 30, 2022!

VAMPYR 90th Anniversary Release + New Trailer Revealed

 

Presented from an all-new 2K restoration by the Danish Film Institute, supported by the MEDIA program Creative Europe, and taking more than a decade to complete – materials from several European archives (including the BFI, CNC and DFI) have been meticulously scanned and assessed to create the highest quality and most faithful version of Vampyr possible. Now unveiled for the film’s 90th anniversary, one of the most visually and aurally distinctive horror films ever made finally comes to Blu-ray in the UK, in a definitive incarnation that achieves the full experience Dreyer intended audiences to have.

 

LIMITED-EDITION BLU-RAY (3000 COPIES) FEATURES

• Hardbound Slipcase |
• All-new 2K digital restoration of the German version by the Danish Film Institute, completed in 2020 after an extensive decade-long restoration process, with uncompressed mono soundtrack
• Optional unrestored audio track
• Two audio commentaries: one by critic and programmer Tony Rayns; the second by filmmaker and Vampyr fan Guillermo del Toro
• Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer’s Vampyr influences
• New video interview with author and critic Kim Newman on Vampyr‘s unique place within vampire cinema
• Two new video interviews with music and cultural historian David Huckvale on the film’s score and its adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu
• Carl Th. Dreyer (1966) – a documentary by Jörgen Roos
• Two deleted scenes, removed by the German censor in 1932
• The Baron – a short MoC documentary about Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg
• Optional English subtitles
• A 100-PAGE BOOK – featuring rare production stills, location photography, posters, the 1932 Danish film programme, a 1964 interview with Baron Nicolas de Gunzberg (producer and actor “Allan Gray”), an essay by Dreyer on film style, and writing by Tom Milne, Jean and Dale Drum, and film restorer Martin Koerber

*All extras subject to change

RESTORATION NOTES:

• Here are some notes on the restoration we are presenting, written by film restorer Martin Koerber, that will feature in the release’s accompanying book:

 

• “This is an all-new 2K restoration by the Danish Film Institute, supported by the Creative Europe MEDIA programme, that’s taken more than a decade to come together, meticulously scanning and assessing material from several European archives (including the BFI, CNC and DFI) to create the most high-quality, faithful presentation of Vampyr possible, now being unveiled for its 90th anniversary. It’s one of the most visually and aurally distinctive horror films ever made, and this definitive incarnation achieves the full experience Dreyer intended audiences to have.

 

• For this new restoration 104,800 frames were scanned. Dust, blotches, and scratches were removed manually and semi-manually using Diamant v13.1.1.

 

• In order to preserve the film’s original appearance, the natural flicker and grain structure has been maintained.

 

• 239,296 items and 616 scratches needed to be manually fixed and due to the global pandemic these fixes were performed by a single person: Claus Greffel (Digital Restoration and Mastering Technician at DFI).”

 

• We are aware of a 4K scan having been made by Deutsche Kinemathek and Cineteca di Bologna in 2021. This was taken from the 1998 preservation material, which was created by photochemically copying the various elements found in a number of archives.

 

• This new DFI restoration has gone back to each archive and scanned the originals, all of them a generation closer to the original negative than anything seen before.

 

• We have deliberately waited a number of years to release Vampyr on Blu-ray until this restoration could be completed. We are glad we waited. It may also be of interest to know that Fidelity in Motion is handling the authoring on this release.

DETAILS:

Distributor: Eureka Entertainment

  

MAURICE SCHULTZ | SYBILLE SCHMITZ | JULIAN WEST | JAN HIERONIMKO | RENEE MANDEL | HENRIETTE GERARD

1932 | 74 minutes | 1.19:1 OAR | FRANCE / GERMANY | HORROR / FANTASY | B&W

Director CARL TH. DREYER | Language GERMAN

Theatrical Certificate PG (TBC) | Format DCP | 20 MAY 2022

Blu-ray Cert. PG | Blu-ray Cat. No. EKA70458 | Barcode 5060000704587 | RRP £21.78 | 30 MAY 2022

Vampyr is released on

Blu-ray May 30, 2022!

ORDER NOW!

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