Vampyr

Criterion's 2008 release of Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr (1932) illustrates how subtitles may integrate within a film to improve the whole. Translator John Gudelj and the Criterion spotting/timecoding staff provided subtitles that effortlessly blend with the dialogue. This artistry makes their unique choices even harder to spot. For years translating every word as spoken has been de rigueur. This is desirable for clarity. But with repetitive dialogue, equally repetitive subtitles fail to trust the audience, detracting from rather than enhancing the film.

Early in the story, protagonist Allan Gray stops in a country house. 'Guten Abend,' says the young housekeeper, to which Gray immediately responds, 'Guten Abend.' The housekeeper's dialogue is subtitled, 'Good evening.' The subtitles do not repeat the banality when Gray speaks the same line of dialogue. It would be pointless. The audience has heard this common phrase and read the translation when first spoken. Nothing else is necessary. This subtitling choice is used again when the young heroine Gisele sees her sister Leone from the window. 'There, outside,' she cries. 'Leone, Leone!' The initial translation was necessary to communicate to viewers that the dialogue was actually a name, but when Gisele runs outside calling Leone's name over and over, there are no subtitles. The lush imagery of Gisele running through the forest would be marred by subtitles that hammer the obvious. When Gisele and Gray are fog-bound in their little boat, they yell, 'Hallo!' and are guided by answering cries from the opposite bank. The dialogue and context are absolutely clear without subtitles. This technique was used to poignant effect when Leone rests in bed. 'I am damned,' she says. 'Mein Gott, mein Gott... mein Gott.' American audiences are familiar with the German phrase. Gudelj wisely translated the first lines, 'My God, my God...' As the camera pans away from Leone, she pathetically whimpers the same line of dialogue a third time. Here the subtitles are absent, allowing viewers to take in the full emotional impact of Dreyer's images.

It is an irony of subtitles that at their best they are so much a part of a film that they go unnoticed. Criterion and Gudelj's subtitles are an example of how to get that right.

D. Bannon is a professional subtitler and author of The Elements of Subtitles, Revised and Expanded Edition: A Practical Guide to the Art of Dialogue, Character, Context, Tone and Style in Subtitling

Vampyr: The Criterion Collection is another in a series of restored films by Criterion. The quality of the DVD is excellent given the age of the original print. I was also pleased to receive with this film a documentary on the director and a book concerning the film and the basis of the script. As a fan of old horror films this one demands that the viewer pay close attention to all of its imagery. Reading over the book prior to watching the film will help the viewer interpret the images on the screen. Certainly, this film was ahead of its time. I recommend this film to those of you who have like the newer age modern vampires in order to get an appreciation for what vampirism meant to people who lived with these stories and superstitions over the past few centuries. This film may be a bit too sophisticated for some to enjoy particularly as it does not take you by the hand and escort you through the experience explaining as it goes. This film is not for the hard of thinking.

"Vampyr"(1932) is Theodor Dreyer's (a Danish director) first talkie film based loosely on the book "Camilla"(1872) by Sheridan Le Fanu. Fanu's novel is notable for introducing females into the Vampire genre. The movie, though in sound, is still largely a silent picture with little actual talking and features the haunting music of Wolgang Zeller. This particular film was restored using French and German prints. There are some sequences, or images, missing from the final film, such as the one on the front cover of the Criterion box, which is part a pan shot that was later cut.

"Vampyr" is a very atmospheric and expressionistic film that follows more the logic of dreams than reality. Shadows dance on walls, or pass on the grass, like phantoms, detached from anything real. Ghostly images of Allan Gray drift off from his sitting body walking around the grounds and the building's interiors. It has been said that the film is somewhat autobiographical and reflected Dreyer's own drifting into insanity. Soon after making this film Dreyer had a mental collapse and entered himself into a sanitarium for rehabilitation. Dreyer wasn't to make another film until eleven years later in 1943, when he made "Day of Wrath".

This Criterion set is quite marvelous. It has a 214 page book with the Fanu's sotry "Camilla", the screenplay by Theodor and Christen Jul, another booklet with critical essays by Mark Le Fanu, Kim Newman, and Koerber, and a 1964 interview with Nicolas de Gunzburg. There are two discs. On Disc One is the original German version with a HD digital transfer from the 1998 restoration by Martin Koerber and the Cineteca di Bologna with English subtitles and audio commentary by scholar Tony Rayns. On disc Two there is a documentary by Jorgen Roos chronicling Dreyer's career, a visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer's influences in creating "Vampyr", as well as a radio broadcast from 1958 with Dreyer reading an essay about filmmaking. "Vampyr" was only the third vampire film ever made and the second using sound,
preceeded only by Murnau's silent film, "Nosferatu"(1922) and Tod Browning's "Dracula"(1931).