Carl-Theodor Dreyer

After seeing D. W. Griffith's epic Intolerance, Denmark's greatest director, Carl Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Vampyr), was inspired to make his own four-episode historical epic with each story told end to end, anthology-style, linked by theme to the others. The unifying character, Satan, attempts to win God's favor but is doomed to cheerless participation in dark episodes of human history: the temptation of Jesus, the Spanish Inquisition, the French Revolution and the Russo-Finnish war of 1918. Few directors resisted compromise and convention the way Dreyer did; fortunately, the Nordisk Film Company was artistically progressive by Hollywood standards and agreed that this should be a prestige film made to the highest standards. More than two years in production, Dreyer not only directed but also controlled every facet of this ambitious production.
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Length: 02:02:00
Posted: 4/13/2008

Freely adapted from classic Victorian supernatural tales by author Sheridan Le Fanu, "Vampyr" tells the story of a young man who becomes involved with two sisters, one of whom, wasting away with a strange sickness, turns out to be the victim of a vampire. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer transformed Le Fanu's horror tales into a mystic quest, a meditation on the theme of death, and neatly fashioned it as an abstract experimental film. The camera is like a sleepwalker, leading us, trancelike, into a labyrinth from which cause and effect have disappeared. The hauntingly sinister atmosphere created is disquieting and unforgettable.
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Length: 01:13:00
Posted: 1/25/2008

Freely adapted from classic Victorian supernatural tales by author Sheridan Le Fanu, "Vampyr" tells the story of a young man who becomes involved with two sisters, one of whom, wasting away with a strange sickness, turns out to be the victim of a vampire. Director Carl Theodor Dreyer transformed Le Fanu's horror tales into a mystic quest, a meditation on the theme of death, and neatly fashioned it as an abstract experimental film. The camera is like a sleepwalker, leading us, trancelike, into a labyrinth from which cause and effect have disappeared. The hauntingly sinister atmosphere created is disquieting and unforgettable.
Paid | Amazon Video on Demand
Length: 01:13:00
Posted: 1/24/2008