NOTE: UK correspondent for DVDBeaver, Henry Kedger, has an early copy of Masters of Cinema's Vampyr and has sent us some captures and comments. He will try to match our Criterion/Image Entertainment ones located HERE as soon as possible (or I will when I receive my copy).

Gary Tooze

***

Firstly, thanks to Gary for the opportunity to supply information to the DVDBeaver community of my favorite film on this new Masters of Cinema DVD. I am very appreciative!

In comparison to the Criterion - it appears as though MoC did not undertake any visual digital restoration attempting to preserve the unique "sfumato" look of the film. This is comparative to watching an old 35mm film presentation and I, personally, felt this transports a far more theatrical 'feel' to the DVD viewing than I found with the Criterion. There is still a large amount of damage, speckles, and scratches but the contrast levels seemed more consistent without the fluctuations used to minimize the inherent negative damage. In one sense, this gives a cleaner, more accurate, visage of Dreyer's film - especially those who do not have an adverse reaction to the weaknesses that time has rendered upon Dreyer's Vampyr.

On the audio - MoC have used the 'non-cleaned up' soundtrack as the default. Another excellent choice in my opinion. I suspect this was done because various audio restoration software(s) simply mask the prevalent hiss by removing the higher frequencies. This can remove some of the very high strings in the orchestral soundtrack of Vampyr. The restored soundtrack is still included as option 4 (after the commentaries) - available for those that just can't stand the background hiss. Like the image quality, the un-restored track would be more in-line with replicating a 35mm projected presentation.

Extras - repeated from the Criterion edition are the excellent, MoC-made, Tony Rayns commentary, Jørgen Roos documentary and Casper Tybjerg visual essay (noted in the comparison HERE). Unique, though, to the Masters of Cinema supplements are THE BARON (a 14-minute documentary about Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg), two deleted scenes, removed by the German censor in 1932 and the informal Guillermo del Toro commentary track. Del Toro humorously starts out with this disclaimer from the director; "This is not a scholarly dissertation, this is the equivalent of inviting a fat Mexican to your house and you feed him, and then you have to listen to him for a, mercifully, short time... then disagree, agree, insult, or share any of my opinions.". It is a very personal commentary track from a man who absolutely loves the film and talks extremely passionately about Vampyr. He was a pleasure to listen to. The package includes an 80-page book featuring rare production stills, a facsimile reproduction of the 1932 Danish film programme, writing by Tom Milne (The Cinema of Carl Dreyer), Jean and Dale Drum (My Only Great Passion: The Life and Films of Carl Th. Dreyer), and Martin Koerber (film restorer). Finally, saving some paper, is Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla (inspiration for the film)– included as an on-disc PDF file.  

Henry Kedger