DVD...

Skin...

1932
Directed by: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Written by: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Christen Jul, Sheridan Le Fanu (novel In a Glass Darkly)
Produced by: Carl Theodor Dreyer, Julian West
Studio: Tobis Filmkunst (Germany)

Starring:
Julian West .... David Gray
Maurice Schutz .... Lord of the Manor
Rena Mandel .... Gisele
Sybille Schmitz .... Leone
Jan Hieronimko .... Doctor
Henriette Gérard .... Marguerite Chopin
Albert Bras .... Old Servant
N. Babanini .... His Wife
Jane Mora .... Nurse

Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer took some of the top film production people in Europe and a handful of mostly unknown actors and actresses and made one of the most visually striking movies ever made. After the first day of filming it was discovered that there was a slight light leak into the camera and it gave the film a hazy, faded look that Dreyer liked so he had the rest of the film shot that way. The use of shadow and light in this movie is as good as in any film in the 70 years since it was released.

The story is about the main character, David Grey (played by one of the financial backers for the film, Julian West), who is studying the supernatural who wanders into a small village that has some strange goings on. A man dies at an inn and leaves behind a book about vampires that Grey reads. He starts having strange dreams that are hard to figure out where the dream ends and reality begins. There are also two sisters at the inn that Gray becomes involved with and one of them falls victim to a vampire. The vampire that is shown in the film is not your typical looking vampire. He is almost a caracture of an evil villian.

This is not excatly a fast paced, exciting movie. It is more of a slow building, creep-a-thon. I have seen this filme three times over the years and I like it more now than ever. In fact just writing about it makes me want to go watch it again. It has all the character and cool imagery of the German impressionist films of the twenties, along with an interesting story, albiet a slightly confusing one. When I said that sometimes you didn't know when the dreams ended and reality began, I meant it. And on one sequence you are not sure if it is a dream or reality until after it is over.

The disk from Image is a 1.33:1 full screen transfer that is probably as good as we will ever see of this 70 year old obscure film. Some of the scenes are very crisp but others are showing their age and look like the film could have been cleaned a bit better. The sound is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono that is also probably as good as the film will ever sound. The language is German and there are English subtitles, but there is very little dialogue in this film so the language is a minor issue. Included on the disk is an stop motion animated short entitled: The Mascot. Made in 1934 by Ladislas Starewicz. Starewicz, from Poland, animated his first film in 1909 for the children of Czar Nicholas of Russia.

This dvd was released in 1998 but is still in print. It retails for $25 and is worth the money if you want something foreign, obscure and filled with unforgetable images. You could also probably impress any film snob friends by showing them this movie (All right, something to impress a film snob with! Woohoo!) I'm glad I own it but unfortunately I don't have any film snob friends to impress with it at the moment.

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