Greetings gentle readers and welcome to Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a surreal take on the vampire tale, Vampira, accompanied by a Tangerine Dream soundtrack.
and next week’s films:
Howling for God
Ya zamene ahu
Reviews of Vampira:
Letterboxed says
Can it be right to think of vampires as a sort of debased human, impure and parasitic in their feeding, possessed of a cold and sterile sexuality? It is so like us to believe that everything in the world is a reflection of our own small lives in one way or another. In truth the vampire may live in light and glide through a perpetual dreamworld, having as much to do with humans as the gods of Greek mythology did the strange and helpless mortals. The film is a series of vignettes, or forays into the vampiress’s existence, interspersed with footage of a false intellectual reading excerpts from various books supposedly on the subject. But the images which follow his words give the lie to these attempts at framing something which is not debased, but truly other.
and
Rare German arthouse film about vampires, narrated intermittently by a man amongst books. The segments are surreal, dreamlike, and accompanied by soothing yet foreboding soundscapes. Feels very rustic until the bloke jumped on a motorcycle, anachronistically giving the director tons of street credit.
and
“Beauty knows neither morality nor politics, neither good nor evil and no justice. Everything becomes valuable and desirable in a beautiful shell. And the vampires know that. Beauty is their most dangerous weapon and their greatest protection.”
Without a doubt one of the most interesting, entrancing, and alluring film experiences I’ve had. These are probably the best long takes I’ve ever seen. Definitely some of the most inventive camerawork ever. The costumes. The sets. The makeup. Everything is so perfect. One of the most visually stunning films I’ve watched. If I could choose one film to get a 4K restoration I wouldn’t hesitate to choose this one. One of those movies that make you feel like it was made just for you.
My take (Spoilers!):
This is a really beautiful film; the production value is moderate but it’s very compelling for a made-for-TV movie. The lead actress Grischa Huber is stunning as Vampira. The scenes are wonderfully strange and have an iconic quality about them. Weirdness abounds. Magic rituals, gunfights trapped in time loops, demonic love. The Tangerine Dream soundtrack is deliciously morbid.
There is a compelling use of light and a playful use of time. Costumes from the 19th century mingle with references to Janis Joplin and motorcycle scenes. You are definitely unsure what the timeline is supposed to be but that’s a great thing. And between each chapter a brief narrative from a vampire scholar adds a layer of “authenticity” to the whole affair. I’m awarding it ⭐⭐, worth watching again.
Director: George Moorse
Actors: Grischa Huber, Louis Waldon, Del Negro, Manfred Jester, Ceci Perrin, Michael Gordon
Plot (Spoilers!):
The movie is divided into six chapters with a narrated segment in between them. The overarching plotline is the journey of Vampira, who appears to be an amalgam of sorceress, divine avatar, and vampire. This is a week in her un-life and the lives of her cohort of occult colleagues.
Chapter 1: Vampira and the surveyor.
Chapter 2: Vampira celebrates the ritual.
Chapter 3: The priest and the lady.
Chapter 4: The eternal gun fight.
Chapter 5: Vampira’s demon lover.
Chapter 6: Vampira and the doctor.
More information here:
Bonus!:
Vampira soundtrack by Tangerine Dream
