VAMPYR (1932; d. Carl Th Dreyer, w. CTD + Christen Jul)

Allan Gray (typed ambiguous by name/birth/nature, title card blaming "studies of devil worship + vampire terror of earlier centuries" – latter which yet to occur: drama itself caught in netherworld – ie superstition keeping humanity in near-dark) arrives at hotel (impermanent residence aka the unconscious in dreams) + knocks on window (recurring img: inquisitive Man kept from "other side"/truth by transparent/nonexistent barrier aka eye/screen, Gray filmmaker’s device to explore own cinematic realm, itself in halfworld btwn silent + talkie, sparse dialogue CTD’s penurious employment o/t Word/Ordet) as light w/i goes out (consciousness snuffed) + woman calls from skylight (higher fem un/conscious waking) then lets him in (while Reaper rings bell for ferry: hotel Death, aka abandonment o/t natural world à la sleep); takes room (idea or presentiment entering consc’ss), where he observes Reaper crossing (Death departing, leaving world open to ambiguous existence, He aka Certainty; film likely inspiration for 1936 Ferryman Maria, also starring Sybille Schmitz) out window (frame of reference, as in famous later coffin POV: no longer of consequence) + picture on wall (interior: immediate concern) of skeleton among mourners around sickbed (threat not to self, but to part of Self: ailing later Léone own weakening anima), following man’s voice outside (imperative to examine corridors/regions of self) to find eyeless guy upstairs (own higher perception disabled; need to develop vision on another level) who scares him back to room ("fear o/t intangible" inducing "a restless sleep": slumber solution to question of seeing).

Awakens (into deeper layer of dream) to robed gentleman "Schlossherr" entering room (as awareness: eyeless/sleeping Gray’s diminished perception permitting influx of material not available to vigilant consciousness), explaining "She must not die" (need to protect fem aspect also under siege in CTD’s Passion of Joan of Arc and later Day of Wrath) + leaving package inscribed 2B OPENED AFTER MY DEATH (further information revealed on passing of authoritarian consciousness), Gray heading out (following "call" of "inner voice" outside of own frame of reference) past lake (reflected figure on opposite shore elusive self-knowledge, essence o/t doppelganger) + un-digging shadow (paradox the language of dreams, his search similar excavation) to doorway (absent of window, his perceptions less impeded) after doorway (thru which he sees pegleg-shadow climb thru window: debilitated self transcending natural barriers the awakened unconscious mind; rejoining corporeal self Gray integrating own spiritual counterpart intuited at lake), at end of which he finds crone Marguerite Chopin (orchestrator of netherworld: buried/dead + obsolete anima, vs young Léone he enjoined to protect, her influence driving his quest), then ascends thru trapdoor (as later tomb: reborn into noumenal world), where he encounters Doctor (physician/body in MC’s thrall, she walking-dead ambiguity commanding the Self) who produces Chopin (paradoxical cure awa self-contradictory nature of material there).

AG follows shadows (instincts/intuitions) to chateau (more personal + permanent than inn: where vague notions become concrete) of dream-visitor (home-source of apparition deeper level of consciousness) w/ two daughters (ailing Léone + forlorn Gisele: soul suffering physically awa spiritually, they personifying AG’s fractured anima) + witnesses latter’s shooting by shadow (extinguishing already-fading consciousness + Old Superego/Self to make way for new; elderly counterpart to Chopin, also on way out) emerging from door (shadow, also – shot like coffin: compartment of mind, each figure mechanism in mental machine à la climactic gears), father passing heart to Gisele on death (AG’s transference of affection from family to love-interest, "gray" zone aka adolescence); invited to stay (recognition of affinity w/ household’s plight; initiation also into adulthood: taking fr’s place), AG opens package (inheritance deeper self-knowledge on acquiring mature role) to find HISTORY OF VAMPIRES (taxonomy of pathology + instrument of psychoanalysis: what is draining system of lifeblood), condition deriving from "terrible deeds while living" (aka waking, dream sorting out taboos in psychically permissible fantasy) "prolonging own lives i/t land o/t shadows" (à la AG: unresolved guilt leaving protagonist unfulfilled + unengaged with life/Self).

Doc arrives for Gisele (ineffectual father-figure own potential medicinal maturity unable to heal wounded element in self while under powerful woman’s thrall aka mom + own archaic fem-self; Rudolph Maté’s camera crosses trad line of vision, suggesting correspondence btwn 2 men: aspects of same personality) + asks AG to "sacrifice" blood for her (Gray Christ similarly buried + resurrected to metaphorically sit at Father’s side, as equal/mature) same time servant reads of VAMPIRE who "must be murdered so that persecuted Mankind may be freed" (both evil/good, wo/man, dream/real + un/consciousness 2B eliminated to maintain ambiguity – grace); during transfusion (physical correspondence btwn wo/man, draining his blood akin to her anemia), voice summons him to death (ray of light from door above head halo, beckoning from heaven/better self) + he dreams of skeleton w/ poison (both structural, fundamental human malice + similarly innate death all carry w/i) just as Doc tries to poison Léone (healing in extinguishing of living-dead pilot-light of consc’ss [as tenacious Old Self] to allow rebirth; servant’s "She must live till sunrise" qualification of father-conscss’s "must not die": holding out for illumination).

On bench outside, AG leaves body (ultimate splitting of self after external ’gangers: dreamer’s separation of mind + body, + abandonment of cumbersome old AG so spiritual transfiguration may occur – dividing + conquering the Self [the Double, according to Freud, symbol of conscience – objectively observing the self – cf "guilt" driving Gray, + "an insurance agent against the extinction o/t self, or…an energetic denial o/t power of death"]) to discover coffin bearing own body (alienation from old self evidence change taking place) + bound Gisele in next room (restrained anima [cf Joan + Wrath again] both reason + necessity for his "death": viewed thru honeycomb window gaining perspective on awa separation from fem counterpart which, while in Chopin/mother’s thrall, poses threat to maturation but, once released + properly integrated, will cleanse self/humanity); Doc arrives (site – involving own dead img + that of Gisele – 2B place of healing) + removes key from vacated grandfather clock (suspended time awa heritage for figure remaking self: "key" to freeing anima annulment of history), Pegleg sealing coffin (AG assuming POV of dead-self preparing for burial/resolution, having seen what he sent out to see [spiritual meaning otherwise unavailable to corporeal man]) borne away past bench-self (transcended).

Awakes (lucid dreaming returning to drama armed w/ knowledge gained in previous dream-cycle) + helps servant excavate Chopin tomb (violation of not-the-mother’s "space", out of which he’ll be reborn back into phenomenal world) + watches her staking (sublimated sex via servant-proxy), Léone declaring "My soul is free" (not-the-lover – incapacitated sexualized dream-double for sister – liberated from spell of AG’s mother-haunting/fixation) + taking last breath (pathology laid to rest) while shadow-AG frees Gisele (own burial apparently nixed on Chopin-raising: ineffectual spirit rendered capable now in world); on seeing giant face in window (made puny, + found out [indeterminable i.d.: Chopin or Schlossherr?]), Doctor heads to flour/plaster mill (conflicting citations in film-literature; prefer latter reading: making ambiguity concrete) as AG + Gisele head out on boat (à la opening Reaper: united wo/man returning from nebulous land o/t dead), doc trapped in elevator (passage btwn realms A+G freely traversing) + buried in white powder (laying to rest last vestige of Schlossherr consciousness, hand gripping gate à la his doorknob), gears stopping (by selves, as they began: mental process + workings o/t inevitable, mechanism à la empty clock – cleansed by + sealed i/t sands of time) as couple step into sunlight (vs opening solo wander into twilight: achieving healthy/ideal fe/male integration).