The vampire of Notre Dame
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The vampire of Notre Dame |
| Original title | I vampiri |
| Country of production | Italy |
| original language | Italian |
| Publishing year | 1956 |
| length | 79 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Riccardo Freda |
| script | Piero Regnoli |
| production |
Ermanno Donati Luigi Carpentieri |
| music | Roman Vlad |
| camera |
Mario Bava Franco Mannino |
| cut | Roberto Cinquini |
| occupation | |
| |
The Vampire of Notre Dame (original title: I vampiri ) is a horror film made in 1956 , the first Italian after the Second World War . Riccardo Freda is the director; Cameraman Mario Bava directed parts of the film, which was released in German cinemas on November 28, 1958.
action
A bloodless female corpse is fished from the Seine; a riddle for Inspector Santel, top news for the reporter Pierre Lantin. He quickly gets on the trail of the apparently addict Joseph Signoret, who is being supplied with syringes by Professor DuGrand. The lady of the castle Gisèle DuGrand, who lives with her aunt, the Duchess, has an unhappy relationship with the reporter's family - rejected love embittered her.
While Lantin investigates with the help of the student Laurette, who disappears without a trace, and his reporter colleague Roland Fontaine, and inspector Santel becomes more and more angry - traces lead nowhere, evidence suddenly does not exist - Signoret finds the way to the professor, who then finds his own Funeral staged in order to be able to continue his secret experiments: He can already raise the dead and maintain youth, but needs the blood of young girls for the alleged Gisèle, who is identical to the Duchess. Signoret procures these girls, who in return is injected with the life-sustaining elixir.
At a party, Roland discovers Gisèle's secret and pays with his life; if he does his own research, Pierre can take the unfortunate Signoret away from the castle and take him to the police. The subsequent nightly visit to the castle is initially unsuccessful until the waning effect of the serum causes Gisèle DuGrand to age in a matter of seconds and the whole truth can be revealed.
criticism
As is usual with genre films, contemporary denominational criticism gave the film a devastating assessment: “Goulash made from filmic leftovers” ( Filmdienst ); "Disgusting product of sick imagination" ( film observer ); “Primitively crafted horror film that does not know how to capitalize on either the macabre plot or the resulting set pieces of the genre.” ( Lexicon of international film ). Today, however, he is counted among the classics of the Gothic horror film:
“(Freda) already outlined the essential criteria of the Italian“ gothic horrors ”: the strong emphasis on the visual component; the importance of sex and erotic tension; the determination to show the actions, not just to promise them. The resulting horror piece is splendid to look at and is without a doubt one of the most impressive examples of its genre. "
background
Freda promised to shoot the film in twelve days; when after ten days he realized that he could not keep the plan, he fell out with the producer and left the production; Mario Bava took over and finished filming the rest of the scenes in two days.
The transformation from Gisèle to the old countess was realized almost exclusively with lighting effects.
The US version of the film contains two scenes filmed there that differ significantly in grain and quality; the entire film lasts 69 minutes in this version.
Web links
- The vampire of Notre Dame in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The film at comingsoon.it
Individual evidence
- ↑ after Ronald M. Hahn / Volker Jansen: Lexikon des Horror-Films, Munich 1989, p. 461
- ↑ The Vampire of Notre Dame. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ in: Das wilde Auge, 1997, p. 17
- ↑ Thomas Wagner, When the pasta learned to bleed, in: Booklet for the DVD, pp. 4/5