Vampyr

A friend loaned me the new Criterion Collection issue of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1932 cinema fantastique opus, Vampyr. The movie is quirky and fun, but not nearly as interesting as its star, Nicolas de Gunzburg. Son of a wealthy Russian banker (who changed his name from Günzburg to de Gunzburg to make himself seem more aristocratic), he essentially bought his role in Vampyr by bankrolling the movie at a time when director Dreyer was low on funds. Nicolas de Gunzburg then assumed the screen name Julian West for what was to be his first and last movie role. When his family fortune, still smarting from the Bolshevik Revolution, finally ran out in 1934, he moved to America where he parlayed his impeccable fashion sense into senior editorial positions at both Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. Mentor to the likes of Oscar de la Renta, Bill Blass and Calvin Klein, he died on his private lake island in New Jersey in 1981. His parties, like his wardrobe, were legendary.