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“Filmed during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, Carl Dreyer's "Day of Wrath" is a harrowing account of individual helplessnessiin the face of growing social repression and paranoia...Putting the lie to the term "organized religion", "Ordet" (The Word) is a challenge to simple facts and dogmatic orthodoxy..."Gertrud," Carl Dreyer's last film, neatly crowns his career: a meditation on tragedy, individual will, and the refusal to compromise..."Carl Th. Dreyer: My Métier," Torben Skjodt Jensen's elegant documentary, is a collage of memories and reflections on one of cinema's greatest directors.” |
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 An Essential DVD:
Collections
n a career spanning 45 years, Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer made a paltry 14 films. But, like many of his
characters, Dreyer's rigorous aesthetics and single-minded integrity led him to create at least five world-class
masterpieces out of those few films. "La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc" and "Vampyr" do not appear here, but Dreyer's other
masterworks -- "Day of Wrath," "Ordet" and "Gertrud") do. To have these films available once again in pristine prints,
where Dreyer's transcendental style can be savored, is a gift unmatched. The films themselves have never been timelier.
"Day of Wrath" -- a dry run for Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" -- takes on unyielding fundamentalism; "Ordet" positions
individual spirituality against rigid, structured religion in all its forms and then demonstrates on which side of the
religious coin miracles may fall; and "Gertrud," an autumnal meditation upon Dreyer's recurrent themes of individual will
and personal spirituality, examines in a dry, mordant way the opposing poles of love and sex and the emotional sacrifices
made for each. Each film features a stills gallery and, on the "Gertrud" disc, a collection of archival footage. The films
also contain liner notes by noted film historians Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chris Fujiwara, and Phillip Lopate. The one sour
note in the whole collection is Torben Skřdt Jensen's 1995 irrelevant documentary on Dreyer, "Carl Th. Dreyer: My Métier."
It is given pride of place with a disc of its own, and outtakes from Jensen's interview footage of surviving Dreyer actors
and actresses are larded over all four discs like pine tar. The documentary doesn't deserve all of that consideration. It
is slight and offers no insights. — PAUL BRENNER |
