Films byTexts by Carl Theodor Dreyer
FILM
The President
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1919, 75’

A judge sees his illegitimate daughter facing a trial for the murder of her newborn child, also out of wedlock. He is certain that she will be sentenced to death.

 

Article NL EN
24.05.2023
Frieda Grafe 1974
Translated by

The centre of Dreyer’s films does not appear directly. He marks its edge. The images are only scraps of the infinite, the unformed, the possible, hieratic and rigid, to demonstrate their limitations. In Dreyer films, you can never identify with just one character; heroes and villains do not exist. The struggle is more cosmic, but not ahistorical. With him, orders collide, or rather order with disorder.

FILM
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928, 110’

“The reality of The Passion of Joan of Arc was so palpable that in 1929, five hundred years after the actual event, when this amazing cinematic attempt to probe into layers of the past – stripping a historic occurrence bare – was shown in New York City, two spectators died in their seats

FILM
Day of Wrath
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1943, 97’

The young wife of an aging priest falls in love with his son amidst the horror of a merciless witch hunt in 17th century Denmark.

 

Article NL
29.01.2020
Frieda Grafe 1995
Vertaald door

Met het CinemaScope-formaat, zo schreef Eric Rohmer in zijn recensie van Premingers The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, verandert niet de stijl maar de ethiek. De overeenkomst tussen inhoud en shotverhoudingen is niet van fysieke maar van morele aard.

Article NL EN
29.01.2020
Frieda Grafe 1974
Vertaald door

De kern van Dreyers films openbaart zich niet onmiddellijk. Hij duidt de contouren aan. De beelden zijn slechts resten van het oneindige, van het ongevormde, van het mogelijke, verheven en star, om hun beperkingen te demonstreren. In Dreyer-films kan je je nooit met slechts één personage identificeren, helden en booswichten zijn er niet. De strijd is kosmischer, maar niet ahistorisch. Wat bij hem in botsing komt, zijn ordes, of beter gezegd orde en wanorde.

FILM
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1964, 118’

Hopeless romantic Gertrud (Nina Pens Rode) inhabits a turn-of-the-century milieu of artists and musicians, where she pursues an idealized notion of love that will always elude her.

FILM
The Word
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955, 126’

“So you think this is a kind of lifetime style for me? That is not the case. I answer that a film’s rhythm is a part of the milieu that it shows.

FILM
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1932, 75’

“When I think of Carl Dreyer, what comes to mind first are those pale white images, the splendid voiceless close-ups in La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc that play back exactly the acerbic dialogue at Rouen between Jeanne and her judges.

FILM
Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1949, 10’

“In summer 1947, Dreyer wrote to the head of Dansk Kulturfilm, Ib Koch-Olsen, to suggest a short film about the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1848).