Day of Wrath (Vredens dag) (Directors Suite) (1943)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Booklet Short Film-Thorvaldsen Short Film-A Castle Within a Castle Interviews-Cast Trailer-4
Rating
Year Of Production	1943
Running Time	93:08 (Case: 110)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (60:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Studio Distributor	Palladium Film Madman Entertainment	Starring	Carl Theodor Dreyer Poul Knudsen Paul La Cour Mogens Skot-Hansen Hans Wiers-Jenssens Kirsten Andreasen Sigurd Berg Albert Høeberg Harald Holst Emanuel Jørgensen Sophie Knudsen Preben Lerdorff Rye Lisbeth Movin
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Poul Schierbeck

    The setting is Denmark during the early Seventeenth century. A old woman, Herlofs Marte, is accused of witchcraft. The local church prelate Absalon Pederssøn (Thorkild Roose) is called in to interrogate the witch, who reminds him that his young wife's mother confessed to him that she was a witch, and that he kept this news to himself. Absalon chooses not to save Marte, who is soon burned at the stake. Meanwhile Absalon's son from his first marriage Martin (Preben Lerdoff Rye) returns home from his studies. There is an instant attraction between him and his younger stepmother Anne (Lisbeth Movin). But nothing happens of this until Anne discovers that her mother had the power to call the living and the dead. Anne tries this power for herself and calls Martin to her. They carry on an affair under Absalon's nose, but retribution awaits for all.

    This was Carl Theodor Dreyer's first film since Vampyr in 1932, having worked as a reporter in the interim. The film is both tense and intense, with little in the way of physical action to distract from the psychological focus that forms the narrative. The actors move and speak deliberately, perhaps not as much so as in Dreyer's final two films, but viewers who have not seen those might feel that this film suffers from inertia. But the intention was to force the viewer to concentrate on the unfolding drama, so that the final outcome is just that more surprising. The process is similar to that in the films of Yasujiro Ozu, who used a static camera, impossibly low angles and disjointed eyelines to compel the viewer to observe rather than participate in the story. Day of Wrath isn't quite a masterpiece for some reason. Perhaps the intensity peters out just before the denouement. However it is still an impressive achievement, with some wonderful lighting.

    The film is by no means technically perfect. At 59:25 a microphone can be seen at the top of the frame. And although the movie is set in 1623, a sideboard that is frequently in shot has the text "ANNO 1629" carved on it. Minor quibbles of course, these being small distractions in this masterful exploration of repression.

Video

    The video quality is good without being near reference quality.

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is close to the original 1.37:1. The film is in black and white and I watched it upscaled by my DVD player to a resolution of 1920x1080i.

    The video is reasonably sharp though with an occasional hint of softness. Contrast levels are slightly boosted but not disagreeably so. It results in some minor loss of detail in the brighter parts of the screen. Shadow detail varies from average to poor. Some of the darker blacks frequently become crushed, such as Anne's dress or Absalon's coat.

    The only film to video artefacts I saw were in the opening credits, some slight aliasing visible on lines across the pages from the Dies Irae as it scrolls up the screen.

    There are more than a few film artefacts. While scratches are few and far between, there are constant white flecks, bits of dirt and dust and reel change markings. The frame is a little wobbly at times and some flicker is noticeable.

    Optional subtitles are available in your choice of white or yellow. I watched the white subtitles, which were free of spelling or grammatical errors. Some minor bits of dialogue were not subtitled, but the meaning of the words was obvious.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted and a slight pause is noticeable, but not disruptive, during the layer change at 60:22.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, in the original Danish.

    The audio track was a little disappointing. While the dialogue is generally clear there is a lot of hiss and some roughness to the sound. There was also a tendency for the silences between bits of dialogue to be hiss-free, which drew even more attention to the hiss when it appeared. The sound effects and music seemed to be less affected by these problems than the dialogue.

    The music score by Poul Schierbeck appears sporadically throughout the film. It is an exceptional score, managing to transition from portentious or carefree into the familiar Dies Irae, on which many of its themes are based. It is in more of an early-Twentieth century classical style than of the early Seventeenth century setting of the film, but does not feel out of place.

    Most of the time there is no music, but there are still background sounds, mainly the ticking of an unseen clock.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    According to the menus, the two shorts are by Carl Theodore Dreyer, not Carl Theodor Dreyer. The cover also refers to the Hayes Code, which should be the Hays Code.

Main Menu Audio and Animation

    Stills from the film are backed by music from the score.

Booklet

    The booklet contains an interesting essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum ("the Jonathan Rosenbaum" according to the cover) in which he looks mainly at whether there is any evidence in the film of an allegory of the German occupation during which the film was made. There is also a biography and filmography on the back of the cover slick.

Thorvaldsen (9:41)

    A documentary about Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), a famous Danish sculptor in the classical style. The entire work consists of images of his sculptures, with a running commentary. Not great stuff but Dreyer's influence can be seen in the lighting of the statues.

A Castle Within a Castle (8:37)

    A short documentary about Kronborg Castle, the mythical Elsinore of Shakespeare's Hamlet. However this is not about the Bard, but the fact that the castle is built upon an earlier fortress, Krogen, elements of which remain within the current structure.

Interviews (25:46)

    The interviews with Lisbeth Movin and Preben Lerdoff Rye are outtakes from the 1995 documentary My Metier. The menu states that there are also interview outtakes from Jorgen Roos' 1965 film Carl Th. Dreyer, but apart from the stills on the extras menu no such interview material is on the disc. It looks like Madman have copied the text from the Region 1 Criterion disc. Movin recalls several incidents on the set, while the Rye interview is more concerned with Dreyer's 1955 film Ordet in which Rye also appeared.

    The interviews are presented in widescreen but are not 16x9 enhanced, and the white subtitles are in the frame below the image. Audio is Dolby Digital 1.0.

Trailers-Madman Trailers (12:32)

    Trailers for The Leopard, The Blue Angel, Two or Three Things I Know About Her and Rififi.

    I have a copy of the Criterion release of the film from Region 1, so I can make a direct comparison between the two. I popped the disc in immediately after watching the Region 4 feature, and the first thing I noticed was that the Criterion seems to be cropped at the top and sides. It also has fewer film artefacts. It also seems to have had the contrast boosted more than the Region 4, which makes some of the details in bright whites or deep blacks harder to see. Contrast boosting also has the effect of making the details in mid-tones more visible, so it has the appearance of being sharper and more detailed. However I much prefer the tonal range of the Region 4, which looks more natural.

    In terms of extra material the Criterion has the same interview outtakes from My Metier, plus the two outtakes from Carl Th. Dreyer (totalling under 8 minutes) missing from the Madman and a stills gallery

    The Criterion is only available in a four-disc box set that includes Ordet, Gertrud and the documentary My Metier.

    There is also a Region 2 release from the BFI in the UK which appears to have the same transfer as the Region 4. It has an audio commentary as well, and instead of Thorvaldsen it has the short film The Cure For Cancer.

    Comparisons are not easy. I think that the commentary tips the balance in favour of the Region 2, but only just. If you are not interested in the commentary there is no reason not to prefer the Region 4.

    A strange yet powerful film that just falls short of greatness.

    The video quality is very good.

    The audio quality is slightly below average.

    A good selection of extra material.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall