Dreyer: Master Filmmaker (Directors Suite) (1925)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

The Carl Theodore Dreyer box set from Madman contains four of his best known works - The Master of the House, Day of Wrath, Ordet and Gertrud; being one silent film and all but one of his sound films. Fans may deplore the fact that The Passion of Joan of Arc (much adored by Godard and used in Vivre sa Vie) and Vampyr are not included. The former can be picked up in Region 4 as part of the Shock Distinction Series although the latter is a little harder to come by.

The set also includes the documentary My Metier. Although the works are unmistakeably Dreyer's there is also a variety on offer (The Master of the House even has humour!) and some stunning examples of pure filmmaking. The documentary included as part of the set Carl Th. Dreyer - My Metier is essential viewing to show how these works of art came to fruition. If anything, it shows a man who was dedicated wholeheartedly to his films perhaps to the exclusion of all else including, occasionally, his sanity. The result are truly works of art that may have influenced others but are wholly original in their approach.

Carl Th. Dreyer is one of the few filmmakers who can be said to have been there at the dawn of silent cinema and continued to make films through to the 60's. His films are all distinctive in their meticulous detail and measured pacing as well as the poetry of the images.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Master of the House (Du skal ære din hustru) (Directors Suite) (1925)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Notes-Liner Main Menu Audio Short Film-Good Mothers Short Film-The Fight Against Cancer Featurette-Carl Th. Dreyer Trailer-4
Rating
Year Of Production	1925
Running Time	107:07 (Case: 92)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (79:05)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Studio Distributor	Palladium Film Madman Entertainment	Starring	Johannes Meyer Astrid Holm Karin Nellemose Mathilde Nielsen Clara Schønfeld Johannes Nielsen Petrine Sonne Aage Hoffman Byril Harvig Viggo Lindstrøm Aage Schmidt
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Lars Fjeldmose

    Master of the House, or in literal translation Thou Shalt Honour Thy Wife, is set in the household of John. He treats his wife Mary badly, carping on every little thing and never having a kind word to say. Eventually his maltreatment drives his long-suffering wife into a breakdown, and she leaves him to recuperate in the country. This enables his one-time wet nurse Nana to concoct a plan to give John his comeuppance and restore the family to its formerly harmonious state.

    This Danish silent was the seventh film of fourteen directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer, the greatest of all Danish film directors. The Danish cinema was the major European producer of films in the years leading up to the First World War. While Italy had their spectacular epics, the studios of Denmark produced more cinematically sophisticated dramas and comedies and were the main suppliers of the German market. This market and others dried up with the outbreak of war and the expansion of the US industry, but Denmark had still produced a number of major filmmakers such as Benjamin Christensen, August Blom and Holger-Madsen, and an international star in Asta Nielsen. The Danish cinema never recovered to its pre-war peak, but still continued to make quality films well into the latter part of the silent era. Starting in 1912 Dreyer was a scriptwriter and then in 1919 became a director. He quickly became recognised as a major talent through the films Leaves From Satan's Book and The Parson's Widow, the latter of which bears some thematic resemblance to Master of the House.

    The storyline of Master of the House is very simple and the denouement obvious, yet it manages to be stretched out to 107 minutes without boredom setting in. The reason for this is the quality of the direction, which uses judicious cutting to enliven scenes while also using a lot of small visual details to drive the narrative without resorting to an excessive number of titles. The most impressive aspect of the film is the quality of the lighting, which is often breathtaking. One downside is the excessive use of masking to focus the viewer on the actors, which at times feels oppressive.

    The print used for this transfer was one with English language titles and the character names Anglicised from the original Viktor and Ida to John and Mary. Images of letters and newspapers have been replaced with English language versions of the same.

    Dreyer has been woefully underrepresented on DVD in Australia until recently, with only the oddity Vampyr released in a less than ideal edition some years ago. His final film Gertrud has just been released in Madman's Director's Suite series, with Day of Wrath and Ordet to come shortly, so we have what amounts to a glut. Most of his other films are available in some form or another in other regions. It's worth pointing out that two of his early films, The President and the partially-incomplete Der Var Engang can be obtained from the Danish Film Institute, along with a series of silent Danish movies by various filmmakers, all featuring English subtitles and high quality transfers from restored materials.

Video

    The film is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    The disc is in PAL format and I watched the film upscaled to 1920x1080i.

    This transfer is in roughly the same shape as most European silent films that have been released on DVD. The source material looks like a 35mm print that was in good if slightly battered shape. So the detail levels are very good, apart from a few shots, while there are numerous film artefacts.

    Contrast levels are generally very good, resulting in a nice range of greys and blacks and good shadow detail.

    I did not notice any film to video artefacts, which is a good thing considering the number of film artefacts that are present. There is a constant stream of small spots and flecks throughout the movie. There are occasional larger instances of damage, including some splice marks and tramline scratches. The frame is also a bit shaky, something that is generally unavoidable with historical material.

    There are no subtitles provided, as the print from which the transfer was made included English-language intertitles.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted with the layer break placed at 79:05. As the soundtrack is continuous music the layer pause is a little disruptive, but I guess that this could not be avoided.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is one audio track on this disc in Dolby Digital 2.0.

    The audio track is music only, featuring a piano score. The audio is in stereo and there is some imaging, with what sounds like a very large piano appearing somewhere in the air above the level of the two speakers. The recording is good though occasionally the piano sounds a bit hard.

    The piano score is by Lars Fjeldmose and is a very good one. It avoids anything that would draw attention to itself at the expense of the film, so while the sounds are pleasant there are not really any memorable tunes. It is perhaps a little too melancholy in tone, making it slightly out of touch with the comedic aspects of the movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    On the box it states that one of the extras is Dreyer's sardonic short film They Caught the Ferry, but this film is not actually on the disc. I believe it is included on the disc of Dreyer's Gertrud. Also the director's middle name is twice misspelled as Theodore on the extras menu while it is correctly spelled on the menu link for the documentary, even though it should be abbreviated as per the actual title of the documentary.

Liner Notes

    The liner notes contain a biography and filmography of the director.

Main Menu Audio

    Audio from the soundtrack plays with the static menu.

Good Mothers (11:19)

    Dreyer directed a number of short films, mainly educational, in Denmark during his later career. This one dates from 1942 and deals with the problems of unmarried mothers, specifically highlighting the many facilities available to help unmarried (and married) mothers who find themselves in difficulty. It is perhaps ironic and unfortunate, to English-language speakers at least, that having dealt with the trials of a particular unmarried mother that the Danish word for "the end" appears on screen, which is "Slut".

    The film is in reasonable condition although the soundtrack is damaged in parts. Optional English subtitles are in yellow.

The Fight Against Cancer (10:40)

    This 1947 short deals in often graphic detail with the need for early detection of cancer, through the patients of an elderly doctor. It seems to be mainly aimed at women, the bulk of the film talking about breast and uterine cancer. Again there are problems with the soundtrack being noisy, and the optional subtitles are in yellow.

Carl Th. Dreyer (28:32)

    This is a 1966 film by Danish director Jørgen Roos about Dreyer. It starts with remarkable newsreel footage from 1909 in which the twenty-year old Dreyer, then a journalist, can clearly be seen. This is followed by footage taken at the Paris premiere of Gertrud where Dreyer meets such luminaries as Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina, and a few brief talking heads to camera pieces by Francois Truffaut, Henri-Georges Clouzot and his eyebrows and Cinematheque founder Henri Langlois. But the bulk of the film is an interview with Dreyer recalling aspects of most of his films together with footage from them. This is an interesting documentary, though it lacks a bit of context on Dreyer's career and his struggles to make films at all. It is in French and Danish with burned-in English subtitles. The picture quality is not good, looking like it comes from a VHS source with interlacing artefacts and a general lack of clarity.

Trailers (13:06)

    After the ubiquitous and loud and irritating anti-piracy message we get four trailers, for The Leopard, The Blue Angel, Umberto D and An Autumn Afternoon.

    This film was also released in Region 2 by the British Film Institute. As far as I can tell from the reviews of that release, the Madman release is of the same quality. I'm not sure that it is the same transfer. The BFI appears to have replaced the original Danish titles with new English titles, while the Madman looks to have used an old print that had English titles. They have the look of being done at least as long ago as the 1960s if not earlier.

    The extras are also different: the BFI includes Good Mothers but the other short is They Caught the Ferry. Instead of the Roos documentary the BFI has the 90-minute documentary My Metier, which is also included in Criterion's box set of Dreyer's last three major films. On this basis the BFI probably wins on the extras. However the running time of the BFI is uncertain: one review site lists 91 minutes, another 114 minutes. The BFI site itself lists 92 minutes as the running time. This may be due to the speed at which the film is shown, but without a copy of the BFI to hand I cannot confirm anything.

    The film does not appear to be available on DVD in Region 1.

    A fine film from one of the great directors.

    The video quality is as good as could be expected.

    The audio quality is excellent.

    An appropriate selection of extra material.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

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

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

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

Ordet (Directors Suite) (1955)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Booklet Short Film-The Danish Village Church Short Film-Storstrømsbroan Interviews-Cast Trailer-4
Rating
Year Of Production	1955
Running Time	120:15 (Case: 126)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (85:51)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Carl Theodor Dreyer Kaj Munk Hanne Agesen Kirsten Andreasen Sylvia Eckhausen Birgitte Federspiel Ejner Federspiel Emil Hass Christensen Cay Kristiansen Preben Lerdorff Rye Henrik Malberg Gerda Nielsen Ann Elisabeth Rud
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$34.95	Music	Poul Schierbeck

    Ordet, which translates as The Word, is a 1955 Danish film, the second-last directed by the great Carl Theodor Dreyer. The title, despite the English spelling, is pronounced something like "ooh-ull". It is set in 1925 in a small Danish village. The Borgen family own a farm. Old Morten Borgen (Henrik Malberg) is the family patriarch, widowed and devoutly Christian, though with different beliefs to some of those in the village. His eldest son Mikkel (Emil Hass Christensen) is not a believer. Mikkel has two daughters and his wife Inger (Birgitte Federspiel) is at an advanced stage of pregnancy. Borgen's second son Johannes (Preben Lerdorff Rye) is suffering from a mental illness - he has the delusion that he is the saviour. Youngest son Anders (Cay Kristiansen) is in love with the daughter of the village tailor, but the tailor rejects him as unsuitable because of his family's religious beliefs.

    The film is based on a 1925 play by Kaj Munk and was previously filmed in Sweden in 1943 by Dreyer's contemporary Gustaf Molander. Munk was a Lutheran pastor who also wrote a number of plays. Initially an admirer of Hitler, he soon changed his mind and during the occupation spoke out against the Nazis. In 1944 he was arrested by the Gestapo at his home and after being taken away was shot by the side of a road, his body left in a ditch. I have not seen Molander's version which is highly regarded itself, but it is hard to imagine that it is on the same level as Dreyer's film, which is simply one of the best films ever made. That being said it is not for all tastes. The film is slow and deliberate, with little action and some strange-seeming performances (and a little comedy to boot). Preben Lerdorff Rye was encouraged by Dreyer to copy the mannerisms and speech patterns of a mental patient, while Cay Kristiansen as Anders often behaves as though he is walking on eggshells. The overall effect of this, though, is that if you allow yourself to fall into the hypnotic pace of the movie and accept the characters as they are, the ending is astounding, the most powerful cinematic experience I have ever had. And I'm resolutely atheistic, so I cannot imagine what a believer would make of it.

    It is difficult to say anything more about the film without giving too much away about the plot. Madman is to be commended for releasing it and other Dreyer films in Region 4, where the potential market is likely to be small.

Video

    The video quality is very good without being 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 and clear. Contrast levels are good and the black and white image is as good as I have seen it for this film. Shadow detail is very good.

    I did not see any film to video artefacts. There are many film artefacts visible. There are faint scratches, white flecks, bits of dirt and dust and the occasional hair. The frame tends to flicker, mainly due to fluctuations in brightness but there can also be a slight unsteadiness in the frame.

    Optional subtitles are available in a choice of white or yellow. I watched the white subtitles, which were almost free of spelling errors - I noticed just one.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted and a slight pause is noticeable, but not disruptive, during the layer change at 85:51.

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 is as good as could be expected. The dialogue is clear and while there is some hiss and slightly distortion this is not distracting.

    The score uses music by Poul Schierbeck, who had written the score to Day of Wrath, although he had been dead for some years when Ordet was released. There is very little music in the film.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio and Animation

    A succession of stills accompanied by music from the score.

Booklet

    The booklet contains an interesting and intelligent essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum, but it is best read after watching the film. The back of the slick contains a biography and filmography of the director.

The Danish Village Church (13:26)

    A short Dreyer film about the history of the small churches that still exist in many Danish villages, many of which are many centuries old.

Storstrømsbroan (6:55)

    Another Dreyer short, this time about the Storstrøm Bridge, then the longest bridge in Europe.

Interview (5:10)

    An interview outtake with Birgitte Federspiel from the 1995 documentary My Metier.

Trailers (13:08)

    Trailers for The Leopard, The Blue Angel, Umberto D and Double Indemnity.

    I have a copy of the Criterion Region 1 release, which is only available in a four-disc box set. The only extras are the same interview as on the Region 4, a stills gallery and a booklet essay. The Criterion appears to be slightly cropped at the sides, and contrast levels have been boosted, though only marginally. I prefer the Region 4 transfer, but only slightly.

    The Region 2 release from the British Film Institute appears to be the source for the Region 4 transfer. As extras though it has a couple of booklet essays, the two Dreyer shorts Thorvaldsen and Storstrømsbroan and a half-hour documentary about the cinematographer and the making of Ordet. On that basis I think the Region 2 is the edition of choice.

    One of the best films ever made in my opinion, well worth seeking out.

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is good.

    A worthy if not overly substantial set of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Gertrud (Directors Suite) (1964)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Short Film-"They Caught The Ferry" by Dreyer Audio Commentary-Dr Adrian Martin Interviews-Crew-Baard Owe and Axel Strobye
Rating
Year Of Production	1964
Running Time	111:24 (Case: 152)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Carl Theodor Dreyer
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Nina Pens Rode Bendt Rothe Ebbe Rode Baard Owe Axel Strøbye Karl Gustav Ahlefeldt Vera Gebuhr Lars Knutzon Anna Malberg Edouard Mielche
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Jørgen Jersild

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Danish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    It is curious to consider how a particular filmmaker gets plucked from relative obscurity to the point where all his or her major works are represented on DVD. Madman makes a pleasing habit of doing just this and often Umbrella scores just as highly. Umbrella recently released three of the films of Preston Sturges, Madman put out some early Billy Wilder and now Carl Theodor Dreyer gets his time in the sun.

Dreyer is, of course, not obscure to film buffs. His 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc is regularly cited as one of the greats of cinema. But I suspect few have seen it or any other of Dreyer's films. Now with Madman and Umbrella putting out DVD's of his films, the viewing public can get a chance to examine and enjoy the works of this Danish legend.

Philip S. recently reviewed the silent film Master of the House which came from the beginning of Dreyer's career. Gertrud comes from the other end of his filmmaking. In fact, it was his last film.

Gertrud was based on a famous Danish play from the turn of the century. Dreyer keeps it in that period replete with evening wear, drawing rooms and horse and cart travel. The play and the film deal with the search for "real love" by the eponymous heroine. Gertrud (Nina Pens Rode) is an unhappily married woman. She is a former professional singer now house bound. Her husband, lawyer Gustav Kanning (Bendt Rothe ), has come home with good news. He expects to receive an offer from the Prime Minister to become a minister himself. Gertrud also has some news - she is leaving him. She feels that he uses her as his trophy and values his work above all other things.

There are at least two other loves in her life. One is the talented young composer Erland Jansson (Baard Owe - some may recognize him as Professor Bondo from the original version of The Kingdom) and the other her former love Gabriel Lidman (Ebbe Rode). Finally, there is the psychologist Axel Nygen (Axel Stroybe).

As the story progresses she puts her love for them under a microscope and finds it lacking in any discernable life. All the men in her life are a disappointment - too interested in work, desire & power to understand "real love".

Gertrud is notable for its dramatic black and white photography and long takes. I use the word "long" advisedly. According to various sources one scene is an unbroken 9 minutes. I didn't time the scene myself but, quite frankly, most of the film consists of Dreyer putting his actors into stage like positions for lengthy periods where they intone their lines with dramatic seriousness but without feeling or passion.

For most, this will be a challenge. The performances are often delivered in a monotone as if in a dream and the characters rarely look at each other but rather stare off into space. It is hard to assess the quality of the performances of the cast and , if the interview material in the extras is to be believed, the cast didn't really know what they were doing either!

The dialogue is poetic and never really steps into the realm of the real. Theories abound as to Dreyer's intentions but the film will either draw you into its hypnotic coils or leave you devastatingly bored. Love it or hate it - the film is not easily forgotten.

Video

    Gertrud was originally shot on 35mm film at the standard European widescreen ratio of 1.66:1.

There are two transfers of this film floating around. The Region 1 from Criterion has been maligned for forcing the film into an unfamiliar aspect ratio - 1.78:1. The British Region 2 transfer is close to the original aspect ratio at 1.61:1. The aspect ratio for this DVD is the same as the British PAL transfer.

The DVD case refers to the print as being "All new restored" although comparison with damage markings and timings on the Region 2 release suggest that it is identical.

That aside, the film looks pretty good for a movie that is pushing 50 years old. It may have been restored but it does not appear to have been remastered. There are still plenty of artefacts on show and some stray hairs and dirt.

Otherwise the black and white image is quite stable. There is clarity to the image that is pleasing and the grain, whilst ever-present, is mild. Shadows are deep.

The English subtitles are clear and easy to read. The contrast levels however are a little on the bright side. I don't know the extent to which this is directorial. In the commentary track Dr Adrian Martin speaks about Dreyer's use of light in some detail. Comparisons with screen shots suggest it may have been authored a little brighter than the other versions.

Still fans of the film will find nothing to complain of in the presentation of this film.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The soundtrack for the film is Danish Dolby Digital 2.0 mono running at 224 Kb/s.

This is perfectly adequate for the film. This dialogue heavy film is all front and centre and I noticed no problems with the soundtrack other than the inevitable problems of age - thinness and hiss. Neither is a problem and the audio sync appears fine. This is so even in the parts where Gertrud is singing to the voice of an opera singer.

The music is used sparingly but creates a sense of unease and otherworldliness. Theories abound as to how the film is to be interpreted and the music is strange enough to keep the debate going.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Short Film - They Caught the Ferry

As an extra the DVD includes a short film by Dreyer entitled They Caught the Ferry. It was produced in 1948, apparently as a warning against speeding. A couple on a motorcycle speed from one ferry landing to another, with tragic consequences. It is a nice piece with the sense of destiny undercutting the whole 11 minutes. When the crunch comes, however, I was tempted to view the warning as :"Don't drive when there are madmen in cars trying to run you off the road!" rather than just "slow down". Still it is a worth a look. It is presented in a bare bones fashion with every scratch and damage marking intact.

Audio Commentary Dr Adrian Martin

Dr Adrian Martin, Senior Researcher Fellow, Film & Television Studies, Monash University and Co-Editor of Rouge Magazine provides the commentary track to the film. My initial fears were that the commentary would be as dry and obtuse, emotionally speaking, as the film itself. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Dr Martin provides a lively, informed commentary of this film which is both intellectually stimulating and sufficiently breezy to entertain the casual film buff. Dr Martin has every detail about the life and work of Dreyer at his fingertips and is able to place the film in a social context as well as in its place in the history of cinema. Those interested in film technique will be able to appreciate his explanation of Dreyer's mise en scene and those who like a bit of background will enjoy Dr Martins in depth knowledge of the story behind the story. It is a great tribute to the commentary that it invited a re-examination of the film without resorting to hyperbole.

Interviews-Actors

Finally, two of the actors from the film (Owe and Stroybe) are featured by way of outtakes from a documentary about Dreyer. If they have something in common it is that both didn't like the film when it came out and have very slowly warmed to it. Both don't really know what it was all about.

Of Dreyer's directorial method one says that the diminutive director sidled up to him and quietly chanted to him words that he couldn't hear! Dreyer comes over as a bit of a crackpot which is perhaps why the material wasn't used. The interviews are, however, fascinating as to the actors insight or lack thereof of the meaning behind the film.

   The Criterion Collection version in Region 1 has the same interviews as the Region 4 Archival but also boasts footage from the time of Gertrud’s production and a stills gallery. The Region 2 film doesn't have the interviews but has the real thing - a documentary on the making of Gertrud, including footage from the premiere in Paris and interviews with Dreyer, members of the cast and crew and others a different short film The Village Church from 1947 and a fully illustrated booklet with essays by Dreyer scholar Casper Tybjerg.

The Region 2 holds sway here.

    Gertrud is a strange film with an hypnotic beauty that may well capture your heart as Gertrud searches for "real love" and is disappointed at every turn.

The transfer is not perfect but is more than acceptable and fans of the film will have no complaint.

An above average commentary track and a few other interesting extras round out this package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Carl Th. Dreyer: My Métier (1995)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Documentary	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	97:00 (Case: 94)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Torben Skjødt Jensen
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Torben Skjødt Jensen Lars Bo Kimergaard Prami Larsen
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	Box	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.66:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.66:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English (Burned In)	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Carl Theodore Dreyer - My Metier is a full length documentary about the life and work of the great Danish filmmaker.

It is available as an additional DVD in the Dreyer Master Filmmaker box set from Madman Entertainment. It cannot be purchased separately. It makes an excellent adjunct to the four films presented in the box set (Master of the House, Day of Wrath, Ordet and Gertrud ) although it must be said that extracts of the documentary already appear as extras on Day of Wrath and Ordet with outtakes appearing on Gertrud.

The documentary, by fellow Danish filmmaker Torben Skjodt Jensen, is certainly in-depth. It contains interviews with the actors who worked with Dreyer over the years as well as his long-time cinematographer, Henning Bendtsen.

Either by accident or design the documentary is extremely thin on Dreyer's personal life. The writings and comments from Dreyer himself in the film are complex statements about his job as a filmmaker and in particular his sense of aesthetics and poetry in language and image.

The film is able to relate his birth to an unmarried Swedish housekeeper and his very unhappy adolescence in the home of Danish foster parents who never ceased to remind him that he owed them for every piece of bread he consumed.

It appears that Dreyer lived a solitary life and was often beset by mental health issues. He was meticulous to the point of obsession yet tried to create his films organically on set. Cinematographer Bendtsen relates that Dreyer would often start the day's shoot having made expansive notes of everything to do with the scene. When he arrived on the set he would put the notes aside and begin afresh.

Dreyer was noted as pedantic and sometimes overbearing. There are legendary stories about his work with Marie Falconetti on the set of The Passion of Joan of Arc. It is said that Dreyer bullied and abused the actress forcing her to kneel on cold stone for hours on end to experience the real "passion". Falconetti's daughter and Dreyer himself denied these stories. She was simply an incredibly intense actress who made these demands of herself.

However, if he wasn't overbearing he certainly was unusual. Preben Lerdorff-Rye relates how Dreyer took him to a mental hospital and sat him down with one of the patients for an extended period in order to have the actor understand the vocal intonation he required from him for Ordet.

In essence Dreyer lived for his work. He died a thousand deaths during the script-writing process and his script on the life of Jesus Christ remained unfinished for 20 years until his death in 1969.

On set it appears Dreyer was in fact persuasive more than dictatorial although he always put the poetic aims of the film first. In a superbly ironic story Dreyer was commissioned to make the short film They Caught the Ferry as a film warning of the dangers of speeding. In the film the two characters race across Denmark in order to catch a ferry but meet their fate when colliding with a tree. Dreyer insisted that there be no visual trickery to suggest speed and required his film crew to travel at the same speed as the actors and required them to travel at the scripted speed of up to 100 miles per hour. During the course of filming the film crew motorcycle left the road and hit a tree. Racing over to the accident scene Dreyer gave a sigh of joy when he noticed that the camera was unbroken before ambling over to the cinematographer who had broken his wrist and a rib in the accident.

Though Dreyer had a long life and was heavily involved in script writing for films at the dawn of Danish cinema but his directorial output was meagre. Aside from his films of the silent era (and Vampyr which he made silent as an artistic and economic decision) he made only four films in over 30 years of the sound era. On the strength of this documentary it would seem that Dreyer's perfectionism resulted in a few works of art and a trail of incomplete projects.

Carl Theodore Dreyer - My Metier is an interesting and important documentary for enthusiasts of this artist's work. If there is a lingering feeling that we never really got to know the director it is perhaps due to the fact that he was intensely private and intensely serious about his art. He lived for his films.

Video

    Carl Theodore Dreyer - My Metier is presented on DVD at the original cinematic 1.66:1 aspect ratio.

It is presented in a non-anamorphic letterboxed transfer. I cannot say why the decision was made not to present the film in a 16x9 enhanced form. I can say that in this instance the difference is probably not that great. The film is composed of film excerpts bearing different aspect ratios as well as talking heads stuff and some arty effects over static images. The interview scenes are shown with some peculiar lighting leading to a slightly over-exposed look.

However, for a 1995 black and white documentary it actually looks quite decent. The technical problems with the print are fairly minor with little evidence of damage or artefacts.

In short, fans of Dreyer will not quibble with the look of the documentary.

The film is in English with burnt-in subtitles for the Danish interviewees.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The sound for Carl Theodore Dreyer - My Metier is Dolby Digital 2.0 running at 192Kb/s.

The sound is clear and of reasonable quality. All the dialogue can be heard easily and appears to be in good audio sync.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

  As said Carl Theodore Dreyer - My Metier is not available as a stand alone DVD in any Region. It does come with the Criterion Collection Dreyer box set in Region 1

    Carl Theodore Dreyer - My Metier is an excellent addition to the Dreyer box set and no true fan of European cinema should be without it.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall