• Evidence that I was dead wrong in my first viewing of the film (2010 I believe) is readily apparent in the first 10 minutes— this is one of the most assured artistic examples of mise-en-scene in cinema history
  • It’s a game changer for me on Dreyer—it’s clearly his second best film (after joan of arc) and I think it’s going to be one of the films I mention again and again when praising production design, mise-en-scene, and film décor- it’s up there with Von Sternberg’s achievement in this area, ahead of Sirk, and even modern masters like Wes Anderson.
  • There’s the ornate details in both wooden chairs used again from Ordet. Ordet’s mise-en-scene is much more stark by contrast- this is sumptuous and really something to behold in each setting
  • Like Ordet the characters are talking to air very deliberately – -a very stylized approach (which is a bit ironic because I believe Dreyer’s goal was to entirely strip them of falseness and “performance”). At times the actors are close to seeming possessed or like Zombies
  • Dreyer’s first film in 9 years (Ordet 1955)
  • Pictures of ancestors on walls like Ordet
  • Absolutely meticulous in the design of the frame—really stunning– exacting
  • The 2nd scene- the pond with the reflection of the water and the statue in the background is as much a stunner as the first
  • It’s avant-garde in its approach- reminds me of Peter Greenaway
  • Later we have gorgeous shots of the piano and candlestick setting the frame—yet another looks similar to Vertigo (in B/W of course) with drapes and light coming in from the window
  • While praising a poet character in the film Gertrud actually says “each sentence is well-constructed and considered”
  • Another gorgeous scene of a doctor talking with her (the film is a serious of conversations in perfect framing and in front of gorgeous backdrops) in front of a massive tapestry—it’s a mirror to the doctor/religion discussion in Ordet
  • Dogmatic and aesthetic
  • Symmetrical unlike anything I’ve seen up to 1964
  • The narrative and themes match perfectly with ordet and passion of joan of arc. Gertrud, the character, Is a zealot for love. She won’t budge or settle. Obsessive and monomaniacal to the point of self-infliction and degradation. (hello Breaking the Waves)—fellow Dane
  • Devoutness
  • A great Bergman-like framed two shot at 90 degrees (see pic) and at 84 minutes a shot of Gertrud in the mirror that is breathtaking
  • There is much more for the cinematic eye here than in Ordet (some of the best scenes from Ordet, like the coffin framing scene) are routine here
  • Gertrud sure seems as obsessive as Dreyer is- unrelenting
  • Feminism- day of wrath, joan of arc, master of the house
  • An Absolute masterpiece