Between 11th and 18th December 2010, Les Arcs European Film Festival will dedicate a focus to Denmark in order to honour the richness and creativity of its cinema. Because the Danish cinema cannot be reduced to the work of the emblematic director, Lars von Trier, the team of the festival offers you to discover the great actors, directors and films that make the history of the Danish cinema through a 8-episode series. This week, discover the father of the Danish cinema, Carl Th. Dreyer…
« Cinema is my unique passion… » (Carl Th. Dreyer)
Working early, first as a clerk in a telegraph firm, then as a journalist, Dreyer rapidly began working more and more as a cinema critic and soon decided to live in accordance with his passion: cinema. In 1913, he joined Nordisk Film, a Danish production firm, for which he read, evaluated and wrote scripts. 7 years and 2 films (The President (1917) and Leaves from Satan’s book (1921)) later, Dreyer experimented many stylistic devices, making great use of flash-backs, close-ups and portraying human passions as it had never been done before in a film. Dreyer achieved his big international breakthrough in 1925 when The Master of the House was noticed by a French production firm, Société Générale de Films which offered Dreyer to come to France where he was going to shoot a masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc.
The Passion of Joan of Arc, a silent masterpiece
In 1926, Carl Th. Dreyer arrived in Paris, the laboratory of European cinema at the time. to shoot a film on Joan of Arc. He didn’t want to make a traditional historical account of the young woman’s trial. He decided to tell the trial over a single day. Every shot was chronologically filmed. The film-maker insisted that the actors didn’t make themselves up. He preferred the natural nudity of the human face, which is the most accurate way to truly depict men’s passions.
Renée Falconetti
Joan of Arc is impersonated by Renée Falconetti, whose illuminated face has been remembered by generations of cinema enthusiasts.
Censored when it was released in 1928, this film was burned down twice before being rediscovered in a psychiatric hospital in Oslo in 1981, making it a legendary film in the history of cinema.
« I am a film-maker and will die as a film-maker… » (Carl Th. Dreyer)
With Vampyr (1932), Dreyer shot a very different film from The Passion of Joan of Arc. After the trying filming of Vampyr (he spent three weeks in the clinic « Joan of Arc » in Paris..), Dreyer gave up making cinema in France and went back to his home country and his first job, journalism. From 1943 to 1964, he only made three long features. Although his penultimate film, Ordet (1954) brought him international recognition – he was awarded the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival « for his life work », his last film, Gertrud (1964), was coldly welcomed. Critics didn’t recognize the styl of Dreyer who seemed to have forgotten all about his pictorial research, his examination of human faces, the pathos and mysticism that charcterize his films.
Dreyer died on 20th March 1968. He never made the film he dreamt of on Jesus Christ. His cinema inspired many film-makers, among whom Lars von Trier who shot Medea in 1988 after a script written by Dreyer.
>> Dreyer’s biography and filmography on the official website dedicated to the Danish film-maker.
In the coming episode, 1995, the year when Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg revolutionized the world of cinema.
Renée Falconetti
Carl Theodor Dreyer
Considered as a one of the most important director in the history of cinema, Carl Th. Dreyer (1889-1968) was not the tyranical film-maker to be remembered in the history of cinema. On the contrary, he was described as a polite and well-bred man by the actors who worked with him. He was known to prepare his films with a meticulous precision. In a 50-year-long career, beginning when cinema was still silent and ending when the French New Wave appeared, he shot 22 films, among which a renowned masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Carl Theodor Dreyer