Gertrud
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
I remember having read about Carl Theodor Dreyer somewhere in the same league as Robert Bresson and Yasujiro Ozu and having a transcendental style of cinema. Then I saw Gertrud and it was truly a cinematic experience like no other. The story and the plot are really not important at all. What is truly remarkable is the way in which the film absorbs you, almost literally. The nature of absorption is very different as it doesn't put you to sleep but rather engages you in a much subtle way. The film is held very tightly throughout, with the characters expressing precisely the truth about how they feel and nothing else. There is stark honesty in the dialogues, which may seem somewhat unnatural to some, as we are not such honesty in everyday conversations. As Gertrud's husband says to her, "No woman should be so honest". To some it may seem too stage like, and to some it may seem boring. Some may even think that the actors look more like zombies than real human beings. The film has little physical action, but it's much action packed on another level. There is not a single ambiguous line, no vagueness at any level, really no room for imagination or thought to interpret it in any other way, while you are watching it. It's almost as if the film works on another dimension, like a dream. No other director seems to be so completely convinced of his vision; no other with such mastery and singular use of the medium of cinema.
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
I remember having read about Carl Theodor Dreyer somewhere in the same league as Robert Bresson and Yasujiro Ozu and having a transcendental style of cinema. Then I saw Gertrud and it was truly a cinematic experience like no other. The story and the plot are really not important at all. What is truly remarkable is the way in which the film absorbs you, almost literally. The nature of absorption is very different as it doesn't put you to sleep but rather engages you in a much subtle way. The film is held very tightly throughout, with the characters expressing precisely the truth about how they feel and nothing else. There is stark honesty in the dialogues, which may seem somewhat unnatural to some, as we are not such honesty in everyday conversations. As Gertrud's husband says to her, "No woman should be so honest". To some it may seem too stage like, and to some it may seem boring. Some may even think that the actors look more like zombies than real human beings. The film has little physical action, but it's much action packed on another level. There is not a single ambiguous line, no vagueness at any level, really no room for imagination or thought to interpret it in any other way, while you are watching it. It's almost as if the film works on another dimension, like a dream. No other director seems to be so completely convinced of his vision; no other with such mastery and singular use of the medium of cinema.