Carl Theodore Dreyer's Ordet
The Danish director Carl Theodore Dreyer is
undoubtedly best known for his masterpiece
Joan of
Arc, one of the great films of the silent era.
Dreyer, of course, lived well into the era of sound films, and TCM has been
showing some of the movies this month. They are very much in the Scandinavian
tradition: slow-moving, deliberate, very serious, with great attention to
psychological detail. Not so dissimilar from Igmar Bergman's films, only far
less morose and gloomy. Dreyer seems more or less comfortable with the tragedy
of the world. He has the faith that Bergman largely lacks. And, indeed,
Ordet
is about faith in much the same way that some of Tarkovsky's films, such as
Andrei
Rublev and
The
Sacrifice, are as well.
What is most striking about
Ordet
is to think it was made only about sixty years ago. The sensibilities of the
film, in particular its sensibilities about the Christian faith, are so out of
tune with the contemporary world.
Ordet
could not possibly be made today. A film dealing with faith and miracles, with
death and literal resurrection, simply would not be given credence, even by
people who regard themselves as
Christians.
The film is based on a play
by Kaj Munk, who was a Norwegian pastor executed by the Nazis during the German
occupation of Norway. Munk begins his play with socio-religious commentary on
the absurdity of squabbles over Christian doctrine. Two old men have been a
loggerheads for years over theological differences. When the son of one and the
daughter of the other want to get married, they have a bitter argument in which
they say very sharp words to one another, in a way that only religious people
can. But everything in the end comes out well through a literal use of
deux ex
machina. The spirit of Kirkegaard haunts the
film, as it does one of the characters, who thinks he's the resurrected Christ.
If this sounds strange, it is; yet the
film is so well made that it still remains oddly compelling. It should also be
kept in mind that Munk's play at one time was highly regarded in Scandinavia.
Dreyer's version was the second film version of the work.
Posted: Fri - September 24, 2004 at 08:44 PM