Synopsis
Following the release of Carl Th. Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc, the Criterion Collection renews its commitment to this major director with a special-edition box set of his sound films, Day of Wrath, Ordet, and Gertrud. Each is an intense exploration of the clash between individual desire and social expectations, with Dreyer’s famously perfectionist attention to detail shining throughout. With brand new digital transfers supervised by Gertrud director of photography Henning Bendtsen, the Criterion Collection is proud to present these Dreyer masterpieces on DVD for the first time. The fourth disc in the set presents the masterful 1995 documentary on Dreyer by Danish filmmaker Torben Skødt Jensen, Carl Th. Dreyer—My Métier. Extensive interviews with collaborators and actors provide fresh insight into the life and work of one of cinema’s great masters.
Collector's set includes
Day of Wrath
Carl Th. Dreyer, 1943
The young wife of an older pastor falls in love with her stepson when he returns to their small seventeenth-century village, where stepping outside the bounds of the village’s harsh moral code has disastrous results. Carl Dreyer’s Day of Wrath remains an intense, unforgettable experience.
Ordet
Carl Th. Dreyer, 1955
In Carl Dreyer’s Ordet, a farmer’s family is torn apart by faith, sanctity, and love—one child believes he’s Jesus Christ, a second proclaims himself agnostic, and the third falls in love with a fundamentalist’s daughter.
Gertrud
Carl Th. Dreyer, 1964
Carl Dreyer’s last film is a meditation on tragedy, individual will, and the refusal to compromise. A woman leaves her unfulfilling marriage and embarks on a search for ideal love—but neither a passionate affair with a younger man nor the return of an old romance can provide the answer she seeks.
Carl Th. Dreyer—My Metier
Torben Skjødt Jensen, 1995
Torben Skjødt Jensen’s elegant documentary is a collage of memories and reflections on one of cinema’s greatest directors. Visually rich and densely layered, Carl Th. Dreyer—My Metier illuminates an artist too little understood and too important to overlook.
Disc Features
- New digital transfers of all the films, supervised by Gertrud cinematographer Henning Bendtsen
- Interview footage with cast members from Day of Wrath, Ordet, and Gertrud
- Archival footage of Dreyer during the production of Gertrud
- Interviews with Dreyer cinematographers Henning Bendtsen and Jørgen Roos
- A 22-page booklet, including a reprint of Dreyer’s essay “Thoughts on My Métier”
- An extensive essay by Dreyer scholar Edvin Kau
- Stills galleries accompanying each film
- Gertrud enhanced for 16×9 televisions
