Denmark
1955
125 minutes
Black and White
1.33:1
Danish
126
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. Putting the lie to the term “organized religion,” Ordet (The Word) is a challenge to simple facts and dogmatic orthodoxy. Layering multiple stories of faith and rebellion, Dreyer’s adaptation of Kaj Munk’s play quietly builds towards a shattering, miraculous climax.
| Morten Borgen | Henrik Malberg |
| Mikkel Borgen | Emil Hass Christensen |
| Anders Borgen | Cay Kristiansen |
| Johannes Borgen | Preben Leerdorff-Rye |
| Inger Mikkel’s wife | Birgitte Federspiel |
| Maren Borgen | Ann Elisabeth Rud |
| Lilleinger Borgen | Susanne Rud |
| Peter Skraedder | Ejnar Federspiel |
| Kirstin Skraedder | Sylvia Eckhausen |
| Anne Skraedder | Gerda Nielsen |
| Director | Carl Th. Dreyer |
| Screenplay | Carl Th. Dreyer |
| From the play by | Kaj Munk |
| Producer | Carl Th. Dreyer, Erik Nielsen and Tage Nielsen |
| Cinematography | Henning Bendtsen, John Carlsen and Erik Wittrup Willumsen |
| Editing | Edith Schlüssel |
| Music | Poul Schierbeck |
| Songs | Sylvia Shierbeck |
| Production Design | Erik Aaes |
The strangeness of Ordet is something that no number of viewings, God willing, will rub off. I want to stress this strangeness. That Ordet is a great film, one of the greatest ever made, only a rash or foolish person will deny. But even less than with other great films can we afford . . .
Before Lars von Trier, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Andrei Tarkovsky, Ingmar Bergman, Robert Bresson there was Carl Th. Dreyer. The first great film artist to pursue the ineffable in cinema, Dreyer gave depth to what early silent filmmakers innately understood yet took for granted: that . . .
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