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Carl Theodor Dreyer (; 3 February 1889 – 20 March 1968), commonly known as Carl Th. Dreyer, was a Danish
film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
and
screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...
. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his movies are noted for their emotional austerity and slow, stately pacing, frequent themes of social intolerance, the inseparability of fate and death, and the power of evil in earthly life. His 1928 movie ''
The Passion of Joan of Arc ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (french: link=no, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) is a 1928 French silent historical film based on the actual record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne F ...
'' is considered to be one of the greatest movies of all time, renowned for its cinematography and use of close-ups. It frequently appears on
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
's lists of the greatest films ever made, and in 2012's
poll Poll, polled, or polling may refer to: Figurative head counts * Poll, a formal election ** Election verification exit poll, a survey taken to verify election counts ** Polling, voting to make decisions or determine opinions ** Polling places o ...
it was voted the 9th-best film ever made by film critics and 37th by film directors. His other well-known films include ''
Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
'' (1924), ''
Vampyr ''Vampyr'' (german: Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Gray, lit=Vampyr: The Dream of Allan Gray) is a 1932 horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul based on elements from J. Sheri ...
'' (1932), ''
Day of Wrath ''Day of Wrath'' ( da, Vredens dag) is a 1943 Danish drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Lisbeth Movin, Thorkild Roose and Preben Lerdorff Rye. It is an adaptation of the 1909 play '' Anne Pedersdotter'' by Hans Wiers-Jens ...
'' (1943), ''
Ordet ''Ordet'' (, meaning " The Word" and originally released as ''The Word'' in English), is a 1955 Danish drama film, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is based on a play by Kaj Munk, a Danish Lutheran priest, first performed in 1932. The film w ...
'' (''The Word'') (1955), and '' Gertrud'' (1964).


Life

Dreyer was born
illegitimate Legitimacy, in traditional Western common law, is the status of a child born to parents who are legally married to each other, and of a child conceived before the parents obtain a legal divorce. Conversely, ''illegitimacy'', also known as ''b ...
in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
,
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...
. His birth mother was an unmarried
Scania Scania, also known by its native name of Skåne (, ), is the southernmost of the historical provinces of Sweden, provinces (''landskap'') of Sweden. Located in the south tip of the geographical region of Götaland, the province is roughly conte ...
n maid named Josefine Bernhardine Nilsson, and he was put up for adoption by his birth father, Jens Christian Torp, a married Danish farmer living in Sweden who was his mother's employer. He spent the first two years of his life in orphanages until his adoption by a typographer named Carl Theodor Dreyer and his wife, Inger Marie (''née'' Olsen). He was named after his adoptive father, but in accordance with Danish practice, there is no "Senior" or "Junior" added to their names to distinguish them from each other. His adoptive parents were emotionally distant and his childhood was largely unhappy. He later recalled that his parents "constantly let me know that I should be grateful for the food I was given and that I strictly had no claim on anything, since my mother got out of paying by lying down to die." But he was a highly intelligent school student, who left home and formal education at the age of sixteen. He dissociated himself from his adoptive family, but their teachings influenced the themes of many of his films. Dreyer was ideologically conservative. According to
David Bordwell David Jay Bordwell (; born July 23, 1947) is an American film theorist and film historian. Since receiving his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1974, he has written more than fifteen volumes on the subject of cinema including ''Narration in th ...
, "As a youth he belonged to the
Social Liberal Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...
party, a conservative group radical only in their opposition to military expenditures." Dreyer recalled, "Even when I was with ''
Ekstrabladet ''Ekstra Bladet'' is a Danish tabloid newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen.About
(in Danish) ''E ...
'', I was conservative ... I don't believe in revolutions. They have, as a rule, the tedious quality of pulling development back. I believe more in evolution, in the small advances." Dreyer died of
pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...
in Copenhagen at age 79. The documentary '' Carl Th. Dreyer: My Metier'' contains reminiscences from those who knew him.


Career


Early works

As a young man, Dreyer worked as a journalist, but he eventually joined the film industry as a writer of
title cards In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dial ...
for
silent films A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, whe ...
and subsequently of screenplays. He was initially hired by
Nordisk Film Nordisk Film A/S (lit. "Nordic Film") is a Danish entertainment company established in 1906 in Copenhagen by filmmaker Ole Olsen. It is the fourth-oldest film studio in the world behind the Gaumont Film Company, Pathé, and Titanus ...
in 1913. His first attempts at film direction had limited success, and he left Denmark to work in the French film industry. While living in France he met
Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...
,
Jean Hugo Jean Hugo (19 November 1894 – 21 June 1984) was a painter, illustrator, theatre designer and author. He was born in Paris and died in his home at the Mas de Fourques, near Lunel, France. Brought up in a lively artistic environment, he began ...
, and other members of the French artistic scene. In 1928 he made his first classic film, ''
The Passion of Joan of Arc ''The Passion of Joan of Arc'' (french: link=no, La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc) is a 1928 French silent historical film based on the actual record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne F ...
''. Working from the transcripts of Joan of Arc's trial, he created a masterpiece of emotion that drew equally on realism and expressionism. Because the Danish film industry was in financial ruin, Dreyer depended on private financing from Baron
Nicolas de Gunzburg Nicolas Louis Alexandre de Gunzburg (; 12 December 1904 – 20 February 1981), also known as Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, was a French-born magazine editor and socialite. He became an editor at several American publications, including '' Town & Cou ...
to make his next film, ''
Vampyr ''Vampyr'' (german: Vampyr – Der Traum des Allan Gray, lit=Vampyr: The Dream of Allan Gray) is a 1932 horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul based on elements from J. Sheri ...
'' (1932), a surreal meditation on fear. Logic gave way to mood and atmosphere in this story of a man protecting two sisters from a
vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...
. Both films were box office failures, and Dreyer did not make another movie until
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.


Later career

By 1943, Denmark was under Nazi occupation, and Dreyer's film ''
Day of Wrath ''Day of Wrath'' ( da, Vredens dag) is a 1943 Danish drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Lisbeth Movin, Thorkild Roose and Preben Lerdorff Rye. It is an adaptation of the 1909 play '' Anne Pedersdotter'' by Hans Wiers-Jens ...
'' had as its theme the paranoia surrounding witch hunts in the seventeenth century in a strongly
theocratic Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs. Etymology The word theocracy originates fro ...
culture. With this work, Dreyer established the style that would mark his sound films: careful compositions, stark monochrome cinematography, and very long takes. Dreyer made two documentaries in the more than a decade before his next full-length feature film, in 1955, ''
Ordet ''Ordet'' (, meaning " The Word" and originally released as ''The Word'' in English), is a 1955 Danish drama film, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is based on a play by Kaj Munk, a Danish Lutheran priest, first performed in 1932. The film w ...
'' (''The Word''), based on the play of the same name by
Kaj Munk Kaj Harald Leininger Munk (commonly called Kaj Munk) (13 January 1898 – 4 January 1944) was a Danish playwright and Lutheranism, Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during the Occupation of Denmark of World ...
. The film combines a love story with a conflict of faith. Dreyer's last film was 1964's '' Gertrud''. Although seen by some as a lesser film than its predecessors, it is a fitting close to Dreyer's career, as it deals with a woman who, through the tribulations of her life, never expresses regret for her choices. Dreyer said of it: "What I seek in my films, what I want to obtain, is a penetration to my actors' profound thoughts by means of their most subtle expressions. For these are the expressions...that lie in the depths of his soul. That is what interests me above all, not the technique of the cinema. ''Gertrud'' is a film that I made with all my heart." David Thomson, in his ''
The New Biographical Dictionary of Film ''The New Biographical Dictionary of Film'' is a reference book written by film critic David Thomson, originally published by Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd in 1975 under the title ''A Biographical Dictionary of Cinema.'' Organized by personality, ...
'', says it "awaits rediscovery as Dreyer's finest film and vindication of his method." The great, never finished project of Dreyer's career was a film about
Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...
. Though a manuscript was written (published in 1968), the unstable economic conditions and Dreyer's own perfectionism left the project undeveloped at his death.


Filmography


Feature films


Short films

*''Good Mothers'' (''Mødrehjælpen'', 12 min, 1942) *''Water from the Land'' (''Vandet på landet'', 1946) *''The Struggle Against Cancer'' (''Kampen mod kræften'', 15 min, 1947) *''The Danish Village Church'' (''Landsbykirken'', 14 min, 1947) *''They Caught the Ferry'' (''De nåede færgen'', 11 min, 1948) *''Thorvaldsen'' (10 min, 1949) *''The Storstrom Bridge'' (''Storstrømsbroen'', 7 min, 1950) *''The Castle Within the Castle'' (''Et Slot i et slot'', 1955)


References


Further reading

* * Carney, Raymond Francis, Junior, ''Speaking the Language of Desire: The Films of Carl Dreyer'',
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 1989. * * * *


External links


Official website
*
CarlDreyer.com
(archived)


Bibliography

Thoughts on My Métier by Carl Theodor Dreyer

Carl Th. Dreyer by Armond White
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dreyer, Carl Theodor 1889 births 1968 deaths Danish male screenwriters Silent film directors Danish adoptees Film directors from Copenhagen Deaths from pneumonia in Denmark Directors of Golden Lion winners 20th-century screenwriters